Assiniboine River

“ If the trail is opened along the Spray River, the explorer should be able to reach the mountain, with horses, in two days from Banff. Mount Assiniboine, especially when seen from the north, resembles the Matterhorn in a striking manner. Its top is often shrouded in clouds, and when the wind is westerly, frequently displays a long cloud banner trailing out from its eastern side. The mountain is one that will prove exceedingly difficult to the climber. On every side the slope is no less than fifty degrees, and on the east, approaches sixty-five or seventy. ”

“ On the Red River farms they seldom or never hear of one, and the injury they can do us is but slight.”
This was the commencement of a long line of farms which extends, with few breaks, the whole distance to the Red River, into which the Assiniboine falls. Often the old hunter was silent, considering the unexpected scenes which met his sight, though he occasionally indulged in quiet remarks on them ”

“ I found this mode of travelling quite a novelty; and on the glittering ice of the rivers and lakes, it was particularly convenient and agreeable. The third day we encamped near Lake de l’Aigle Noir, which abounds in white fish; on the sixth, we arrived at Fort Assiniboine, [250] built in a meadow on the river Athabasca, where it is two hundred and thirty-three fathoms broad, which breadth it seems to preserve more or less until it leaves the Rocky Mountains, its current is extremely rapid. ”

“ Dawson and his party of surveyors saw and admired Mount Assiniboine from a distance, neither he nor any other white man is known to have reached its base until 1893, when R. L. Barrett, an American mountain-climber, with Tom Wilson of Banff, made their way to its foot by way of Healy Creek, Simpson Pass and Simpson River. Two years later Mr. Barrett made a second trip to the mountain by the same route, accompanied this time by James F. Porter and Walter Dwight Wilcox, who has since become widely known as an interpreter of Rocky Mountain scenery. ”

“ The next numerous tribe was the Assiniboine, or Stone Indians, who it is believed originated with the Sioux or Nodwayes. But owing to some misunderstanding between the bands they separated, 223 and some half century before the first fort was built by the Company they were in possession of a vast extent of prairie country near the Red River, and thence running westward. The region they inhabited may be said to commence at the Hare Hills, near Red River, and running along the Assiniboine to the junction of the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan. ”

“ The Lake of the Black Eagle does not appear to be charted, but the entire country between Forts Edmonton and Assiniboine abounds in lakes. This route was followed by Ross in 1825; see his Fur Hunters, ii, pp. 205, 209.—Ed.
[251] For the Pembina see our volume vi, p. 364, note 177. It is not feasible to identify all these affluents of the upper Athabasca. Next to Pembina, the largest of those mentioned is McLeod (McCloud) River, a southern branch coming in some fifty miles above old Fort Assiniboine. ”

“ In its course northward this lovely stream cuts through the charming hills about Asheville, and pours its crystal waters through a narrow gorge until it passes the blockade of the Smoky Mountains. In this space of forty miles it is indeed a “racing river,” which is signified by its Cherokee name of Tahkecostee. From a gentle stream above Asheville, it becomes an angry, raging flood below that point as it dashes through mountain gorges and over opposing boulders with a roar like thunder. ”

“ As seen from the summit of Mount Lefroy, Mount Ball is a long, somewhat flat-topped mountain covered with ice and snow. Perhaps, however, on the southern side it may be more precipitous and rocky. In the Assiniboine group there seems only one important mountain, Mount Assiniboine itself. But what is wanting in quantity [Pg 146] is certainly atoned for by the excessive grandeur and beauty of Mount Assiniboine. For long called the Canadian Matterhorn (11,830 feet) , it towers a head and shoulders above its fellows, the highest peak south of the line. ”

“ Two dams across the Nile, the old barrage and the Asyût Barrage, have already been described; and it will be hardly necessary to say, therefore, that the Aswân Dam is not a solid wall, but is pierced with sluice openings of sufficient area for the flood discharge of the river, which may amount to 15,000 tons of water per second. There are 180 such openings, mostly 23 feet high by 6 feet 6 inches wide; and where subject to heavy pressure, when being moved, they are of the well-known Stoney roller pattern. ”

