310 



CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY 



tilted for some distance at a high angle, producing a succession of small cascades, over 

 which the water falls altogether about twenty feet. Above these metamorphosed 

 slates, and as far as the fall at the upper end of the portage, bluish-coloured clay- 

 slates, like No. 453, make the river-bed, and are exposed at numerous points in the 

 country around. 



From the lower end of the portage to beyond the cascades, the rocks bear east and 

 west ; near the upper end, the bearing is east^southeast and west-northwest. Ex- 

 cept in the immediate vicinity of the trap dike, where the angle was greater, but 

 not measured, the dip does not vary much from 49°, south and south-southwest, for 

 the whole distance, which is nearly or quite a mile in a direct line across the strike. 



Just below the termination of the portage, is a nearly perpendicular fall of eight 

 feet, and above this the slates assume a somewhat crystalline character, and at the 

 distance of three quarters of a mile, graduate into hornblende slate. One mile 

 above Knife Portage, by the course of the river, at the second rapids in ascending, 

 the slaty rocks terminate, and the river is crossed by a heavy exposure of No. 454, 

 bearing north by east and south by west. In composition and general appearance, 

 this rock resembles Nos. 613, 625, and 634. This was the last exposure of rock in 

 place seen on St. Louis River. 



From the bearing of all the rocks seen between Fond du Lac Village and this 

 place, it is evident that they belong to the same beds exposed on Mission and Kine- 

 chigakwag Creeks, and at other points further east and northeast, and which will 

 be described in a subsequent chapter. The beds of traps so constantly found asso- 

 ciated with them to the eastward, were not noticed on St. Louis River ; still, they 

 may exist there, and have been overlooked in consequence of the frequent conceal- 

 ment of the beds in the river-banks by clay slides, and the long distances between 

 the lower falls and the upper end of Grand Portage, in which the rock can only be 

 seen beneath the water. 



As before stated, there are no exposures of rock on St. Louis River from the 

 locality of No. 454 to the mouth of Upper Embarras River. The river-banks show, 

 in almost the whole distance, beds of clay, sand, and drift. At the head of " Long 

 Rapids," the clay-beds are from ten to twelve feet thick, and are overlaid by drift 

 deposits, which rise to the height of forty and sixty feet, a short distance back from 

 the river. 



Between fifteen and seventeen miles from Knife Portage, three streams come in, — 

 Cloquet and Esh-ka-bwa-ka Rivers from the east, and Moscossoso River from the 

 west. Between the mouths of the two first-named streams, are some Indian gardens, 

 occupying the first plateau, in which a number of common garden vegetables are 

 cultivated. Beyond this plateau, the country is rolling, and composed of drift-hills 

 and ridges. 



Eight or nine miles above the mouth of East Savannah River, Big Whiteface 

 River comes in from the northeast. It is about twenty yards wide at its mouth, 

 and is navigable for canoes up to its source, which is in the neighbourhood of the 

 sources of St. Louis and Cloquet Rivers. 



Between Esh-ka-bwa-ka and Swan Rivers, the clay-beds are not seen at many 

 points ; the banks, which are from eight to thirty feet high, consisting of beds of 



