512 



APPENDIX. 



[No. I. 



can scarcely have been formed by a collection of boulder stones, for it is not 

 easy to conceive in what manner the action of the waves could have piled stones 

 up in such a form, and still less to account for all these boulders, consisting of 

 a coarse-grained granite, in a country composed of gneiss with many subor- 

 dinate beds. At Cardinal's Rapid, at the west end of Bear Island Lake, there 

 is a bed of mica slate ; a short way below this the gneiss rises abruptly into 

 a rounded island two hundred feet high. At the Portage de Canot Tourne, six 

 miles and a half W.N. W. of Cardinal's Rapid, the strata, consisting of fine 

 granular gneiss, with much mica, dip to the westward at an angle of 80° ; and at 

 the Pine Portage, a mile further, the same rock, preserving the same dip, alter- 

 nates with a grey gneiss containing much less mica. 



Above this place the country is more flat, better clothed with wood, and ex- 

 hibits much less naked rock ; the gneiss formation continues. In Sand Fly 

 and Sandy Lakes, there are some moderate elevations of gneiss ; the soil is 

 sandy, and supports some groves of the Pinus Banksiana, which seldom grow 

 in any other soil. The same rocks rose in round-backed ridges of greater ele- 

 vation as we went to the northward in Knee Lake. Between Lake Primeau 

 and Isle-a-la-Crosse Lakes, several beds of granite rise to the height of fifty or 

 sixy feet above the gneiss, and some of them crossing the stream form a series 

 of bad rapids. 



After surmounting the last of these rapids, we ran for forty miles to 

 the southward through Isle-a-la-Crosse Lake, and I imagine came again 

 upon the verge of the limestone formation. The country is flat and sandy, 

 varied only by some long low even ridges. Many fragments of the lime- 

 stone, that has been already described, lie on the surface. Captain Franklin 

 observed limestone in one part of Beaver River, which flows into the south 

 side of Isle-a-la-Crosse Lake ; and we were informed by the traders that 

 it occurs throughout the river. The same sandy soil was observed in our pro- 

 gress up Deep River, and through Cross, Buffalo, and Methye Lakes. The 

 ground here, however, is slightly varied with hill and dale. Where the river 

 had made a section of the hills, they were observed to be composed of small 

 boulders of gneiss and limestone, intermixed with fine white quartzy calca- 

 reous sand. On the south side of Buffalo Lake, there is a long low ridge, 

 with a slightly crenated or indented outline. In Methye River the boulders 

 are larger and more numerous, forming a long series of bad rapids in that 



