WAR-PATH RIVER. 



479 



sluggish stream five fe6t deep, meandering through a 

 tamarack swamp. It is reported by the Indians to have 

 its source a long distance inland. As there is but one 

 and a half to two feet of water over the bar this could 

 only be used as a harbour for boats. It is about half-way 

 between the Gull Islands and War-Path Eiver. 



We set off again after the wind had moderated a little, 

 but were compelled to camp in an hour and a half in the 

 lee of a point, on the weather side of which an adverse 

 wind was blowing hard, driving before it a heavy sea. 

 Being thus repulsed again by the wind, I directed my 

 attention to the character of the coast in the vicinity of our 

 bivouac. Along the shore there extends a long straight 

 sand-beach, sixty feet wide and arched like a road- 

 way ; on the inner side of this beach there is a tamarack 

 and black spruce swamp, with a bottom of black muck 

 and moss two feet in thickness, covered with water. This 

 " muskeg," is said to continue for a great distance back. 

 By leveling I found the surface of the water in the swamp 

 to be only eight inches higher than the lake ; and as the 

 crown of the sand beach is only four and a half feet 

 above the level of the water, and is covered with drift- 

 wood, it is evident that the lake washes into the marsh 

 during high water. 



Leaving camp at 4.30 a.m., August 28th, we reached 

 the mouth of War-Path Eiver at 1 p.m. The Indians 

 say this river rises in lakes, and draining a great 

 extent of swampy country, is very large in spring. There 

 are three feet of water over the bar at its mouth ; the 

 channel at the entrance is contracted in summer by the 

 sand to a width of forty feet, with an average depth 

 of four feet ; within the entrance there is a basin thirty 

 chains broad, forming a boat harbour of easy access. 



After tracking for several hours along straight sand- 



