240 IMPORTANCE OF INLAND WATER WAYS. 



their important alliance with " The Six Nations, " * a 

 combination of powerful Indian tribes inhabiting the 

 country from the head waters of the Connecticut to 

 the Oswego ; and thence to the westward of the latter 

 river. The late Mr. Francis Parkman ; the American 

 historian of Canada, is most emphatic upon this point, 

 and gives ample proof of the vast influence which 

 these places exercised upon the Indian trade and 

 politics. The line of communications by which they 

 were supplied was, as we have said, by water, as they 

 could never have been held by trails through the 

 forest. The supreme importance therefore, from a mili- 

 tary point of view, of maintaining the command of the 

 principal waterways giving access to the far interior 

 of this, and other continents, when important British 

 interests have to be maintained, must be evident. 

 This however, raises questions which can be more 

 conveniently discussed in our chapter upon " The 

 Great River Systems," we shall therefore take leave 

 of the Forest Region of the Temperate Zone at this 

 point. 



* These were (i) The Mohawks (2) The Onondagas (3) The Se- 

 necas (4) The Oneidas (5) The Cayugas and (6) The Tuscaroras 

 known as the Iroquois Confederacy, and forming probably the only real 

 example of intimate union recorded in the history of the American Red 

 aborigines. All other Indian confederacies were mostly mere ropes of 

 sand. 



