396 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



the North Branch 140 yards broad, their currents meet- 

 ing one another at the rate of three and a half miles an 

 hour, we turned our canoe up stream, and attempted to 

 stem the tide of the North Branch of the Saskatchewan 

 in search of the " Coal Falls." 



During the afternoon of the 6th and the morning of 

 the 7th of August we occupied ourselves in dragging the 

 canoe up the North Branch. Paddling was quite out of 

 the question, the current being from six to seven miles an 

 hour a few hundred yards above the Forks, and continu- 

 ing rapid for a distance of seven miles, that being the 

 furthest limit of our exploration up the north Saskatche- 

 wan. This rapid current is maintained for eighteen miles 

 above the Grand Forks ; the valley of the river, as far as 

 we saw it, resembles in almost all particulars the last ten 

 miles of the South Branch ; but the river channel is much 

 more obstructed by boulders, and the depth and volume 

 of water considerably less. It is doubtful whether in its 

 present condition a steamer drawing more than two feet 

 of water could ascend it, and in dry seasons the boulders 

 and rapids would probably present an insuperable ob- 

 stacle. The river was high at the time of our visit, 

 nevertheless in descending we had a few narrow escapes 

 from striking against huge boulders just concealed by the 

 water. If some of these were removed, the chief diffi- 

 culties during low summer levels to steamers of shallow 

 draft and great power would vanish. 



The character of the Coal Falls, above the point we 

 reached, is described by the people at Fort a la Corne to 

 be similar to the part we saw. The hill banks expose 

 drift in which large masses of cretaceous rock, containing 

 fish scales, are imbedded. Fragments of lignite are 

 numerous, but no rock was seen in position. The breadth 

 of the valley is about half a mile, and 150 feet deep, through 

 which the river winds from side to side like the South 



