BIG CUT-ARM CREEK. 



377 



on the north slope of the valley, which on examination 

 proved to be a shale similar to that on the Little Souris, 

 but so decomposed that the amount or direction of its 

 dip could not be ascertained. There are several exten- 

 sive patches where the surface of the rock has been re- 

 converted into soft mud, very much cracked, and on 

 which no grass grows. On digging into it I found the 

 mud to be three inches thick, then fragments very small 

 and soft, and gradually increasing in size and hardness 

 to a depth of about two feet, where the rock is perfectly 

 hard but very much shattered. About fifteen miles to 

 the east of this the rock is again to be seen on the south 

 slope of the valley, also much broken. 



On the 26th vast clouds of grasshoppers, flying towards 

 the east, passed high over our heads, without intermission, 

 for nearly two hours. It was the last large flight I saw. 



Big Cut-arm Creek, or Kichekiskapettonano sepesis, the 

 last to be noted, joins the Qu'appelle about twenty miles 

 from its mouth, and is the largest of its affluents. It is 

 twenty-five feet wide and three feet deep where it issues 

 from a wide ravine on the north side. The Qu'appelle 

 thence to its mouth is from eight to twelve feet deep, and 

 varies in width from seventy to ninety feet, and the rate 

 of current is a mile and a half per hour. 



There is much good land in the valley from the Fishing 

 lakes to the Assinniboine, but as it is flooded every spring, 

 it is Questionable whether it will ever be of much import- 

 ance. For ten miles up it there is an abundance of tim- 

 ber, consisting of aspens, balsam-poplars, elm, black ash, 

 oak, birch, and sugar maple ; none, however, exceeding 

 one foot six inches in diameter, and few so large. The 

 underwood is chiefly composed of dog-wood, roses, 

 cherries, and pembinas, intertwined with convolvuli 

 and vetches. In this wooded part the birds are innu- 



