MONTREAL AND KINGSTON. 21 
the different Rivers which open a Water 
Communication between the Great Lakes and 
the Atlantic.—Great Superiority of the St, 
Lawrence over all the rest.—Of the Lake 
Trade. 
Kingston, September. 
ON arriving at Montreal, our first concern 
was to provide a large travelling tent, and 
some camp equipage, buffalo skins, * a store of 
dried provisions, kegs of brandy mid wine, 
&c, &c. and, in short, to make every usual and 
necessary preparation for proceeding up the 
River St. Lawrence. A few days afterwards, 
we took our passage for Kingston, on board a 
bateau, which, together with twelve others, 
the commissary w r as sending thither for the 
purpose of bringing down to Quebec the can- 
* In the western parts of Lower Canada^ and throughout 
Upper Canada, where it is customary for travellers to carry 
their own bedding with them, these skins are very generally 
made use of for the purpose of sleeping upon. For upwards 
of two months we scarcely ever had any other bed than 
one of the skins spread pn the floor and a blanket to each 
person. The skins are dressed by the Indians witf the hair 
on, and they are rendered by a certain process as pliable as 
cloth. When the buffalo is killed in the beginning of the 
winter, at which time he is fenced against the cold, the hair 
resembles very much that of a black bear j it is then long, 
straight, and qf a blackish colour 5 but when the animal is 
killed in the summer, the hair is short and curly, and of a 
light brown colour, owing to its being scorched by the rays 
of the sun. 
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