“ It seemed impossible to ascend Mount Assiniboine, guarded as it was by vertical cliffs and hanging glaciers. Only one route appeared on this side of the mountain, and this lay up the steep snow-covered slope of a glacier, guarded at the top by a long schrund and often swept by rocks from a moraine above. It might be possible, having gained the top of this, to traverse the great névé surrounding 157 the rock peak of Mount Assiniboine. From the snow fields the bare rock cliffs rise about 3,000 feet. ”

“ In all the huts they have them in use as ladles, proving that they have killed many when the road was open. That was all I could learn even by chance, as I had relied on my interpreter, that I would have time to be thoroughly informed at leisure.
Six days after the Assiniboines left I sent my son, the Chevalier, with Sieur Nolant, six Frenchmen and several Mandans to the nearest fort, which is on the bank of the river. [22] If well received they were to sleep there, to get the best information of the course of the river; who dwell there ”

“ The river falls the more rapidly as we descend, and its tributaries leap to join it, the railroad scarce finding room between the rocks and the brawling current. The way is into a rugged and inhospitable gorge whose walls rise at last on either hand into mountains that culminate some thirty miles below Asheville. At Mountain Island the waters dash beautifully over a ledge of conglomerate and rush out from a long series of rapids into the deep water above Hot Springs. Beyond the limestone cove in which the springs occur, the valley, though narrow still, is wider and bottom lands appear. ”

“ There also appeared a kind of valley in which the new creek lay; it and its valley seemed to run east and west. On arrival at this new feature the following morning, I found the channel very broad and sandy-bedded, with fine vigorous eucalyptus timber growing upon either bank. I was at once certain that this new feature was the upper portion of the Ashburton River, which enters the sea upon the west coast. It has always been supposed to be the largest river in Western Australia. No traveller had ever reached so high a point up it previously ”

“ It is situated partly on the banks of Red River, and partly on the banks of a smaller stream called the Assinaboine, in latitude 50 degrees, and extends upwards of fifty miles along the banks of these two streams. The country around it is a vast treeless prairie, upon which scarcely a shrub is to be seen; but a thick coat of grass covers it throughout its entire extent, with the exception of a few spots where the hollowness of the ground has collected a little moisture, or the meandering of some small stream or rivulet enriches the soil, and covers its banks with verdant shrubs and trees. ”

“ The river rose last night half an inch, and is now filled with floating ice. This morning was cloudy with some snow: about seventy lodges of Assiniboins and some Knistenaux are at the Mandan village, and this being the day of adoption and exchange of property between them all, it is accompanied by a dance, which prevents our seeing more than two Indians to-day: these Knistenaux are a band of Chippeways whose language they speak; they live on the Assiniboin and Saskashawan rivers, and are about two hundred and forty men. ”

“ Down on the Assiniboine at what is now known as Portage la Prairie, where the canoemen portaged across to Lake Manitoba and so to Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan, were three strong trading houses under two men called Brice and Boyer. With them were twenty-three Frenchmen. Three different companies had their rendezvous here. The men were scattered in the three houses and off guard when one night the darkness was made hideous by the piercing war cry of the Assiniboines. Before lights could be put out, the painted warriors had swooped down on two of the houses. ”

“ For some ten miles above the long, white, furrowed face of Brine’s Rip, where Blue Forks Brook flows in, the main stream of the Ottanoonsis is a succession of mad rapids and toothed ledges and treacherous, channel-splitting shoals. These ten miles are a trial of nerve and water-craft for the best canoeists on the river. In the spring, when the river was in freshet and the freed logs were racing, battering, and jamming, the whole reach was such a death-trap for the stream-drivers that 14 it had come to be known as Dead Man’s Run. ”

