100 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Here the Settlements cease! and with the exception of the Trading Posts 
we shall not find cultivated Ground. Our Voyageurs on approaching a 
Point where they rest for a few minutes, always sing one of their lively 
animating Airs, one man leading, the other joining chorus and all pad- 
dling to Time. One of their songs is the History of three brave Captains 
going to an Inn where they order White Wine, Champagne, Madeira, 
&c. This ends in their stopping to drink water the Imagination and 
spirit giving to it all the Qualities they have been vaunting. At a 
quarter past one we landed to Dinner and were happy in escaping the 
Musquitoes. At + past 3 we arrived at the first Portage des Joachims; 
this Portage is $ a mile in Length over a high rugged Mountain. We 
then embarked on a small Lake not 50 yards in Breadth, a Sort of Basin 
with high Lands on all sides, at the End a small channel the sides of 
the Canoe touching the Banks. Here they have a standing Joke against 
a Voyageur who they say was stopped in this little Bowl by a Head Wind. 
Here we came to the second Portage des Joachims which is about the 
same Length and over the same Description of Country. At 4 past 6 
we had passed both and found ourselves on the Main Stream. Here we 
were dreadfuly annoyed by the Mouchestik or Sand Fly, a little black 
treacherous Rascal more venemous than the Musquitoe and so insidious 
that you cannot keep them off. Our People were streaming with Blood, 
indeed their Sufferings were this Day very great; the Heat was excessive, 
the Thermometer 90 in the Shade, the carrying Places over rugged 
Mountains without shelter from the Sun and the Attacks of Musquitoes 
and Mustiks. But they were still all Animation, no Man shrinking from 
his Duty, all anxious to get on. At 9 we encamped but had to cut away 
Trees to enable us to fix our Tent. An immense Fire and Smoke 
relieved us from our Enemies. 
Monday the 18th June. Embarked at 3. We have now a steady 
Current to the River du Moine, the Distance 9 Miles. We then had two 
small Décharges and at 6 arrived at the Portage of the Roche Capitaine. 
This Portage is 800 Paces but the Walk very beautiful, Maple, Ash, 
Elm, many beautiful Forest Flowers, Cranberries, a beautiful low Tree 
having a white Flower and red Bark; the Bark the Indians smoke.? On 

1 In 1838, according to J. Wyld’s Map of Upper Canada (London, 1838). The 
settlements reached almost to the junction of the Ottawa and the Mattawa. 
2Tt is difficult to make out exactly from the description in the text what is 
meant by this, or by the Bois gris below. Possibly the Wild Cornel, Cornus stoloni- 
fera, is the tree, or Cornus Amomum (syn. sericea). 
Mr. Sargent, in the Silva of N. America, V., p. 64, and note, says: ‘‘ The dried 
inner bark of the American C. sericea, mixed with tobacco, was smoked with satis- 
faction by the Indians who inhabited the shores of the Great Lakes and the central 
regions of the continent.” And in a note: “‘Itisthis species which was generally 
