A BUFFALO BULL. 



343 



yards from us, and while we were admiring his splendid 

 proportions he set off at a gallop towards some low hills 

 we had just passed over. 



Our appearance on the brink of the valley opposite the 

 tents surprised the Indians, they quickly caught their 

 horses and about twenty galloped across the valley, here 

 quite dry, and in a quarter of an hour were seated in 

 friendly chat with the half-breeds. We kindled a fire 

 with bois de vache, of which there was a vast quantity 

 strewn over the plain, but no wood was near at hand. 

 When the men were going to the lake for water to make 

 some tea, the Indians told us it was salt, and that the only 

 fresh water within a distance of some miles was close to 

 their camp on the opposite side of the valley. We were 

 therefore constrained to cross to the other side and erect 

 our tents near to the spring. Advantage was taken of 

 our passage across the valley to make an instrumental 

 measurement of its leading dimensions. It was found to 

 be 140 feet deep, estimating from the abrupt edge of the 

 bank, and one mile five chains broad. The depth below 

 the general level of the prairie is considerably greater, 

 for there was a descent of fifty or sixty feet by a gentle 

 slope not included in the foregoing measurement. A vast 

 number of erratics strewed this slope, indeed it was with 

 great difficulty that we steered the carts through the 

 formidable accumulation of boulders which beset our 

 path. The bed of the Qu'appelle is quite visible in the 

 valley, but on account of the porous nature of the soil, 

 the overflow from Sand Hill Lake penetrates it in dry 

 weather, and reappears about half a mile below in the 

 form of a little stream about ten feet broad, issuing from 

 a marshy tract occupying the entire breadth of the valley. 

 When crossing it the carts and horses sank deeply in the 

 soft grassy bottom, already much cut up by the passage 



