Volume 1

seat of Selkirk, metropolis of the Canadian Northwest, incorporated in 1873 ;
;
THE FORKS OF RED RIVER. 43
head of the rapid, where we put ashore to gum. The chain
of rocks which intercepts the channel appears to come from
the N. W.; and having crossed the river, soon ends on the
E. side, where the land is low and marshy. At a short
distance there is a beautiful plain on the W., more elevated
than that on the E. The Crees and Assiniboines formerlyassembled
here in large camps, to await the arrival of the
traders, and here we may say the meadow country commences.
The grass is long, but there is no wood on the W.
We saw several fresh tracks of moose, red deer, and bears
also, some wolves and foxes. Pelicans are very numerous
in this rapid, attracted, as I suppose, by the shoals of
fish which frequent it. At one o'clock we loaded and embarked,
leaving this barrier of limestone ; we
found the
current not very strong, plenty of water, and seldom a
stone.
Passed Frog pond,'" on the W., and soon afterward
Riviere la Seine," a creek which receives its waters from
Cypress hills, and after a winding course through a low
country, which in the spring is generally flooded, empties
at this place. The entrance is very narrow, though the
river above is wider and deeper.
In a short time we arrived
at the Forks,"'' where the Assiniboine joins Red river, the
•"Frog pond is "at Kildonan church," Bell, /. c, p. 4. Kildonan parish
was named by Selkirk in 1817 from his
settlers' home in Sutherlandshire, Scotland.
'•Seine r. is present name of the small stream which falls in opp. Fort
Garry (Winnipeg). It was called German cr. after 1817, from the persons of
that nationality of the De Meuron regiment, which came to Winnipeg under
Lord Selkirk.
'2 Winnipeg, formeriy and long Fort Garry ; capital of Manitoba, county
pop. 25,642, in iSgr ;
lat. 49' 56' N., long. 97^ 7' W., 36 m. (direct) S. of
Lake Winnipeg, 58 m. (direct) N. of Pembina, 65 m. by rail from Pembina ;
Canadian Pacific and other railroads ; opposite is St. Boniface, on the E.
side of Red r. The confluence of the Assiniboine with Red r. was the
site of the first establishment of the whites in this region—Fort Rouge,
built by Verendrye in 1734, probably on the N. side of the Assiniboine.
It had been abandoned in 1737, became an " Ancien Fort" on a map
of 1750, and is not in Bougainville's list of F. forts of 1757. Under
the somewhat elusive circumstances of this case, what Henry will have