408 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



Lumpy Hill, which I ascended on the evening of the 11th 

 is very extensive. The altitude of this eminence is about 

 400 feet above the general level, and from its summit an 

 undulating open country, dotted with lakes and flanked 

 by the Birch Hills is visible towards the east ; south and 

 south-west is a lake region, also north and north-east. 

 These lakes are numerous and large, often three miles 

 long and two broad. Seventeen large lakes can be 

 counted from the Lumpy Hill ; low ranges of hills can 

 also be discerned in several directions. The most im- 

 portant of these are the Bloody Hills, the Woody Hills, 

 far in the prairie w T est of the South Branch, and the 

 chain of Birch Hills running from the Lumpy Hill 

 easterly. The view extends to the borders of the wooded 

 land ; beyond is a treeless prairie. The so-called wooded 

 land now consists of widely separated groves of small 

 aspens, with willows in the low places. The Cree Indian 

 guide we took from the Lake of the Sand Hills states that 

 formerly the woods extended in one unbroken range to the 

 borders of the prairie, which may be twenty-five miles 

 south-east of the Lumpy Hill. 



Much of the soil on the south and east of the Lumpy 

 Hill is sandy and poor, in fact we have reached the limit 

 of the good land, and are about to enter a comparatively 

 sterile country. Low hills and long ridges running 

 north-east by east, and south-west by south, diversify the 

 general level character of the prairies, as seen from the 

 Lumpy Hill. This eminence consists of drift sand and 

 clay as far as my opportunities of observation enabled me 

 to judge, with boulders on its summit ; the western side 

 is very steep, and partially covered with a burnt forest of 

 birch. Easpberries of large size abound on the west side, 

 but the mosquitoes start from the bushes in such count- 

 less myriads that it is next to impossible to linger five 



