64 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



charity of the traders ; they build no houses but the birch-bark 

 lodges of their ancestors. 



Speaking of agriculture, there is an extensive potato patch attached 

 to the factory, some of the produce of which we carried with us when 

 we left. The potatoes, however, are small, and other vegetables are 

 said not to ripen here, on account of the shortness of the summer. 

 Yet the winters are not very severe, the quicksilver, Mr. S. said, 

 never sinking below 20 Fahrenheit. 



The fur trade, he said, was very much on the decline, which 

 he ascribed to the use of various substitutes for beaver in making 

 hats. The principal furs at this post are lynx, martin, otter and 

 beaver. The lynx and the martin are never abundant together. If 

 the lynxes are plenty, there are few martins, and vice versa. Prob- 

 ably as their prey is similar, the lynx, being the stronger, drives off 

 its rival. 



Great quantities of fish are seined here ; white-fish, lake-herring, 

 trout, &c., not only enough for the use of this and other posts, but 

 also some are sent down to the Sault for sale. The number of white- 

 fish annually put up on the whole lake, Mr. Swanston estimated at 

 three thousand barrels, worth on an average $5 a barrel. Of these, 

 about one thousand barrels are sent away for sale. At Fort Wil- 

 liam, about five hundred barrels are taken. Out of some fifty thou- 

 sand specimens that he had seen at Fort William, there were two 

 with red flesh, like salmon. 



July Qth. This forenoon the canoe was finished ; the sewing of 

 wattap being renewed throughout, and a fresh coat of gum applied. 

 This wattap is usually said to be spruce roots, but as well as I could 

 make out, on this occasion the roots of the ground-hemlock (Taxus 

 canadensis,*) were used. 



We had now got thoroughly used to our men, and they to us. 

 Our steersman, Henry, whose culinary skill (a prominent qualifica- 

 tion of a voyageur,) has been already celebrated, was careful and 

 obliging, but rather slow both in wits and senses in comparison with 

 John, who, though milieu, was decidedly the genius of the crew. 

 This man was wholly or mostly of Indian blood, and his real name 

 an unpronounceable jumble of letters that would take up half a 

 line. No hawk's eye was ever keener than his ; nothing escaped it ; 



