APPENDIX. 



423 



The profile of the Kaministiquia and Eiviere la Seine route 

 shows that out of a length of 240 miles, there is only about 

 ninety-five miles of lake navigation ; the remaining 145 miles 

 consists of rivers of various velocities. Now the advantages of 

 lakes over rivers for the purposes of navigation are many and 

 important: 1st, the absence of currents in lakes, which in rivers 

 impede the upward navigation more than they assist the down- 

 ward. 2ndly, lakes are not subject to the great arid sudden 

 changes of level which occur in most rivers. 3rdly, a high flood 

 in a lake would be of no consequence, whereas in a river it might 

 be dangerous and full of difficulties. 4thly, long and straight 

 courses may be obtained on lakes, and the steering of craft is 

 consequently easy ; but on rivers, owing to their windings and 

 eddies, steering is troublesome and difficult. 



These are some of the reasons for my preferring the route by 

 the lakes to the Kaministiquia and Kiviere la Seine route ; the 

 others being that it is shorter by several miles, that the portages 

 on it are better, and lastly, that it passes through a country 

 bearing superior timber. This for a long period of years was 

 the route traveled by the old voyageurs, and was only given up, 

 I understand, on account of the length of the Grand Portage, 

 which was supposed to have had a bad effect on the spirits of the 

 men, occurring as it did at the commencement of their journey. 

 I may remark, in confirmation of this opinion, that our guide, 

 who was with us on both routes, and who had made some forty 

 journeys between Lake Superior and Eed Eiver, said he much 

 preferred the Pigeon Eiver route to any other, and how could 

 there be a person better qualified for being a judge than he ? 



The lakes on the Pigeon Eiver route are all deep, free from 

 shoals and rocks, wide, and yet not so wide as to be affected by 

 winds. The works necessary for the improvements of either of 

 these routes are of course of the same character, but for the 

 same reasons that make the Pigeon Eiver route preferable to 

 the other even now, the works on it could be more easily ex- 

 ecuted ; they would cost less and be more permanent. A dam 

 placed across a river is always liable to be more or less damaged 



