352 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



altitude in relation to the high prairies through which 

 the Shayenne meanders to the Eed Eiver of the north, 

 on the one hand, and James Eiver to the Missouri on the 

 other. 



The vegetation on the Grand Coteau is very scanty, 

 the Indian turnip is common, so also is a species of 

 cactus ; no tree or shrub is seen, and it is only in the 

 bottoms and marshes that rank herbage is found.* 



In the afternoon I bade farewell to our Cree friends, and 

 riding west joined the carts on the south side of Sand 

 Hill Lake, on the brink of which we travelled until we 

 arrived at the gully through which the stream from the 

 Eye-brow Hill range enters the Qu'appelle valley. It 

 was here nine feet broad, and three deep, having received 

 accessions in a short course through the prairie from the 

 hills where I had observed it scarcely three feet broad. 

 We camped in the valley, and employed the evening in 

 taking levels. 



About four miles west of us we saw the Sandy Hills, 

 and could discern the great valley passing through them, 

 and containing, as the Indians had alleged, ponds which 

 sent water both to the South Branch and the Assinni- 

 boine ; an important physical fact which we afterwards 

 verified instrumentally and by optical proof. We found 

 the streamlet from the Eye-brow Hill range strike the 

 Qu'appelle Valley eight and a half miles west of Sand 

 Hill Lake, and four miles from the height of land where 

 the ponds he. The fall between the ponds and our camp 

 was about five feet, and the valley 150 feet deep, and 

 one mile seventy chains broad. The Eye-brow Hill 

 stream had excavated a channel nine feet deep in the 



* Vide Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad to the Pacific, by 

 Governor Stevens. 



