12 



the latter, and proceeded along the west shore to the outlet of the 

 Rupert River, down which he voyaged to the James Bay. 



The following is a translation of the account given by Pere Albanel 

 in the " Relations of the Jesuits " : — 



" June 18. We entered Great Lake Mistassini, which is so large 

 that it takes twenty days of fine weather to make the tour. This lake 

 takes its name from the rocks of prodigious size with which it is filled. 

 It has a number of very beautiful islands, ducks and fish of all kinds, 

 moose, bears, cariboo, porcupine and beavers are here found in great 

 abundance. We had already made six leagues to the traverse of the 

 islands which cut the lake in two, when I perceived something like an 

 eminence of land at such a distance that the eye could just reach it. 

 I demanded of our people if it were near the point where we must go. 

 ' Keep quiet,' said our guide, ' and do not look there, it you do not wish 

 to perish.' The Indians of these parts believe that whoever wishes to 

 cross the lake must carefully guard from looking at the route, especially 

 at the place to which they must cross, a single glance, they say, will 

 cause the rising of the waters and great tempests, which will surely 



upset them." 



This is the whole of the description given by Pere Albanel in con- 

 nection with Lake Mistassini, but he must have made a rough map of 

 the route followed, as we find on a map of Canada compiled by Pare 

 Laure in 1720, a plan of Mist-tssini with the route followed by Albanel 

 on it. The statement that it took twenty days of fine weather to make 

 the circuit of the lake, has formed the base on which all the extravagant 

 estimates of the size of the lake have been built. 



The arguments used being in about this style : If it takes twenty 

 days to go round the lake, ten days would be required to go from end 

 to end, and as an Indian can paddle from three to four miles per hour, 

 and the paddling time of a summer's day would average from twelve to 

 fifteen hours, therefore the lake must be from three hundred and sixty 

 to six hundred miles long. 



Unfortunately, like other estimates based on what might or could 

 be, this falls to the ground, because the Indian, although he can paddle 

 from three to four miles an hour, finds it too hard work when he is in 

 no particular hurry, and also, that, although he may travel from twelve 



