BORDEKING ON THE ST. LOUIS RIVER. 3H 



sand and sandy loam, with coarse drift. The soil is very light and poor in most 

 places. Above the mouth of Swan River, the clay-bed, which is exposed for four 

 or five feet above the water-level, is stained of a reddish colour by oxide of iron, 

 and contains a great many pebbles and small fragments of limestone, and also of 

 clay slate. The limestone is drab-coloured and very compact, and in some of the 

 fragments crinoidal remains were found. The clay-beds gradually increase in thick- 

 ness as you ascend, the prevailing colour being grayish-blue, but often interstrati- 

 fied with red and dark yellow beds. The following section was seen between the 

 mouth of Lower Embarras and Two Rivers : 



Feet. 



Sand and soil, ........ 10 



Blue clay, ........ 10 



Red clay, . . ...... 5 



Blue clay, ........ 10 



The clays are stratified, and dip to the southeast at a small angle. They are 

 finely laminated, and often waved. The red bed is highly indurated. 



On some of the rocky bars in St. Louis River, many thin slabs of drab-coloured 

 limestone were found, some of them being over two feet in diameter, and containing 

 organic remains of the Silurian epoch. These slabs are so thin and easily broken, 

 that they could not have been transported from any considerable distance unless 

 they had been enclosed in ice. 



Up to the mouth of Upper Embarras River, the St. Louis has maintained a width 

 varying from thirty to eighty yards. Above the mouth of East Savannah River, 

 rapids are not frequent, and when they occur are made by accumulations of pebbles 

 and boulders. The hills generally come up to the river on one side, while elm and 

 soft maple bottoms are spread out on the other. Occasionally, both sides of the 

 stream are bordered by bottoms, but I saw no instance in which high banks or hills 

 came up to the river on both sides. The timber for the whole distance consists 

 principally of aspen poplar, fir, spruce, pine, birch, ash, and some hard maple — the 

 growth being small. Above Big Whiteface River, a good deal of cedar was seen on 

 the banks for some distance. 



5. Upper Embarras River. — We entered this river on the 21st of August, and on 

 the 23d reached Ishquagoma, or " End Lake," as it is termed by the Indians. 

 Between these two points the country consists of a coarse yellow sand, with a very 

 thin soil, supporting whortleberry, mountain-tea, pipsissewa, and a few other 

 plants which flourish in a sandy soil. The trees are all small, and consist of birch, 

 ash, and aspen poplar, with some soft maple in the bottoms, and cypress on the 

 drift-hills. The river is exceedingly crooked, and much obstructed by drift-wood 

 in the lower portion. The banks are generally low, and overhung by the alder, 

 willow, chokeberry, and high-bush cranberry. 



Ishquagoma Lake is about three hundred and fifty yards wide in the lower part, 

 shallow, and full of rushes ; the upper part is clear, deep, and five hundred yards 

 wide. It is half a mile long, and surrounded by low shores, covered with small 



