COMMERCIAL RELATIONS: THE GREAT LAKES 149 



which are brought by water, and many citizens are there be- 

 cause of the opportunities afforded them by the industries 

 which depend wholly or in part upon this commerce. It is 

 true that these cities might be able to exist without the lakes, 

 as other cities do, but they doubtless would be different in 

 many respects, and it is quite possible that they might not 

 have been established or that they might be at different places 

 and engaged in 

 different activities. 

 165. Origin of 

 lake cities: Chicago 

 as a type. The 

 first white settlers 

 and travelers in 

 the region of the 

 Great Lakes were 

 the French. They 

 came into the coun- 

 try by way of the 

 St. Lawrence River 

 and early discov- 

 ered the Great 

 Lakes. As they 

 pushed their explorations farther west they adopted the 

 Indian canoe as their chief means of travel, and the most im- 

 portant roads for them, as for the Indians, were the rivers and 

 lakes (fig. 78). When they had discovered the Mississippi 

 River and formed settlements and military posts upon it, their 

 route from Canada to the Mississippi was through the lakes to 

 the shore of Lake Michigan, then up some stream emptying 

 into the lake, and across the country to another river down 

 which they might float to the Mississippi. There were several 

 such routes in use. One of them crossed the present site of 

 Chicago. When traveling by this route, the voyageur paddled 

 his canoe to a point near the south end of the lake, where he 



FIG. 78. Early routes of travel 



The map shows the headwaters of rivers and the lakes 



which were important in determining the courses taken 



by early hunters and settlers 



