RESUME OF LITERATURE. 63 



Portage des Couteaiix, of 165 paces, and the Lac des Couteaux, running about 

 southwest b}' west 12 miles, and from a quarter to 2 miles wide. A deep bay runs 

 east 3 miles from the west end, where it is discharged by a rapid river, and after 

 running 2 miles west it again becomes still water. In this river are two carrying 

 places, the one 15 and the other 190 paces. From this to the Portage des Carpes is 

 1 mile northwest, leaving a narrow lake on the east that runs parallel with the Lake 

 des Couteaux, half its length, where there is a carrying place which is used when 

 the water in the river last mentioned is too low. The Portage des Carpes is 390 

 paces, from whence the water spreads irregularly between rocks 5 miles northwest 

 and southeast to the portage of Lac Bois Blanc, which is ISO paces. Then follows 

 the lake of that name," but 1 think improperlj' so called, as the natives name it the 

 Lake Pascau Minac Sagaigau, or Dry Berries. 



Before the sraall])ox ravaged this country' and completed what the Nodowasis 

 [Sioux] in their warfare had gone so far to accomplish, the destruction of its inhab- 

 itants, the population was very numerous; this was also a favourite part, whei'e 

 they made their canoes, etc., the lake abounding in lish, the country round it being 

 plentiful!}' supplied with various kinds of game, and the rocky ridges, that form the 

 boundaries of the water, covered with a variety of berries. 



When the French were in possession of this country thej^ had several trading 

 establishments on the islands and banks of this lake. Since that period the few people 

 remaining, who were of the Algonquin Nation, could hardly find subsistence; game 

 having become so scarce that the}' depended principally for food upon fish and wild 

 rice, which grows spontaneously in these parts. 



This lake is irregular in its form, and its utmost extent from east to west is 15 

 miles; a point of land called Point au Pin, jutting into it, divides it in two parts; 

 it then makes a second angle at the west end to the lesser Portage de Bois Blanc, 200 

 paces in length. 



This descriiDtion will serve to give the reader unacquainted with the 

 area some knowledge of the character of the route and of the character of 

 the voyageurs and Indians. Further interesting details of the international 

 canoe route and the methods of travel can be obtained from Alexander 

 Henry's and David Thompson's journals for the years 1799-1814, pp. 

 xlvii-liii.'' 



"Commonly called at present Basswood Lake. — J. M. C. 



''New light on the early history of the Greater Northwest. The manuscript journals of Alexander 

 Henry, fur trader of the Northwest Company, and of David Thompson, official geographer and explorer 

 of the same company, 1799-1814. Edited by Elliott Coues. New York: Francis P. Harper, in three 

 volumes 1897. 



