THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 4 1 



taken by the Northwest Company's traders ; and from the pen of 

 R. M. Ballantyne, who came over it on his way from Norway House 

 to Montreal in 1845, we have a graphic picture of the scenes that 

 must have been witnessed along those waterways for well nigh forty 

 years, covering the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century. " Many years ago, in the time of the North- 

 west Company," Ballantyne writes, " the echoes among these wild 

 solitudes were far oftener and more loudly awakened than they are 

 now. The reason of it was this : The Northwest Company, having 

 their headquarters at Montreal and being composed chiefly of Cana- 

 dian adventurers, imported their whole supplies into the country and 

 exported all their furs out of it in north canoes by the same route 

 over which we now travelled. As they carried on business on a large 

 scale, it may be supposed that the traffic was correspondingly great. 

 No less than ten brigades, each numbering twenty canoes, used to 

 pass through these scenes during the summer months. No one who 

 has not experienced it can form an adequate idea of the thrilling 

 effect the passing of these brigades must have had upon a stranger. 

 I have seen four canoes sweep round a promontory suddenly and 

 burst upon my view, while at the same moment the wild, romantic 

 song of the voyageurs, as they plied their brisk paddle, struck upon 

 my ear ; and I have felt thrilling enthusiasm on witnessing such a 

 scene. What then must have been the feelings of those who had 

 spent a long dreary winter in the wild northwest, far removed from 

 the bustle and excitement of the civilized world, when thirty or forty 

 of these picturesque canoes burst unexpectedly upon them, half 

 shrouded in the spray that flew from the bright vermilion paddles, 

 while the men, who had overcome difficulties and dangers innumer- 

 able during a long voyage through the wilderness, urged their light 

 craft over the troubled waters with the speed of the raindeer, and 

 with hearts joyful over the happy termination of their trials and 

 privations, sang with all the force of three hundred manly voices one 

 ot their lively airs, which rising and falling faintly in the distance as 

 it was borne, iirst lightly upon the breeze, and then more steadily as 

 they approached, swelled out in the rich tones of many a mellow 

 voice, and burst at last into a long, enthnsiastic shout of joy. Alas ! " 

 Mr. Ballantyne exclaims, " the forests no longer echo to such sounds. 

 The passage of three or four canoes once or twice a year is all that 



