THE GREAT PKAIRIE. 



305 



course to cross the Great Prairie. The watermarks 

 on the banks of Eed Deer's Head Eiver show that it rises 

 fifteen feet during spring freshets, almost filling the low, 

 narrow valley in which it flows. The banks are fringed 

 with small balsam-poplar and aspen ; patches of elm and 

 oak occur on the points. 



The prairie for many miles north of this river appears 

 to be perfectly horizontal ; in passing through it we 

 always seemed to be in the centre of a very shallow 

 depression, with a uniform and well-defined horizon in 

 all directions. Early in the morning the distant outline 

 meeting the clear sky was best defined ; as the day wore 

 on refraction magnified the tufts of grass and small willows 

 into bushes and trees, destroying the continuity of the 

 fine horizontal fine where sky and earth seemed to meet. 

 Occasionally the effects of mirage were very delusive, 

 beautiful tranquil lakes suddenly appeared in the dis- 

 tance, and as quickly faded from our view. Fortunately 

 the almost daily thunderstorms which had occurred re- 

 plenished the marshes and small ponds, and gave us an 

 abundant supply of water, but in some seasons the buffalo- 

 hunters suffer much from the want of that necessary of 

 life in crossing this vast treeless desert. 



On the afternoon of the 5th we arrived at the northern 

 limit of the burnt prairie, as far as we could judge ; south 

 of our point of view, the aspect of the vast level tract was 

 of a dark green hue, with short grass of this year's 

 growth ; northwards the colour of the prairie was brown, 

 from the old grass of last year which had not been con- 

 sumed by the fires. Whenever we approached the old 

 and shallow beds of brooks, boulders became numerous. 

 Some of the little valleys contained ponds, occupying the 

 shallow bed, all of which would probably be united, and 

 form a river in the spring of the year. 



vol. i. x 



