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.  Next morning we found ourselves involved in a confused mass of islands through the openings of which we could not discern the shore.  The guide’s knowledge of the river did not extend beyond the last portage, and our perplexity continued till we observed some foam floating on the water and took the direction from which it came.  The noise of a heavy fall at the Mountain Portage reached our ears at the distance of four miles and we arrived there at eight A.M.  The portage was a difficult ascent over a rocky island between which and the main shore were two cataracts and a third in sight above them, making another portage.  We surprised a large brown bear which immediately retreated into the woods.  To the northward of the second portage we again found the channels intricate but, the shores being sometimes visible, we ventured to proceed.  The character of the country was new and more interesting than before.  The mountainous and strong elevations receded from the bank and the woods crept through their openings to the valleys behind, the adventurous pine alone ascending their bases and braving storms unfelt below.