380 ASSINNTBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



CHAP. XVIII. 



FROM THE ELBOW OF THE SOUTH BRANCH OF THE SASKAT- 

 CHEWAN TO THE NEPOWEWIN MISSION ON THE MAIN 

 SASKATCHEWAN. 



Rocks on the South Branch. — Cretaceous. — Altitude of Exposure. — Cha- 

 racter of. — Selenite. — Fossils. — Concretions. — Mesaskatomia Berry. — 

 Character of River. — Drift. — Rock Exposures. — Fibrous Lignite. — Tree- 

 less Prairie. — Cree Camp. — Mud Flats. — Rock Exposure. — Concretions. 

 ■ — Treeless Banks and Prairie. — Low Country. — Driftwood. — Ripple 

 Marks. — Dimensions of the South Branch. — The Moose Woods. — Water 

 and Ice Marks. — Forest Timber. — Character of River. — Treeless Prairie. 

 — Boulders. — Soundings. — Buffalo. — "The Woods." — Rate of Current. 

 — Boulders, Arrangement of. — Artificial Pavement. — Tiers of Boulders. 

 — Temperature. — Balsam Spruce. — Former Aspen Forest. — Good Country. 

 — Water Marks. — Soundings. — Stratified Mud. — Fall of River. — Cha- 

 racter of River. — Colour and Temperature of North and South Branch. 

 — The North Branch. — Absence of Indians. — Absence of Animal Life. — 

 Grizzly Bear. — Aridity of Country through which the South Branch 

 flows. — Current of North Branch. — Coals Falls. — Boulders. — Trees. — 

 The Grand Forks. — The Main Saskatchewan. — Fort a la Corne. — The 

 Rev. Henry Budd. — The Nepowewin Mission. — Cubic Feet of Water in 

 North and South Branch and Main Saskatchewan, or Ki-sis-kah-che-wun. 

 — Opening and Closing of the River. 



The first rock in position on the South Branch below 

 the Qu'appelle valley is a cretaceous sandstone, exposed 

 on the river bank, for some miles. The altitude of the 

 highest part of the exposure is sixty feet above the level 

 of the water. It is capped by about seven feet of drift (a), 

 which rests on twenty feet of soft and easily disintegrated 

 sandstone of a pale yellowish-grey colour containing a 

 large number of small, pale yellow, spheroidal bodies, 

 varying from one-tenth of an inch to one inch and a 



