NARRATIVE OF THE CANADIAN RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION OF 1857 AND OF THE ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPLORING EXPEDITION OF 1858 BY HENRY YOULE HIND, M.A. F.R.G.S. PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TRINITY COLLEGE, TORONTO In Two Volumes VOL. I. DEPAR LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1860 Checked May 1913 The right of translation is reserved PREFACE. THE objects for which the Explorations described in these volumes were undertaken, necessarily involved a more minute topographical examination than would be thought necessary in a general survey of a comparatively unknown country. It was desirable to ascertain the practicability of establishing an emigrant route between Lake Superior and Selkirk Settlement, and to acquire some knowledge of the natural capabilities and resources of the Valley of Red River and the Saskatchewan. The country between Lake Superior and Red River is therefore minutely delineated with reference to the object of the exploration of 1857, and the first four chapters are mainly devoted to topographical details of less interest to the general reader than the subsequent narrative. The same remark applies, though in a less degree, to the description of the country west of Red River, the object being to show its fitness, or the contrary, for settlement. The establishment of a new Colony in the Basin of Lake Winnipeg, and the discovery of a FERTILE BELT of |