Volume 1

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300 CALLING RIVER NOTED.
pelle.'^
They had been four days in coming here on horse-
Porcupine hill to the right, Dauphin hill to the left. Thunder hill bearing S.
W. ; 24th, he notes an old house at the crossing of Swan r. ; and keeping the
river to his left he went between it and Thunder hill, recrossed the river, and
went up with the river on his left to Belleau's house, near mouth of Snake cr.
whence it was only about 8 m. S. to the Elbow, present Fort Pelly, where was
the H. B. Co. house in charge of Mr. Sutherland. When Harmon came to the
Swan River house of the N. W. Co., Oct. loth, 1800, he found Perigne in chge.
(This was Louis Perigne or Perigny, clerk N. W. Co., who left the place two
days later to build the Bird Mountain house, 50 m. higher up. In 1808 he had
left the N. W. Co., been to Canada, and turned up a freeman at Grand rapids
at the mouth of the Saskatchewan.) Harmon observes that the H. B. Co. house
had then been abandoned " several years."
'* " In olden times, the shores of this river were haunted by a spirit, whose
voice, resembling that of a human being, was often heard wailing during the
night. So said the Natives, and the Voyageurs called it Riviere qui Appelle,"
'
Masson, I. p. 274.
' Catabuysepu, or the River that calls ... is so named by the
superstitious Natives, who imagine that a spirit is constantly going up or down
it ; and they say that they often hear its voice distinctly, which resembles the cry
of a human being," Harmon, p. 117. The Cree name Harmon uses, otherwise
rendered Katapawi-sipi, and translated "Who Calls r., has been generally
Englished as Calling r. Corruptions of the French Qu'Appelle yield Capelle,
Kapel, and other forms. This queerly called river is the main fork of the
Assiniboine, if not actually the principal stream ; it traverses a great part of Assiniboia,
about E. , draining a very large region from the main Saskatchewan,
and overruns a little into Manitoba, where it joins the Assiniboine, about 2 m.
above present Fort Ellice, in Tp. 17, R. xxviii, W. of the princ. merid. In
this course the river dilates into several lakes, is fed by others, and receives
many other tributaries. Its origin is so close to the Elbow of the Saskatchewan
that it reminds us of the way Lake Traverse of Red r. is related to Big Stone 1.
of the Minnesota, or the Upper Columbia 1. to the Kootenay ; for Calling r.
arises in that feeder of Eyebrow 1.
which almost or actually connects with Aiktow
cr.
or coulee, or River that Turns, which latter is a stream about 12 m. long,
running about W. N. W. into the Elbow of the Saskatchewan. So slight is
the elevation that a cut of 40 feet at the Aiktow source and a corresponding dam
in the Saskatchewan would turn all the water of the latter into Qu'Appelle r.
Fort Esperance was founded by Robert Grant, some years before 1790, probably
about 1785, at or near a place called Prairie la Paille; it was called two
short days' journey up river by boat from its mouth ;
this was in operation
many years. Thompson was at Wm. Thoburn's house on the Qu'Appelle,
Nov. I2th, 1797 ; he located it in lat. so" 28' 57" N., long. lOl'' 45' 45" W.
The name stands variously Thoburn, Thorburn, Thornburn, Thobourn, Thorbourne,
etc. He reached Grand Portage in 1798 on June 23d. Higher up the
Qu'Appelle, at the Fishing lakes, an adjoining pair in the course of the river,
where there is now a notable crossing place, etc. , both the N. W. Co. and the