COUNTRY WEST OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 



23 



nection will have been established before the publication 

 -of this narrative. This important chain of communica- 

 tion will be referred to in succeeding pages. 



The construction of a plank road between Superior 

 City and Crow Wing, is already in contemplation, and 

 the route is even now occasionally traveled. It will no 

 doubt become of great commercial importance to the 

 region of the Upper Mississippi and its numerous tribu- 

 taries ; and it is not improbable that its influence may 

 rapidly extend to other water-sheds, viz. those of Eainy 

 Kiver, Eed Eiver, and the Saskatchewan. 



In Canadian territory there are two established routes 

 by which access is gained from the valley of Lake Supe- 

 rior to that of Eainy Eiver. The most southerly of these 

 is the old North-west Company's frontier route by Pigeon 

 Eiver, the second by the Kaministiquia Eiver, which 

 forms the subject of the first part of this narrative. 



