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The Beaver River enters this lake on the S.E. side, and another river which has not been named, on the S.W. Both these rivers are branches of the Missinippi, as it is the only outlet from the lake. The banks appeared to be rocky, and the beach in many places sandy, but its waters are yellow and muddy. It produces a variety of fish, among which its white-fish are esteemed the best in the country.
The distance to the Missinippi, or Churchill River, is only three hundred and eighty yards; and as its course crosses the height nearly at right angles to the direction of the Great River, it would be superfluous to compute the elevation at this place.
The north side of the Methye Portage is in latitude 56 degrees 41 minutes 40 seconds North and longitude 109 degrees 52 minutes 0 seconds West. It is of course one hundred and twenty-four miles from Isle a la Crosse and considered as a branch of the Missinippi, five hundred and ninety-two miles from the Frog Portage.
Both these rivers are branches of the Missinippi as it is the only outlet from the lake. The banks appeared to be rocky and the beach in many places sandy but its waters are yellow and muddy. It produces a variety of fish among which its white-fish are esteemed the best in the country.
Its name according to Sir Alexander Mackenzie is derived from the Crees having left suspended a stretched frog's skin in derision of the Northern Indian mode of dressing the beaver. The part of the Missinippi in which we embarked we should have mistaken for a lake had it not been for the rapidity of the current against which we made our way.
At sunset we landed and encamped on an island, and at six A.M. on the 24th left the lake and crossed three portages into another which has probably several communications with the last, as that by which we passed is too narrow to convey the whole body of the Missinippi.
To obtain the noxious beverage they descend to the most humiliating entreaties and assume an abjectness of behaviour which does not seem natural to them and of which not a vestige is to be seen in their intercourse with each other. Their character has sunk among the neighbouring nations. They are no longer the warriors who drove before them the inhabitants of the Saskatchewan and Missinippi.
On the 4th we crossed the Methye Lake, and landed at the portage on the north-west side, in one of the sources of the Missinippi. The lake is seventeen miles in length, with a large island in the middle. We proceeded to the north side of the portage with two men, carrying a tent and some instruments, leaving the canoes and cargoes to be transported by daily journeys of two or three miles.
There is nothing remarkable in this chain of lakes, except their shapes, being rocky basins filled by the waters of the Missinippi, insulating the massy eminences, and meandering with almost imperceptible current between them.
The distance to the Missinippi or Churchill River is only three hundred and eighty yards and, as its course crosses the height nearly at rightangles to the direction of the Great River, it would be superfluous to compute the elevation at this place. The portage is in latitude 55 degrees 26 minutes 0 seconds North, and longitude 103 degrees 34 minutes 50 seconds West.
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