“ Seldom in the mountains can one get that distance of wooded level, rarely is the foreground so like a gem proportioned to its setting; all about Asheville one meets with glimpses of river and valley, sunken in reach beyond reach of woodland which stretch away to the blue mountains. The even ridges form natural roadsites, and in driving one comes ever and anon upon a fresh view down upon the stream far across the plain and up to the heights. ”

“ The general course of the river during the day was very little to the south of east, its banks still maintaining the same rocky and precipitous character, marks of inundation being frequently observed at the height of thirty feet above the present stream, which now was only running gently in a channel not more than thirty yards wide, but when in flood occupying the whole of the valley, which averages a quarter of a mile in width. The larger pools are lined with flags and reeds, and contain numbers of small fish resembling trout, similar to those found in the Lyons and Gascoyne Rivers. ”

“ Both Assinniboins and Cristineaux declared that there was a distant tribe on the Missouri, called Mantannes (Mandans) , who knew the way to the Western Sea, and would guide him to it. Lured by this assurance, and feeling that he had sufficiently secured his position to enable him to begin his Western exploration, La Vérendrye left Fort La Reine in October, 1738, with twenty men, and pushed up the River Assinniboin till its rapids and shallows threatened his bark canoes with destruction. ”

“ From this point, which was nearly due north of Mount Assiniboine, the mountain shows an outline altogether different from that seen at our camp. Here it forms a magnificent termination of a stupendous wall or ridge of rock, about 11,000 feet high, which runs eastward for several miles, and then curving around to the north, rises into another lofty peak nearly rivalling Mount Assiniboine in height. A very large glacier sweeps down from the névé on the north side of this lesser peak, and descends in a crevassed slope to the valley bottom. ”

“ The reports of Nicolet and Groseilliers led to a correction and enlargement of the charts of New France. On a map [466] accompanying the Historia Canadensis, by Creuxius, Lake Michigan is marked as “Magnus Lacus Algonquinorum, seu Lacus Fœtetium,” and a lake intended for Nepigon is called “Assineboines,” near which appear the nations Kilistinus and Alimibegôecus. The lake of the Assineboines is connected by a river with an arm of Hudson’s Bay called “Kilistonum Sinus;” and west of this is Jametus Sinus, or James’s Bay. ”

“ The Assineboine or Stony River drains the rolling prairie lands 500 miles west from Red River, and many a smaller stream and rushing, bubbling brook carries into its devious channel the waters of that vast country which lies between the American boundary-line and the pine woods of the lower Saskatchewan. ”

“ In their construction another palm tree is made much use of, viz., the Assai (Euterpe oleracea) . The outer part of the stem of this species is hard and tough as horn; it is split into narrow planks, and these form a great portion of the walls and flooring. The residents told us that the western channel becomes nearly dry in the middle of the fine season, but that at high water, in April and May, the river rises to the level of the house floors. The river bottom is everywhere sandy, and the country perfectly healthy. ”

“ The limestone water has its birthplace in the gloomy recesses of Poole’s Cavern, and you may hear it fretting in the chill darkness, as if it were impatient to greet the glad sunlight. In Ashwood Dale, just below the Lovers’ Leap, and a mile from the fashionable watering-place, the character of the scenery with [Pg 266] which the Wye is for the most part associated begins. Limestone tors, of great height and beautifully wooded, rise above a contracted valley along which the stream pursues its lively course. The river leaves Topley Pike abruptly to the right, and enters Chee Dale. ”

“ The young rivers erode the unstable alluvial deposits and spread fresh alluvium on one side of a river as they erode the other. Ox-bow lakes are formed and as the rivers shift their positions they capture sections of each other so that they may quite suddenly (in geological terms) carry a lot less water abandoning fossil levees, or a lot more water, eroding a young flood plain. Settlements are confined to the levees which are the only areas that are entirely safe from the wet-season flooding. ”