484 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



The character of the country exhibited on the coast 

 extends almost an unlimited distance back ; indeed the 

 Indians report the whole of the country between Lake 

 Winnipeg and Lake Winnipego-sis as one vast " muskeg " 

 — the great moose hunting-grounds of the Swampys. 



Although the country here described is quite unfit for 

 agricultural purposes, it is not altogether valueless ; there 

 are large areas of good timber along the coast, available 

 for fuel, and the limestone cropping out at the various 

 points is well adapted for building. 



A person ascending or descending the Little Saskat- 

 chewan would be greatly deceived in relation to the 

 character of the country through which this rapid river 

 flows, if he were to judge by the appearance of its banks 

 without penetrating beyond. I made a section of the river 

 and its excavated bed at the Indian encampment, about 

 three and a half miles from its mouth. At this place the 

 river was 360 feet broad, four and a half feet deep, and ran 

 over a stony bottom. Its banks were from twenty-five to 

 thirty-five feet high, composed of light-coloured clay, 

 holding boulders and pebbles of limestone. Along the 

 margin of these banks there was a zone of tall poplars, 

 extending about 300 feet back from the face of the bank. 

 This narrow strip of good timber and land soon blended 

 into a great muskeg or tamarack and spruce swamp. 

 This swamp consisted of dead and dwarfish tamaracks 

 covered with pendant moss, and struggling through 

 several feet of wet and trembling moss and black mould, 

 through which a pole could be shoved for several feet. 



The Indians were catching very fine white-fish in large 

 quantities at this point with little trouble. The river 

 seemed to be crowded with them. At various places 

 along the brink of the stream, enclosures of stones were 

 constructed, beside which an Indian stood with a large 

 scoop-net attached to a pole, filling the stone enclosure 



