^84 Topographical Notices, 



water. The Parisienne is thesecondj a short heavy rapid, 

 the portage of which is not a furlong in length. And the 

 Chaudiere, consisting of several small falls, i in mediately at 

 the outlet of lake Nipissing. Besides tliese, are four 

 rapids, which are generally ascended without carrying the 

 canoes, and always run down. From every thing I can 

 learn of these interruptions, they cannot altogether form a 

 descent of one hundred and fifty feet. East of l?ike 

 Nipissing, the route leads over a level fertile tract, about 

 eight miles to the Turtle lakes, two considerable pieces of 

 water, which form the chief sources of the Little river. — 

 At each extremity of this distance, are carrying places, 

 between one and two miles in length, called the Portages 

 de Vase ; and along the intervening space, a small stream 

 is rendered navigable for canoes by a dam a few feet in 

 height, which throws back the water for five or six miles. 

 This circumstance goes far to prove the flatness of the 

 tract, and the name of the two portages gives an idea of 

 their nature. They are invariably described as leading 

 over a rich deep soil, with little sensible elevation either 

 way. Tlic portage leading to the Turtle lakes, of course 

 forms the height of land, which cannot be supposed to be 

 fifty feet above lake Nipissing, and the wiiole ascent from 

 lake Huron would thus appear to be under two hundred feet. 

 I may here remark, that whatever be the exact elevation 

 of this summit, it certainly is not one-third of that sixty or 

 seventy miles southward, on the route of the Nesswabic 

 and Muskoka, which I followed in crossing the country. — 

 On the latter river, there are not less than thirty-five 

 portages, at three of ^vhich are falls, of about seventy, 

 fifty, and thirty feet, besides not less than a dozen falls 

 from ten to twenty feet in height. The source of the 



I 



