432 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



Leech Lake, the Indians who hunt in this part of the 

 country (Ojibways and Swampy Crees) cultivate small 

 patches of potatoes. 



The country drained by the lower portion of White 

 Sand Eiver is very low and wet ; swamps and bogs are 

 numerous, together with innumerable small marshy lakes. 

 At the crossing place, on the trail from the Qu'appelle 

 Mission to Fort Pelly, the bank is high and very steep, 

 being about fifty feet above the water. The river runs 

 at a speed of five miles an hour, and was about four and a 

 half feet deep at the end of July, 1858. An exposure of 

 shale ten feet thick occurs at the crossing ; it is capped 

 by forty feet of yellow clay. The shale is probably cre- 

 taceous, and of the same age as that on the Qu'appelle 

 and the Kiding Mountain, to be described in the proper 

 place. On the north side of the river, which is low and 

 alluvial, an abundance of white sand has given a name to 

 this tributary of the Assinniboine. Grasshoppers were 

 numerous on the north side of the White Sand Eiver. 



The crops at Fort Pelly had been beautiful at the 

 beginning of the season, but were all, excepting the 

 potato, completely devoured by the grasshoppers in July. 

 After a short stay at Fort Pelly, Mr. Dickinson visited 

 Swan Eiver, by the valley of Snake Creek, with Mr. 

 Macdonald, the gentleman in charge at Fort Pelly, and 

 Mr. Hime. This beautiful valley contains all the require- 

 ments necessary for a settlement. The timber is very 

 plentiful and of a good size ; the balsam-spruce is abun- 

 dant, and averages two feet in diameter five feet from the 

 ground. There is also some fine tamarack, varying from 

 1 ft. 6 in. to 2 feet in diameter. The balsam and aspen- 

 poplar grow to a large size, and are everywhere to be 

 seen. The land, for the most part, is good sandy loam, 

 and is watered by numerous streams. 



