LAKES. 



127 



sant bay, is the Grande Portage, in the route to the 

 Canadian fur depot, viz. Fort Chepewyan. At the 

 entrance of the bay is an island which screens the 

 harbour from every wind except the south ; but the 

 shallowness of the water renders it necessary for the 

 vessel to anchor near a mile from the shore, in four- 

 teen feet water,* 



There are many islands, says Dr. Morse, in this 

 lake: two of them have each land enough, if proper 

 for cultivation, to form a considerable province ; es- 

 pecially Isle Roj^al, near the north-west coast of the 

 lake, which is not less than a hundred miles long, 

 and in many places forty broad. The natives sup- 

 pose these islands are the residence of the Great 

 Spirit. 



Two large rivers empty themselves into this Take, 

 on the north and north-east sides ; one is called the 

 Nipegon, which leads to a tribe of the Chippeways, 

 who inhabit a lake of the same name, and the other 

 is the Michipicoton river, the source of which is to- 

 wards James's bay, from whence there is said to be 

 but a short portage to another river which empties 

 itself into that bay. 



There are upwards of thirty other rivers which 

 empty themselves into this lake, some of which are 

 of a considerable size. On the south side of it is a 

 remarkable point or cape, of about sixty miles in 

 length, called Point Chegomegan. About a hundred 

 miles west of this cape a considerable river falls into 

 the lake, the head of which is composed of a great 

 assemblage of small streams. This river is remark- 



M'Kcnzie's Voyage* 



