﻿70 NATIVES. 



took possession of the North-west Company's 

 post of Fort William, upwards of thirty years 

 ago; but the plant is indigenous to America, 

 and grows abundantly in the Raton Pass, lying on 

 the 37th parallel, at the height of eight thousand 

 feet above the sea, as well as in many localities of 

 the northern States. Throughout the canoe-route 

 from Lake Superior to Lake Winipeg, no district 

 shows such fertility as the banks of Rainy River. 

 In autumn, especially, the various maples, oaks, 

 sumachs, ampelopsis, cornel bushes, and other trees 

 and shrubs whose leaves before they fall assume 

 glowing tints of orange and red, render the wood- 

 land views equal, if not superior, to the finest that 

 I have seen elsewhere on the American continent, 

 from Florida northwards. Nor are showy asters, 

 helianthi, lophanthi^ gentianece, phi/sostegice, irides, 

 and many other gay flowers, wanting to complete 

 the adornment of its banks. 



From Saut Ste. Marie to the Saskatchewan, and 

 the banks of Churchill River, the native inhabit- 

 ants term themselves In-ninyu-wuk or Ey-thinyu- 

 wuk, and are members of a nation which formerly 

 extended southwards to the Delaware. That part 

 of this widely spread people which occupies the 

 north side of Lake Huron, the whole border of 

 Lake Superior, and the country between it and 

 the south end of Lake Winipeg, call themselves 



