A General History of the Fur Trade. 



43 



circle, on the highest rock in the portage, with wreaths of 

 herbage and branches. There have been examples of men 

 taking seven packages of ninety pounds each, at one end of 

 the portage, and putting them down at the other without 

 stopping. 



To this, another small portage immediately succeeds, over 

 a rock producing a fall. From thence to the fall of Terre 

 Blanche is two miles and an half ; to the first portage Des 

 Eaux qui Remuent is three miles ; to the next, of the same 

 name, is but a few yards distant ; to the third and last, which 

 is a Decharge, is three miles and an half; and from this to 

 the last Portage of the river one mile and an half ; and to the 

 establishment, or provision house, is two miles and an half. 

 Here also the French had their principal inland depot, and 

 got their canoes made. 



It is here, that the present traders, going to great distan- 

 ces, and where provision is difficult to procure, receive a 

 supply to carry them to the Rainy Lake, or Lake Superior. 

 From the establishment to the entrance of Lake Winipic is 

 four miles and an half, latitude 50. 37. North. 



The country, soil, produce, and climate, from Lake Su- 

 perior to this place, bear a general resemblance, with a pre- 

 dominance of rock and water : the former is of the granite 

 kind. Where there is any soil, it is well covered with wood, 

 such as oak, elm, ash of different kinds, maple of two kinds, 

 pines of various descriptions, among which are what I call 

 the cypress, with the hickory, iron- wood, liard, poplar, ce- 

 dar, black and white birch, &c. &c. Vast quantities of wild 

 rice are seen throughout the country, which the natives col- 

 lect in the month of August for their winter stores.* To 

 the North of fifty degrees it is hardly known, or at least 

 does not come to maturity. 



Lake Winipic is the great reservoir of several large rivers^ 

 and discharges itself by the River Nelson into Hudson's 

 Bay. The first in rotation, next to that I have just des- 

 cribed, is the Assiniboin, or Red River, which, at the dis- 

 tance of forty miles coastwise, disembogues on the South- 

 West side of the lake Winipic. It alternately receives those 

 two denominations from its dividing, at the distance of about 

 thirty miles from the lake, into two large branches. The 

 Eastern branch, called the Red River, runs in a Southern 

 direction to near the head waters of the Missisippi. On 



* The fruits are, strawberries, hurtleberries, plumbs, and cherries) hazle- 

 tiuts, gooseberries, currants/raspberries,, poires, &c. 



