42 ASSINN1B0INE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



o-sis * Lake, leaving Water-hen Lake to the north. The 

 river is very broad, shallow, and reedy ; low belts of 

 aspens, on either side, indicate the only land visible. 



A fair wind drove us swiftly on, and at noon we 

 stopped at Ermine Point, on Winnipego-sis Lake. This 

 is a low sandy beach, with a marsh behind, and re- 

 markable for some fine old elms, crooked and gnarled, 

 yet flourishing near to a salt spring. At 4 we reached 

 Snake Island, where we camped early, for the purpose of 

 examining an exposure of rock, and to collect the fossils 

 which a glance showed it contained in abundance. The 

 Duck Mountain loomed a grand object in the north-west. 



The rock exposures on Snake Island are very interest- 

 ing, not only on account of the fossils they contain, but 

 in consequence of the evidence they afford of a slight 

 upheaval, so rare in the present disposition of the rocks 

 of this region. 



The exposure at its highest point does not exceed 

 twenty feet, but it is the centre of a low, narrow anti- 

 clinal, running north and south nearly. The dip on. the 

 east side is S. 75, E. Z_ 18° ; and on the west, W. 20, 

 S. Z- 5°. The limestone is highly fossiliferous, beautifully 

 stratified, very hard, and bituminous. It holds abundance 

 of Atrypa reticularis, Tellina ovata ; with fossils belong- 

 ing to the genera Favosites, Euomphalus, Productus, 

 Gomphoceras, Orthoceras, Lituites ; together with Tri- 

 lobites, Crinoids, &c. 



On the morning of the 4th of October we set sail from 

 Snake Island, and arrived at the Salt Works and Springs 

 at noon. 



* Winnipego-sis, or Little Winnipeg Lake. 



