14 



RED EIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



feet above the Lake, and Thunder Cape rising boldly 

 1350 feet, stand on either hand as you enter the deep 

 inlet. Mackay's mountain uplifts a broad front to the 

 height of 1000 feet on the mainland, in the direction of 

 Fort William. The waters of Thunder Bay are coloured 

 by the Kaministiquia for a considerable distance from the 

 three mouths of that river. 



Early on the 1st August the expedition, with baggage 

 and stores, were landed at Fort William. Mr. Mclntyre, 

 the officer in charge of the Fort, received us with much 

 courtesy and hospitality, kindly placing some of his ap- 

 partments at our disposal for the night. The Iroquois 

 made themselves comfortable under the canoes we had 

 brought with us from Collingwood, which in the first 

 instance were procured from Lachine, and transported by 

 rail and steamboat to near the western extremity of Lake 

 Superior. 



The present position of Lake Superior and its tributaries 

 in relation to Montreal or the Atlantic seaboard, is wholly 

 changed since the period when the old North- West 

 Company, established in 1783, and amalgamated with 

 the Hudson Bay Company in 1821, maintained large 

 establishments at Fort William and at Fort Charlotte, on 

 the Pigeon Eiver, some thirty-five miles in a south-westerly 

 direction from the mouths of the Kaministiquia. In those 

 days of canoe transportation, merchandise was conveyed 

 up the Ottawa, across the height of land to Lake Huron, 

 thence by the north shore of Lake Superior to Fort Wil- 

 liam, the starting point of the long journey into the great 

 interior valleys of Bed Eiver, the Saskatchawan, and the 

 Mackenzie. In these days ships can sail from European 

 or Atlantic ports, and without breaking bulk, land their 

 cargoes at Fort William for less than one-fiftieth part of 

 the cost involved during the period when the North- West 



