428 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



lakes, having an aggregate length of fifty-three miles. 

 Most of these lakes abound in white-fish of great size and 

 the finest quality. They are connected with Last Moun- 

 tain Lake, occupying another valley running north- 

 westerly, a counterpart of that of the Qu'appelle, inoscu- 

 lating with it at the Grand Forks, and, as reported by 

 Indians, with the South Branch some thirty miles north of 

 the Elbow. Numerous soundings of the Qu'appelle Lakes, 

 showed them to hold from forty to sixty-six feet of 

 water, which depths are maintained with great regularity. 

 Timber ceases in the valley about 168 miles from the Assin- 

 niboine. It appears again at the Grand Forks and Moose 

 Jaws Forks, 194 miles from the Assinniboine, and occurs 

 also in small quantities at the Sandy Hills, near the height 

 of land. Moose Jaws Forks is well wooded for a consi- 

 derable distance : it comes from the flanks of the Grand 

 Coteau de Missouri, whose blue outlines are distinctly 

 visible from this point of the Qu'appelle valley. 



It is stated elsewhere, that we frequently found water- 

 marks eight feet above the level of the Qu'appelle Eiver 

 in August, 1858. When the snow melts in the spring 

 there is a continuous water communication from Fort 

 Garry to the Sandy Hills of the Qu'appelle, down which 

 large bateaux might drift without necessarily touching 

 land. According to the testimony of the Crees who hunt 

 on this river, the whole valley from the Sandy Hills to the 

 Assinniboine was converted into a lake in 1852, a year 

 memorable in Eupert's Land for its extraordinary 

 humidity. 



The construction of a dam 85 feet high and 800 

 yards long would send the waters of the South Branch 

 down the Qu'appelle valley and the Assinniboine into 

 Eed Eiver, thence past Fort Garry into Lake Winnipeg. 



The same result would be produced if a cutting were 

 made through the height of land in the Qu'appelle valley 



