60 LAKE SUPERIOE. 



' CHAPTER III. 



Gros Cap is the first of the rocky hills that form 

 the northern boundary of Lake Superior, and which, 

 with the higher chain of mountains further inland, 

 divide the streams that run to the southward from 

 those that empty into Hudson's Bay. The Hud- 

 son's Bay Company, that w^onderful commercial under- 

 taking that had stretched its aims across our con- 

 tinent, and which, after the destruction of the beaver, 

 has lost its influence and been shorn of its jjower, 

 has stations along the coast of Lake Superior at the 

 mouths of the various rivers of importance. At 

 the Sault on the Michipicotten, the Pic, and the 

 Neepigou, they have planted their trading posts, and 

 although their glory has departed, they are still 

 kept up and do some business. These stations were 

 convenient stopping-places for the voyageurs, and 

 were located at the mouths of rivers, of which the 

 fountain-heads communicated by a portage with a 

 different system of waters. For instance, the Michi- 

 picotten is the Indian highway to Hudson's Bay, and 

 both on it and on the rivers adjoining that empty 

 into the latter, has the great Company its stations. 

 The study of the results that that purely commercia 



