392 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



tation. Low islands are numerous in the river, and 

 extensive alluvial flats spread out in an expansion of the 

 valley, but water-marks are well preserved seven and 

 nine feet above the present level. The banks of loose 

 clay, when not protected by the pavement before 

 described, being slowly undermined, fall bit by bit 

 into the river. A violent thunder-storm at 5 p.m. com- 

 pelled us to camp. Soundings during the day showed 

 ten to fourteen feet water in the channel ; the current 

 maintaining its speed of three to three miles and a half 

 an hour. 



August hth. — The early part of the morning was em- 

 ployed in examining the surrounding country, which gave 

 evidence of an excellent soil, and timber sufficient for the 

 first purposes of settlers. Much of the timber, however, 

 has been burnt, and the country is fast becoming an open 

 prairie land. 



The stratified layers of fine mud (b, e) before described, 

 were found this morning forty feet from the water's 

 edge, above the horizontal layer of boulders (c, b) which 

 has again made its appearance. The small aggregations of 

 sand are still distributed between the thin layers of fine 

 clay. A great change is coming over the character of the 

 stream ; its fall, as ascertained by leveling, exceeds at 

 some of the bends two feet in the mile, with a very 

 rapid current, sometimes six miles an hour. Large boul- 

 ders are numerous in the bed of the river, but there is 

 always a passage from fifty to sixty yards broad, often, 

 however, very tumultuous, and for a small heavily freighted 

 canoe very rough, and at times hazardous. The hill 

 banks are getting higher as we approach the North 

 Branch, and the balsam-spruce appears in patches and 

 strips. The river sweeps in grand curves at the foot of 

 high bluffs, in whic fine exposures of the drift may be 



