366 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



with a view to avoid surprise and mislead any watchful 

 eyes that might have taken note of our movements. We 

 drifted a mile or two down the river until we came to a 

 precipitous cliff showing a fine exposure of rock, which 

 proved a temptation too great to be resisted, so we drew 

 the canoe on the bank and camped for the night on the 

 east side of the river, making arrangements to watch in 

 turns. 



The first view of the South Branch of the Saskatche- 

 wan, fully 600 miles from the point where the main 

 river disembogues into Lake Winnipeg, filled me with 

 astonishment and admiration. We stood on the banks 

 of a river of the first class, nearly half a mile broad, and 

 flowing with a swift current, not more than 350 miles 

 from the Eocky Mountains, where it takes its rise. We 

 had reached this river by tracing for a distance of 

 270 miles, a narrow deep excavation continuous from 

 the valley of one great river to that of another, and 

 exhibiting in many features evidences of an excavating 

 force far greater than the little Qu'appelle which mean- 

 ders through it, was at the first blush, thought capable of 

 creating. How were the deep lakes hollowed out ? lakes 

 filling the breadth of the valley, but during the lapse of 

 ages not having increased its breadth, preserving too, for 

 many miles, such remarkable depths, and although in some 

 instances far removed from one another, yet maintaining 

 those depths with striking uniformity. What could be 

 the nature of the eroding force which dug out nar- 

 row basins 54 to 66 feet deep at the bottom of a 

 valley already 300 feet below the slightly undulating 

 prairies, and rarely exceeding one mile in breadth ? It 

 was easy to understand how a small river like the 

 Qu'appelle could gradually excavate a valley a mile 

 broad and 300 feet deep. The vast prairies of the north- 



