300 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



yards of the 49th parallel, Mr. Hime took a photograph 

 of the valley while others of the party made an excursion 

 to the Souris Lakes, within the United States territory, in 

 the hope of finding buffalo to replenish our stores ; but 

 although fresh tracks were seen, and skulls and bones in 

 large numbers, the remains of last year's " run," yet no 

 living animal but a " cabri," or prong-horned antelope 

 (Antilocapra Americana), was visible. 



Turkey buzzards (Cathartes aura) were observed hover- 

 ing at a great height above us, and two young birds were 

 shot in the valley of the Souris. The great scarcity of 

 animal life near the Souris Lakes appeared remarkable, 

 but it might be caused by the desert character of the 

 surrounding country, which was so barren and arid as to 

 be incapable of supporting a scanty growth of herbage on 

 the sandy soil of the prairie. 



Having reached the 49 th parallel and traced the Souris 

 in search of lignite in position for a distance of a hundred 

 miles, we altered our course to a good camping-ground 

 on Eed Deer's Head Eiver, and made preparations for 

 crossing a treeless prairie, at least sixty miles broad, in a 

 direction nearly due north. 



The Little Souris or Mouse Eiver rises in British ter- 

 ritory, on the flanks of the Grand Coteau de Missouri, 

 near the 105th meridian.* Its valley was reported to us 

 by the Crees of the Sandy Hills on the Qu'appelle to 

 inosculate with Elbow Bone Creek, or the Souris Forks, as 

 this stream is also termed, which flows into the Qu'ap- 

 pelle a few miles west of Long Lake. Captain Palliser 

 indicates f its connexion with the Moose Jaws Forks, also 

 an affluent of the Qu'appelle. It is not in the least degree 



* See Capt. Palliser's Map, published in the Blue Book, 1859. 

 t Ibid. 



