CHARACTER OF THE DRIFT. 



383 



broad, with numerous sand-bars and low alluvial islands. 

 The drift above the sandstone is gravelly, and many small 

 sand dunes occur on the hill bank sloping to the prairie, 

 into which they have progressed to a considerable dis- 

 tance. A treeless prairie, boundless and green, except 

 where the patches of drifting sand occur, is visible on 

 either hand from the top of the bank ; below, the river 

 glides with a strong current, two, and two and a half 

 miles an hour, filling the broad trench it has eroded. 

 The mesaskatomina is very abundant ; shrubs or trees 

 eighteen to twenty feet high, loaded with fruit perfectly 

 ripe and of excellent flavour are numerous in every grove, 

 the berries being of the size of large black currants, and 

 very juicy, sweet, and wholesome. 



During the morning of the 31st three Crees from a 

 camp on the east bank came to the river ; they shouted to 

 us, asking us to land, an invitation we declined! They 

 were "pitching eastward" to avoid the Blackfeet. About 

 twelve miles below the Qu'appelle the river becomes nar- 

 rower, being not more than a quarter of a mile broad, 

 but full of mud flats and shoals. The banks are more 

 sloping, and frequently broken into two terraces, the 

 upper one being the prairie. The lower terrace is 

 studded with small groves, the intervals consisting of 

 pretty grassy areas, smooth as a lawn. 



About fifteen miles from the Qu'appelle Valley the 

 drift is occasionally exposed in cliffs, which disclose its 

 structure twenty to thirty feet above the river. It con- 

 sists of coarse sand stratified in curves, and often containing 

 beds of gravel ; it is also frequently capped by the same 

 material enclosing small boulders. The dip of the rocks 

 to the north-west, and the aspect of the drift, appear to 

 indicate a depression, which may have been the seat of a 

 large lake during earlier periods. 



