52 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



rich, and the chmate is favorable for the maturing of almost every 

 kind of cereal grown in lower Ontario. Ballantyne, who ascended 

 the river on his way from Norway House to Montreal, as previously 

 noted, has given us his impressions of it in a book published long; 

 after he had left the service of the Fludson's Bay Company. " Next 

 morning (September ii, 1845) we commenced," he writes, "the 

 ascent of Lac la Pluie river. This is decidedly the most beautiful 

 river we have yet traversed — -not only on account of the luxuriant. 

 foliage of every hue with which its noble banks are covered, but 

 chiefly from the resemblance it bears in many places to the scenery 

 of England, recalling to mind the grassy lawns and verdant banks of 

 Britain's streams, and transporting the beholder from the wild scenes 

 of the western world to his native home. The trees along its banks, 

 were larger and more varied than any we had hitherto seen — ash,, 

 poplar, cedar, red and white pines, oak and birch being abundant, 

 whilst flowers of gaudy hues enhanced the beauty of the scene."* 

 This is almost a true picture, but settlement now extends along many 

 miles of the river on the Ontario side, and to some extent at least 

 the forms of natural beauty have been changed and marred. The 

 description however is remarkably faithful of the Minnesota side,, 

 where, except for glades with wide-branching elms and a few gaps 

 cut by squatters, the banks are yet clothed with the primeval forest."! 



* B. M. Ballantyne's Hudson's Bay, p. 272. 



t In his Voyages from Montreal, p. Ivi, Sir Alexander Mackenzie says. 

 of the Kainy river and the country along its banks : "This is one of the 

 finest rivers in the Northwest, and runs a course west and east one hundred 

 and twenty computed miles ; but in taking its course and distance minutely 

 I make it ianly eighty. Its banks are covered with a rich soil, particularly 

 to the north, which, in many parts, are clothed with fine open groves of oak, 

 the maple, the pine, and the cedar. The southern bank is not so elevated, 

 and displays the maple, the white birch and the cedar, with the spruce, the 

 alder, and various underwood. Its waters abound in fish, particularly the 

 sturgeon, which the natives both spear and take with drag-nets. But not- 

 withstanding the promise of this soil, the Indians do not attend to its culti- 

 vation, though they are not ignorant of the common process, and are fond 

 of the Indian corn, when they get it from us. Though the soil at the foot 

 is a stiff clay, there is a garden, which, unassisted as it is by manure, or 

 any particular attention, is tolerably productive." Dr. Bigsby, who went 

 down the Rainy river in 1823, makes this reference to it in his book — Shoe 

 and Canoe : " A thousand years ago, while yet our England was a wolfish 

 den, the silver Trent of the midland counties must have greatly resembled 

 the Lapluie of the present day. I am not sure that the fur trader, an 

 Italian perhaps, had not a hut on its banks ; but certainly at the time we 

 are speaking of both these streams flowed smoothly and freely in a succes- 

 ions of lovely and sequestered reaches, and through terraced meadows, 

 alternating with rich woods and reedy marshes. The Lapluie seems made 

 for a pleasure excursion ; all is serenity and beauty." Vol. 11., p. 270. 



