In 1886 the freighting season was closed about the end of August
through the river leaving its course and starting to make a new channel
at what was known as the Cut Off, some distance above Cumberland.
About two-thirds of the river water poured into this new channel which
was scoured out to a considerable depth for some miles, but before reach-
ing Cumberland Lake it spread out over an immense extent of country
and finally entered the lake through a number of shallow channels neither
of which was of sufficient depth to float a steamer. The old channel
through losing this large body of water became so shoal that navi-
gation was impossible, and steamboat travel had to come to a standstill.
The steamboat bound up, couldn't get up, and those bound down couldn't
get down, so about three hundred tons of freight had to be stored all
winter at Cumberland House. As this consisted chiefly of Hudson's Bay,
Mounted Police and Indian supplies the inconvenience occasioned in the
succeeding winter for the lack of these supplies can well be imagined.
Government engineers were on the spot as soon as possible and eventually
a dam was made. A suggestion made was that piles should be driven
across the Cut Off against which timber and brush could be floated down.
This would gather sand and silt, and in time form an indestructible dam.
Anyway the engineers made a good job of it and the river has never
'jumped its job" again at the Cut Off.

Those who know the Saskatchewan only as a wide, swift river rolling
along between lofty banks will be puzzled at the mere idea of its escap-
ing; but as the river approaches Lake Winnipeg the tall banks begin to
fade away, and the stream makes its way through a marshy country. In
the fall of 1883 the steamer North West was laid up for the winter at
Cumberland. It is interesting to note how Captain Sheets and his crew
joined their ship in the spring. From Winnipeg they travelled overland
to Prince Albert about 500 miles, leaving Winnipeg in April. From
Prince Albert they proceeded to Cumberland in a York boat, a York
boat being a large row boat used by the Hudson's Bay Company for car-
rying goods. They got to Cumberland on the 1st of May, and got the
steamer into the water, which was exceedingly low, and then their
troubles commenced. The river widened out into numerous lakes and
sloughs, more or less connected. These lakes and sloughs had all to be
filled up to overflowing before there was any perceptible rise in the river.
The water in these lakes was so low that they all froze to the bottom, and,
incidentally, all the muskrats found themselves the victims of misplaced
confidence and were frozen to death. Captain Sheets had to wait at
Cumberland a month before there was sufficient water in the channel to
move out. At that time some of the water from the channel was going
into Cumberland Lake, and as already stated, in 1886 there was a new
channel which took about two-thirds of the water, and tied up navigation.

The season of 1886 was an unfortunate one. Just before the Cut Off
misfortune, the steamer Marquis grounded in Thorburn's Rapids, below
Fort a la Corne owing to low water, with 175 tons of freight in the hold;
the freight was salvaged but the water had done great damage to most
of it. The season was dry and the water sank to a low level. The North-
cote in going up to Edmonton found such difficulty in places that at Bat-
tleford she landed 40 tons of freight intended for up river in order to
lighten the draft; but by the irony of events, she had not got far from Bat-
tieford when the trouble disappeared through the river rising, but she did
not return for the extra 40 tons of freight. Altogether the navigation of
the river was not a picnic and there was a continued agitation for river
dredging, the blasting of rocks out of the rapids and other things to
improve the navigation. The writer remembers taking a hand himself
and arguing that even when railroads came in it would be desirable to
keep the river navigation open, as wheat and other produce could be
carried so much cheaper by water.