ciiAr. x.Mv. LAKE MISTASSINNI. UY 



Bay were the Jesuit Father Albanel and his companions 

 in 1672. One hundred and twenty years later Andre 

 Michaux followed the track of Father Albanel, ascending 

 the Saugenay to Lake St. John (lat. 48° 23' and 48° 42' N. 

 and long. 71° 29' and 73° 9' W.). Leaving Lake St. 

 John, he ascended the Mistassinni Eiver, or Eiviere des 

 Sables, 150 miles long, and navigable for canoes to a dis- 

 tance of 120 miles from its mouth. Here he met with a 

 cascade 80 feet in height ; and from the summit of the 

 hills near the cascade, a chain of lakes occupying a long 

 valley leads to the dividing ridge, where a little tributary 

 of Lake Mistassinni takes its rise and forms the canoe 

 route. Early in September the cold on the Height of 

 Land was severe, and snow fell. On the 4th of the 

 month, Michaux arrived at Lake Mistassinni. This vast 

 lake, little known except to the servants of the old Nor'- 

 West Company, occupies an area between the 71st and 

 74th degrees of longitude, and beneath the 51st parallel. 

 It discharges itself into Hudson's Bay by Eupert's Eiver. 

 A limestone cave on a tributary near the lake is marked on 

 the maps by the Jesuits, and is named by the Mistassinni 

 Lidians, ' The House of the Great Spirit.' In one part 

 of the lake is a huge isolated rock. The heathen Indians 

 of these regions invoke the Manitou of this rock when 

 they traverse the lake. When Pere Albanel first per- 

 ceived this singular eminence, he asked his guides if they 

 were going to it. ' Be still,' said the guides ; ' do not 

 look at that rock if you do not wish us to be lost. 

 Whoever traverses this lake must show no curiosity with 

 respect to it ; its aspect alone causes the agitation of 



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