CHARACTER OF TPIE QU'APPELLE VALLEY. 329 



appearance of the whole valley during wet springs ; it is 

 then said to resemble a broad river from a few miles east 

 of the Saskatchewan to the Assinniboine. In 1852, a year 

 memorable in Eupert's Land for the great floods which 

 covered an immense tract of country, the Indians repre- 

 sent the Qu'appelle VaUey as filled with a mighty river 

 throughout its entire length, flowing with a swift current 

 from the lakelets at the Height of Land, soon to be de- 

 scribed, to the Assinniboine, and as a mountain torrent 

 through the short distance of twelve miles, which sepa- 

 rates them from the South Branch of the Saskatchewan. 



After leaving the Fourth Lake and the marshes at its 

 west extremity, we paddled, sailed, or tracked up a narrow 

 swift stream, four or five feet deep, seventy feet broad, 

 and winding through an alluvial flat in a valley of un- 

 diminished breadth and depth. The hill sides were now 

 absolutely bare, not a tree or shrub was to be seen. We 

 had reached the point where timber ceases to grow in 

 the valleys of the rivers except in peculiar situations ; 

 the altitude of the banks could not be less than 280 or 

 300 feet. The prairie on either side is also treeless and 

 arid. On the 21st, after spending a restless night owing 

 to the attacks of multitudes of mosquitoes, we left the 

 canoe in the hands of our half-breeds to track up the 

 stream, and, ascending to the prairie, walked for some 

 miles on the brink of this great excavation. We waited 

 five hours for the canoe to reach us, the windings of the 

 stream involving a course three times as long as a straight 

 fine up the valley. The hill sides here began to acquire a 

 more imposing altitude, and probably exceeded 300 feet. 

 White cranes appeared in flocks of four and seven to- 

 gether, but they were so wary that it was impossible to 

 approach them. 



The river was often seen to draw near to either side of 



