FIEST OF THE FISHING LAKES. 



369 



the actual length of the river is upwards of two miles. Its 

 width averages eighty feet, and its depth three feet ; the 

 rate of current, which is nearly uniform throughout its 

 length, is one mile per hour. The difference of level be- 

 tween these two lakes, obtained instrumentally on a pre- 

 vious day, is 1*50 feet. These measurements, not valuable 

 in themselves, are taken for the purposes explained in the 

 " Eules for conducting the Exploring Survey," namely, as 

 the means for calculating approximately the total fall in 

 the river. I may mention, that at every opportunity 

 similar measurements and observations were made, with the 

 assistance of Mr. John Fleming, from which we were able 

 to deduce some general rules for guiding us in estimating 

 the fall in rivers, and also, that the log line was found to 

 be most invaluable in ascertaining the rate of the canoe 

 on the rivers as well as on the lakes, being a much more 

 accurate way than that of estimating it by the eye. 



The canoebeing now declared to be sea- worthy, we started 

 on our way again. The lake is three miles and a quarter long 

 and three-quarters of a mile in breadth, extending between 

 the slopes of the valley, and appearing to be merely an 

 expansion of the river, but on trial found to be something 

 more than that. For some distance out from the mouth 

 of the river it is only from three to four feet deep, but on 

 trying it, when we were about half a mile distant, with a 

 sounding line thirty feet long, to my great surprise, I could 

 find no bottom ; having added more line, the depth 

 proved to be forty-two feet. About the middle of the 

 lake the depth is forty-eight feet. 



A stream a quarter of a mile in length, flowing sluggishly 

 through a marsh, connects this lake with the next, the 

 first of the Fishing Lakes, or as it is in Cree, Pakitawiwin. 

 All the Indian names of the lakes and tributaries of the 



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