24 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



This estimate of the altitude of Lake Winnipeg above 

 the sea level, was deduced in 1857 from the levels taken 

 across the portages along the line of the canoe communi 

 cation between Fort William on Lake Superior, and Fort 

 Alexander on Lake Winnipeg. The height of the dividing 

 ridge which separates these lakes from one another, is 

 1485 feet above the level of the sea ; and distant, by the 

 canoe route, 104 miles from Fort William, and 510 miles 

 from Fort Alexander. 



Major Long found the sources of the St. Peter and Eed 

 Eivers to be 830 feet above the ocean, and Lake Winni- 

 peg 630 feet above the same level — a difference of only 

 two feet in excess of the estimate we made in 1857. 



When it is considered that the St. Peter Eiver is an 

 affluent of the Mississippi flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, 

 and that Eed Eiver communicates with Lake Winnipeg, 

 which sends its surplus water to Hudson's Bay by Nelson 

 Eiver, the extraordinary lowness of the southern water- 

 shed becomes apparent. 



Lake Winnipeg freezes every winter, ice frequently 

 forming to the thickness of five feet, and sometimes not 

 leaving the upper end of the lake before the 10th of 

 June. 



