482 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



the rapids scooping large numbers of excellent white-fish 

 from the eddies. 



It would perhaps be as well to give here a short re- 

 capitulation of the character and general topography of 

 the west coast of the lake between the main Saskatche- 

 wan and the Little Saskatchewan. 



The distance from the mouth of the Main to the mouth 

 of the Little Saskatchewan, by our track along the coast, 

 or by the course that canoes or row-boats would be likely 

 to pursue is about 140 miles ; but the distance by the 

 coast-line embracing every sinuosity of the shore is much 

 greater. 



The most prominent feature in the line of coast is the 

 great headland, Cape Kitchi-nashi. This immense promon- 

 tory begins to stretch out into the lake in a direction a few 

 degrees north of east, about fifteen miles south of the Sas- 

 katchewan. Its extreme point is about twenty-four miles 

 in an air fine from the general fine of the coast, and 

 its width varies from three to six miles and upwards ; its 

 neck is indented by several deep bays, some of which 

 might be available as harbours or roadsteads. The for- 

 mation of the cape is peculiar ; it is very low and flat on 

 the north side, while on its southern boundary the coast 

 is comparatively high and abrupt. Its northern side con- 

 sists of a series of marshes separated from the lake by a 

 narrow sand-beach, and these marshes gradually blend 

 into a tamarack and spruce swamp. Along the south 

 side of the cape there is a continuous escarpment of fight- 

 coloured clay, twenty-five to forty feet high, yet even on 

 the top of these high banks the character of the land is 

 of the poorest description, being nothing but a " muskeg " 

 or trembling swamp, containing a thin growth of very 

 scrubby tamarack and spruce, covered with drooping 

 moss. 



