Volume 1

42 RED RIVER— ST. ANDREW'S RAPIDS.
We proceeded with scarcely any current, the land very
low on both sides ; our course was S. Passed a small river
that comes in from the W. [stc'^''']. It takes its water from
a large marais at no great distance. Soon afterward we
passed Riviere qui D^boule [sic"^], which rises in Cypress
hills ;
near its entrance is an island about half a mile long,
the only one in the Red river. We proceeded to the foot
of the Sault a la Biche," where we encamped. All hands
were soon busy with the hook and line ;
they caught a
great many lacaishe, a small fish about a foot long, with
some catfish, pike, pois d'once, and male achegan. We
were much tormented by mosquitoes this evening.
Au£^. i8th. Early we embarked to ascend the rapids,
which are nothing more than a very strong current ;
however,
as we proceeded, we found
the large stones and reefs
to increase in number, and in some places had dif^culty, as
the water was low. At twelve o'clock we got safely to the
*' Unidentified ;
I can find no stream from the W. anywhere along here,
except Netley cr. If it be supposed that " W." is a mistake for E., this questionable
stream may be taken for the Devil's cr. above said, which otherwrise
Henry passes unnoticed.
^^The verb appar. ddbouillir, to boil, and the phrase equivalent to Boiling r.
If I am right in identifying this stream with modern Cook's cr. , it falls in from
the S., on the right bank of Red r. (left-hand side ascending), a little above and
across the river from present village of Dynevor.
^9 Elk or Red Deer rapids, now St.
Andrew's rapids, to reach which Henry
bas come by West Selkirk, East Selkirk, and Lower Fort Garry. The latter
was built by order of Sir George Simpson in 1831-33, in St. Andrew's, about
the border of St. Clement's, and strengthened with loopholes and bastions in
1841. McDonnell says, /. c, p. 268 :
" Two or three leagues above Riviere
aux Morts is a clear spot on which Mr. Joseph Frobisher is said
to have passed
a winter, and is called ' Fort a M. Frobisher.' The first rapid we come to is
the Sault a la Biche, about 3 leagues above Mr. Frobisher's Fort, and 3 leagues
long." This bears on Henry's statement that here had been a point where
Crees and Assiniboines assembled, but is specially notable in fixing with some
precision the site of Frobisher's post — perhaps the earliest on Red r., after the
original F. establishments, and one of which very little seems to be known.
This Frobisher is to be distinguished from his brother Thomas, and from the
somewhat later Benjamin Frobisher—to say nothing of the much earlier Sir
Martin Frobisher, discoverer of Frobisher's bay, who died 1594. (The name
will come up again, in another connection.)