186 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



One of the notable advantages of the Niagara route was its 

 freedom from portages. With the exception of those around the St. 

 Lawrence River rapids, and the somewhat formidable portage to 

 surmount Niagara Falls, the way was clear from Montreal to Sault 

 Ste. Marie; while the Ottawa route involved a succession of more 

 or less troublesome portages between Montreal and Georgian bay. 

 Champlain says: "In the Algonquin (Ottawa) river from Sault St. 

 Louis to near the lake of the Bisserouis (Nipissing) there are more 

 than 80 rapids great and small." 1 On the other hand, the latter route 

 possessed two distinct advantages: it was shorter, and more sheltered. 



This brings us to the western end of Lake Superior, between 

 which and the Lake of the Woods four canoe routes were known and 

 used to a greater or less extent. The first of these to be discovered 

 was that by the way of the Kaministikwia river. In the year 1688 

 Jacques de Noyon, bent on discovery, made his way up that river 

 to Dog lake and by Dog river to a small lake at the height of land, 

 now known as Height of Land lake. -From here he descended to 

 Lac des Mille Lacs, and by the Seine river to Rainy lake, or the Lake 

 of the Christinaux as it was then called. He wintered at the western 

 end of this river. In the spring he descended the Ouchichig, or Rainy 

 river, to the Lake of the Woods, or Lac aux Iles as it is called in the 

 narrative. 2 In 1717 Zacharie Robutel de la Noiie seems to have fol- 

 lowed the same route to Rainy lake, but proceeded no farther to 

 the westward. 3 



In the year 1730, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Véren- 

 drye, was stationed at Kaministikwia. The following year he began 

 his long series of western explorations with a view to the discovery 

 of a practicable route to the Western sea. His route from Lake 

 Superior to Rainy lake, where the first of his trading posts was built, 

 was by the way of Grand Portage. 4 La Vérendrye did not himself 

 reach Rainy lake until the spring of 1732, the pioneer trip over the 

 new route being made in the autumn of 1731 by his nephew, La Jemer- 

 aye. This journey would appear to mark the discovery of the after- 

 ward famous Grand Portage route. An earlier mention of the route 

 is, however, found in a letter of 1722 by an officer named Pachot 

 . who, in urging the establishment of a post on Rainy lake says, "The 

 best route to go to the proposed establishment would be by a small 

 river named the Nantokouagane, which is about 7 leagues from 



1 Laverdière ed. p. 1391. 



2 Margry, Découvertes et établissements des Français, vi, 495 et seq. 



3 Margry, vi, 504 et seq. 



1 Journals of La Vérendyre (Dominion Archives MSS). 



