188 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



sources of the Mississippi, thence to Lake Superior. 1 We know, 

 however, from his own writings that the route from Lake Superior 

 to the Lake of the Woods by way of the St. Louis river had been 

 discovered by the traders of the North West Company some time 

 before. In a letter dated 1840, on the boundaries between the United 

 States and British North America, 2 he says: 



"The inspection of the map will clearly show the superior com- 

 munication by the River St. Louis (then, 1783, the great thoroughfare 

 of the fur trade both to the interior, the Lake of the Woods, and to the 

 rich countries of the Mississippi and its branches) to the Lake of 

 the Woods, over all other communications; it is a continuous river 

 to a height of land, thence by a carrying place of 6,278 yards to the 

 Vermillion River, which descends into Lake Nameukan, and thence 

 direct to the Lake of the Woods." 



Another route, by way of the St. Louis river, over the height of 

 land to the upper waters of the Mississippi, up that river to Leech 

 lake and Red Cedar lake, and down the Big Fork to Rainy river, is 

 described in George Henry Monk's "Some Account of the Department 

 of Fond du Lac," 1807. 3 



According to David Thompson, the St. Louis river formed the 

 principal route of the fur traders during the early years of British 

 rule in Canada, and the Grand Portage route only came into general 

 use as a result of disputes with the United States authorities as to 

 boundaries, following the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. Similar 

 difficulties some years later drove the traders still farther north. 

 "In the summer of 1800," says Thompson, 4 "a United States collector 

 landed (at Grand Portage) and told the British fur traders the bay 

 and carrying place were within the United States territory, and he 

 would levy duties on all the merchandise and furs that should be landed 

 in the bay, or pass on the carrying place .... The British fur 

 traders were aware that against the arbitrary duties to be levied 

 they would have no support from the Provincial government of Canada ; 

 they were therefore obliged to explore and open out a very broken 

 and circuitous route to the interior by the Kah-min-is-tikquoi-aw 

 river, about forty miles north-eastward of the great carrying place 

 of the Pigeon river, at great labor and expense, and in 1802 removed 

 thereto." 



1 See Coues' notes in his edition of the Henry-Thompson Journals, 1897, and 

 Tyrrell, "Journeys of David Thompson," 1888. 



2 In Dominion Archives. 



3 Masson Papers, in the Archives of McGill University. 



4 Op. cit 



