journey around the world, spoke with less than the usual cau- 

 tion of the fur trader of the resources of the country, saying 

 "From the very brink of the river, there rises a gentle slope 

 of greenwood, crowned in many places with a plentiful growth 

 of birch, poplar, elm and oak. It is too much for the eye of 

 philanthopy to discern, through the vista of futurity, this 

 noble stream, connecting as it does the fertile shores of two 

 spacious lakes with crowded steamboats on its bosom and 

 populous towns on its borders." 



Captain's Huyshe's account of the Red River expedition tells 

 of the delight evinced by the toilworn ragged troops bound 

 for Manitoba when they reached Port Frances, "the long ex- 

 pected halfway house." The fort itself, consisting of "a col- 

 lection of one-storied block houses," surrounded by a palisade, 

 stood just opposite the lovely falls of the Rainy River, and its 

 surroundings seemed "like a glimpse of the Promised Land," 

 especially as the party had been detained for days on an 

 island in Rainy Lake by a northwesterly gale, living the while 

 on the bountiful supply of berries. A great council of the 

 Chippewas had been held at Fort Frances, the Indians linger- 

 ing long, awaiting the arrival of the force, but the difficulties 

 of the journey so delayed it that the savages grew impatient 

 and left, and only a few lodges greeted the Colonel, his offi- 

 cers and their men. The Indians arrayed themselves in their 

 tribal finery and held forth in their incomprehensible tongue 

 to the at first amused Englishmen, who were taken with the 

 novelty of the affair, but they had more than enough of the 

 speech-making before the powwow was over. Since those 

 days, Fort Frances has become a thriving town of several 

 thousand people, being easily reached from Winnipeg, Duluth 

 and Fort William by the Canadian Northern Railway and 

 steamboats from east and west. 



The aboretum established at Washington in Rock Creek park, 

 through co-operation between the forest service and the District 

 of Columbia, now contains 1,200 trees, comprising 92 different 

 species. 



12 



