454 ASSINNTBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



and preferring the wandering and precarious life of a 

 hunter in their native wilds. The river banks at the Pas 

 are ten to twelve feet high, composed of light-coloured drift 

 clay holding boulders and pebbles of limestone, and the 

 surface soil is a dark gravelly mould, well adapted for 

 cultivation ; but the surrounding country is said to be low 

 and swampy with marshy lakes. Barley and other crops 

 growing here looked well and were just ripening. Mr. 

 Watkins' garden also looked well, and he kindly supplied 

 us with some onions to make our pemmican more palatable. 

 Mr. Watkins had just arrived from Eed Eiver in a freighter's 

 boat. He had been twenty-five days on the route, having 

 encountered much stormy weather on Lake Winnipeg. 



August 18th. — Having to make some observations this 

 morning, and Mr. Watkins wishing to send some letters 

 with me, we did not leave the Pas till about 9 a.m. 

 Prom the Pas, the Saskatchewan flows in a north-easterly 

 direction through a low flat country, wooded with scrub 

 poplar, and balsam-spruce, for about eight miles ; when 

 again turning suddenly it resumes its south-easterly course, 

 forming a great bend or elbow. About a mile below the 

 mission, a branch, three chains wide, leaves the Saskatche- 

 wan, and cutting across the tongue of land embraced by 

 this elbow, affords a navigable passage about three miles 

 shorter than by the main river ; although it is the route 

 generally followed by the boats, had I availed myself of it 

 I must have left a considerable portion of the Saskatche- 

 wan proper unsurveyed. It was with the greatest diffi- 

 culty that our Indian guide could be prevented from 

 taking us by this short cut instead of the main river. 

 When remonstrated with, and requested to return, after 

 proceeding some distance down the smaller branch, he 

 said, shaking his head, " you will find yet that the river 

 forks off in many a branch." 



