58 THE VERMILION IRON-BEARING DISTRICT. 



the best description of tlie route, as well as of tlie method of travel over it, 

 which the writer has thus far found. As essentially the same method is in 

 use at the present day, with the difference that, since the transport of furs 

 over this route is no longer of importance, the canoes used are not so large 

 and the number of men employed is very much smaller, the description of 

 that portion of the route leading from Lake Superior into the Vermilion 

 district seems to be of sufficient interest to warrant its insertion here in the 

 author's words, with the addition of a few footnotes, added chiefly for the 

 purpose of enabling the reader to identify the lakes by their present names 

 with the lakes' as known to Mackenzie. His description of the route is 

 given in connection with his account of the rise, progress, and condition of 

 the fur trade, in which the author was interested as one of the partners 

 of the Northwest Fur Company. 



Mackenzie's description of Grrand Portage Bay and its suiToundings, 

 at the eastern end of the canoe route, is very good. Let us refer to this 

 description and attempt to see the bay as he saw it, surroimded by hills 

 rising to a hei'ght of 730 feet, its bosom dotted with canoes and its shores 

 bearing the tents and wigwams of the fur traders and Indians. Back from 

 the shore and on the slope of the hill was the fort, which was occupied by 

 the traders and trusted employees, and in which the goods were stored. 

 The traders with their stores came from Montreal, but we shall not attempt 

 to follow their journey in detail. 



A quantity of their goods are sent from Montreal in boats to Kingston, at the 

 entrance of Lake Ontario, and from thence in vessels to Niagara, then overland 10 

 miles to a water communication, bj^ boats, to Lake Erie, where they are again 

 received into vessels, and carried over that lake up the river Detroit, through the 

 lake and river Sinclair to Lake Huron, and from thence to the Falls of St. Mar3^s, 

 when they are again landed and carried for a mile above the falls and shipped over 

 Lake Superior to the Grande Portage [p. xxxix]. ... At length they all arrive at 

 the Grande Portage, which is 160 leagues from St. Marys, and situated on a pleasant 

 bay on the north side of the lake. . . . 



At the entrance of the bay is an island which screens the harbor from everv wind 

 except the south. The shallowness of the water, however, renders it necessary for 

 the vessel to anchor near a mile from the shore, where there is not more than 14 

 feet water [p. xl]. 



******** 



The bottom of the baj^, which forms an amphitheater, is cleared of wood and 

 inclosed, and on the left corner of it, beneath a hill 300 or iOO feet in height, and 



