The Woody Lake Is Thirteen Miles In Length And A Small Grassy Channel At
Its North-Western Extremity Leads To The Frog Portage, The Source Of The
Waters Descending By Beaver Lake To The Saskatchewan.
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. 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 four P.M. we passed a long portage occasioned by a
ledge of rocks three hundred yards in length over which the river falls
seven or eight feet. After crossing another portage we encamped.
On the 18th we had rain, wind, and thunder the whole day but this weather
was much preferable to the heat we had borne hitherto. We passed three
portages and at six P.M. encamped on the north bank. Below the third
portage is the mouth of the Rapid River, flowing from a large lake to the
southward, on which a post was formerly maintained by the North-West
Company.
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