46 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN EXPEDITION. [Nov. 23, 1857. 
we passed assumed fully equal, and in some places even superior, 
advantages, being more elevated above the river. I had an oppor- 
tunity of noting the nature of the soil, where a settler was 
digging for marl, about 6 feet deep, and again at Pembina, where I 
had a special examination made. It consists of about 1 foot of black 
vegetable mould resting on a free clay loam of a light grey colour, 
but very deficient of sand. The banks of the rivers in this country 
are composed of remarkably tenacious clay mud, rendering access 
to them very difficult, and great care is required in passing a cart or 
waggon across. On the 22nd we crossed Riviere qui Grate, situated 
38 miles south of Port Garry : this river, as well as the river Sail, 
we passed in pontoons. The ferryman here was a very intelligent 
American, who had recently arrived in the country by a route from 
the Lake of the Woods, following the course of Reed Grass River. 
He described the first 25 miles, west of the Lake of the Woods, as 
being flat and swampy ; he partly paddled and partly dragged his 
canoe over a slightly rising country, until he reached Reed Grass 
Lake, out of which a river of the same name flews ; the country 
about the head waters of this river is swampy : but the lower half of 
its course, according to his account, flows through a dry and finely- 
wooded country ; he described the river as shallow and swift, only 
fit for very small canoes. 
I observed large pieces of driftwood scattered about the higher 
spots of the prairie, indicating the extent to which the whole country 
is flooded in spring ; by measurement I ascertained that, last spring, 
the water rose 35 feet above the present level of the stream, and it 
is by no means unusual for the flood to reach 10 feet higher. Oppo- 
site Port Pembina the river is about 80 yards wide and 1 2 feet deep ; 
in dry seasons it falls 5 feet lower. Prom Mr. Iddings (an American 
civil engineer, whose name will appear in this despatch) I ascer- 
tained that the river is 15 feet deep 200 miles farther up ; but there 
its width is reduced to 90 feet, and the frequent occurrence of sharp 
bends in its course would make it difficult to ascend in steamboats. 
The mouth of Pembina River, which flows from the west into 
Red River, is situated about 2 miles south of the boundary line. 
Upon this river, at a distance of about 25 miles from this, I am in- 
formed that there is a thriving American town, called San Josef’s, 
which, owing to its recent establishment, is not yet recognised in 
our maps. 
On Friday, July 24th (the day after my arrival here), my secre- 
tary, Mr. Sullivan, and I took the meridian altitudes of the sun, in 
order to find the locus of the 49th degree of north latitude, and to 
determine the direction of the boundary line. 
