il6 An Hijîorical Journal of 



LETTER Xr. 



Voyage to Catarocoui. A Defcription of the Country ^ and of 

 the Falls of the Ri'uer St. Laurence. Defcription and Si- 

 tuation of the Fort Catarocoui. Of the Languages of Ca- 

 nada, and of the People that fpeak them. The Occafon of the 

 War betnjueen thelKOQVOis and the Algon(vuins. 



Madam, Catarocoui, ikf^ry 14. 



I Departed from the Fall St. Louis the Day after I had cîofed 

 my laft Letter, and went to lie at the Weilern Point of the Me 

 of Montreai, where I did not arrive till Midnight. The next 

 Day I employed all the Morning in vifiting the Country, which 

 is very fine. In the Afternoon I crofTed the Lake St, Louis to go 

 to the Cafcadesy where I found thofe of my People who went 

 hither in a diréd Way : I found them bufy in mending their 

 Canoe, which they had let fall in carrying it on their Shoulders, 

 and which was fplit from one End to the other. — — — This is, 

 Madam, the Convenience and Inconvenience of thefe little Car- 

 riages : The leaft Thing breaks them, but the Remedy is ready 

 and eafy. It fuffices to furnifh one's felf with Bark, Gums, a'ïid 

 Roots ; and there are very few Places where one does not find 

 Gums and Roots fit to few the Bark.* 



What they call the Cafcades, is a Water-fail fituated exaélîy 

 ^ . . ^ above the Ifland Pmc/, which makes the Se- 

 the FdlsoflheR^ paration of the Lake St, Louis y and the Lake 

 ^'^ des deux Montagnes, (of the tujo Mountains i. 



<z;^r St. Laurence, rp . , . 6 ' » y -d- i*' 



To avoid It, we go a little Way to the Right> 



and make the Canoes pafs empty in a Place they cdll le Trouy . 

 (the Hole) : Then they draw them to Land, and make a Portage 

 of half a Quarter of a League ; that is to fay, they carry thè 

 Canoe with all the Bagg;age on their Shoulders. This is to 

 avoid a fécond Fall called 7^- i>V^;?, (theBuJh). This is a fine 

 Sheet of Water, which fails from a flat Rock about half a Foot 

 high. They might eafe themfelves of this Trouble, by deep- 

 ening a little the Bed of a fmall River which runs into another 

 above the Cafcades : The Expence would not be great. 



B ;\bove 



