THE SOUEIS SATO HILLS. 



295 



clay disappearing beneath the water. No organic remains 

 of any description were found, although a careful search 

 was made, but boulders of lignite from 6 to 9 inches in 

 diameter, were frequently seen in the bed of the river. 

 The eggs of the nighthawk (Chordeiles Virginianiis) were 

 several times found on the bare ground, among the Sand 

 Hills, with no approach to a nest for the helpless young. 

 The parent birds endeavoured to draw us away from their 

 eggs, fluttering as if wounded a short distance from them 

 and uttering cries of distress. The Hudson's Bay Company 

 have a post on the river among the Sand Hills, which is 

 maintained only in winter, during the absence of the Sioux : 

 these savage barbarians being altogether opposed to 

 the approach of civilization near to their hunting-grounds, 

 and entertaining besides a feeling of deadly hostility to the 

 Eed Eiver half-breeds. 



Near the Company's house we found on the river bank 

 an extensive deposit of bog iron ore, capped by shell 

 marl, and above the marl drifted sand. The banks of 

 the river are here not more than 25 feet high, and on the 

 east side there is a narrow fringe of fine timber. The 

 Bois de Vache (dried buffalo dung) is distributed very 

 abundantly in the prairie and through the Sand Hills and 

 near to the company's post. In fact the buffalo were very 

 numerous during the whole of the winter of 1856 and 

 spring of 1857 on the banks of the Souris, but the great 

 fires during the autumn of last year, have driven them 

 south and north-west, and between the two branches of 

 the Saskatchewan. The country becomes very low after 

 passing the last sand-hills, and over a large extent of prairie 

 south of them, drift timber is distributed, showing the 

 extraordinary rise in the waters of the river during the 

 floods of 1852. 



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