EESUME OF LITERATURE. 57 



minimum amount, and dishonesty, lasciviousness, and rum in maxinuim 

 quantities. The Vermihon district is traversed for its entire length b-v^ a 

 canoe route, which leaves the international boundary route at Gunflint 

 Lake and continues westward. At Vermilion Lake this route joins a canoe 

 route that comes from Rainy Lake, by way of Vermilion River. It then 

 ascends Pike River, crosses the divide — the Giants range — south of Ver- 

 milion Lake, and thence continues on down St. Louis River to Duluth, 

 where Lake Superior is reached. The Vermilion district can also be 

 reached from Lake Superior by canoe routes from Grand Marais, Beaver 

 Bay, and other points on the lake shore. 



The route along the boundary is, of course, Avell known to every 

 student of the history of the Northwest, and for one imbued with a love of 

 history as well as nature a pleasanter journey can scarcely be conceived 

 than that which can be so delightfully made in canoe from Grand Portag-e, 

 on Lake Superior, to Rainy Lake, or farther to the northwest if one chooses." 



The easternmost part of the route is known by the name of Grand 

 Portage. This name was at first applied to the portage, 9 miles long', from 

 Lake Superior to Pigeon River, and has since been given to the settle- 

 ment at the Lake Superior end of the portage. This part of the route is 

 mentioned in the accounts of nearly all of the early explorers, and if they 

 did not use the route they at least visited or heard of the port, as it was 

 one of the most important settlements on the chain of Great Lakes. 



The literature dealing with the part of the international canoe route 

 that touches the Vermilion district has not been fully examined, but some 

 pains have been taken to get references to it, descriptions of it, and 

 mode of travel over it from the works of the eai'ly explorers. Jonathan 

 Carver'' mentions the Grand Portage settlement, which he visited, but 

 describes Rainy Lake and the route to it only from hearsay. Alexander 

 Mackenzie," who must have ti'aversed the region a number of times, gives 



" "The route from Grand Portage to Rainy Lake traverses about 100 miles of distance, tlie direct 

 line being not far from 70 miles. There are 29 portages. The first, or 'grand portage,' is 8} miles, 

 the third is IJ, the ninth is 1^-, and the residue vary from a few steps to a half mile. The total of 

 portages, 15 miles. The water communications are chiefly small lakes of 3 to 10 or 20 feet deep." 

 Hanchett and Clark: Report on Geology of Minnesota, pp. 47-48, 1865. See -Vermilion literature 

 references, p. 66 of this monograph. 



6 Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, by Jonathan Carver, Edition 1778, pp. 

 106-115. 



« Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Laurence, Through the Continent of North America, to 

 the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, in the years 1789 and 1793, by Alexander Mackenzie, London, 1801. 



