June 7, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
719 
sisted of one very simple and sustaining dish, 
namely, corn and melted fat. No doubt they 
added to this menu when occasion offered, for 
the lake abounded with fish and the hills to this 
day breed plenty of partridges. Moose, they 
say, have only drifted into this section in recent 
years, but caribou used to be plentiful. Hominy, 
however, formed the backbone which carried 
the packs on the Grand Portage, and it is 
worth while quoting the recipe. 
A quart of Indian corn is boiled for two 
hours in a gallon of water. Two ounces of 
melted suet or pork fat are added after an in¬ 
terval of boiling. The corn splits thereupon 
and forms a thick pudding. A little salt is then 
added, when the strength-producer is ready to 
serve. The amount quoted sufficed a man for 
twenty-four hours, unless strenuously engaged, 
when he ate more. The cost to the company 
would amount to about twenty cents, after pay¬ 
ing transportation charges to Grande Portage 
from Detroit. 
The wages of a common canoeman, or, as 
he was called, a middleman, came to about thirty 
cents a day. If he bore the distinction of 
paddling bow or stern, he was worth about 
thirty-seven cents a day. Tobacco and clothing 
to a stated amount were furnished by the com¬ 
pany. The bowsman and the steersman had to 
run the canoes through the rapids or carry them 
on the portages, and their pay was apportioned 
higher accordingly. 
The canoes worked as a rule in brigades, with 
a guide in charge of the fleet. There were in 
Mackenzie’s time thirty-five of these guides in 
charge of 1,120 canoemen. Three hundred and 
fifty voyageurs were kept on the run between 
Montreal and Grande Portage and employed 
only during the five months of navigation from 
May I until the end of September, being re¬ 
cruited chiefly from, the river and the parishes 
around Montreal. The “North” men who 
formed the balance came to Grande Portage 
from the different posts in the Upper Country, 
the “Pays d’en Haut,” and returned there after 
getting their share of the goods across the 
portage and enjoying a brief carousal, to re¬ 
main in the service all winter, being hired by 
the year or for three years, as the case might 
be. fl'he annual Grande Portage gathering of 
the North men and the arrival of the Montreal 
brigades made Grande Portage a scene which 
few places on this continent, save Fort William, 
have ever witnessed. It meant the total strength 
of the canoe brigades brought from all the 
wilderness to one spot. The whole curving sand 
beach of Grande Portage was lined with canoes 
for the time of this annual gathering. For the 
Indians of the district all gathered there, too, 
to make camp and add to the carnival. Blue 
spirals of camp smoke ascended as from a city, 
while at night, when work was over for the day 
and the packstraps laid aside, the flare of hun¬ 
dreds of camp-fires shone across the calm sur¬ 
face of the water. Then it was that Bedlam 
broke loose, for rum was plenty, and no law 
reached past the Sault. Canada and the Church 
were far away. Meanwhile behind the closed 
gates, the partners—McTavish, the Frobishers, 
McGillivray, the Mackenzies, Alexander Henry 
—and the rest of that famous group of worthies 
who combined business logic with roystering 
good fellowship to such an extraordinary de¬ 
gree, made merry in the knightly way of old, 
drinking the best of wines, singing the best of 
old Scotch songs, re-telling the best and 
broadest of old Scotch stories. Over six hun¬ 
dred thousand dollars worth of business was 
done by these hard-headed old wassailers in 
1789, and the bulk of it was handled at Grande 
Portage. The quantity of furs involved would 
easily bring three million dollars at present 
valuation, while money was worth much more 
then than it is to-day. The North West Com¬ 
pany’s turnover exceeded anything known in 
America at that time. 
And to-day the scene of the North Wester's 
interior stronghold is a waste of sand and scrub. 
The history of Grande Portage goes back 
to 1678, when Dalhut established a post there. 
It was rebuilt by Lanove in 1717. After the 
Conquest in 1759, the English-speaking traders 
began very slowly to find their way to the upper 
lakes, first at Michilimackinac, then at the 
Sault, then at the Kaministiquia, then the 
Pigeon River. Grande Portage began toi be 
frequented by English traders about 1767. Soon 
it became a midway station for a dozen or 
more, each jealous of the other, and doing his 
best to spoil his chance of success. They used 
to send their canoes inland toi the Saskatchewan 
countr}', which was at first about the limit of 
their operations. In 1784, these Grande Port¬ 
age traders combined and formed the North- 
West Company, and trouble for the Hudson 
Bay Company commenced in earnest. The am¬ 
bition of the new organization knew no limits. 
The partners had been in the field. They knew 
the conditions. A fine new post was built at 
Grande Portage and the North-West men were 
encouraged to spread out. And spread out 
they did, reaching the Arctic Ocean on the 
north and the Pacific on the west. And all their 
furs from these far distant wastes gathered at 
Fort Charlotte and came across Grande 
Portage. 
In 1798, Alexander Mackenzie seceded from 
the North-West Company and formed the X. 
Y. Company. He built a rival fort at Grande 
Portage, and it remained in business there even 
after the boundary was fixed and the North¬ 
westers abandoned their post and moved to 
Fort William. In 1806, the X. Y. Company 
shipped 2,332 packs of 90 pounds, including 
among other furs, 74,000 beaver, 40,000 martens, 
4,000 otter, 4,300 mink and 5 i>ooo muskrat. So 
it must be admitted that Grande Portage was 
an important center in its day. 
Long after the amalgamation of the com¬ 
panies in T821, and the changing of the routes 
by which the bulk of the North-West fur reached 
London by way of James and Hudson Bays, 
Graitde Portage remained a road for the fur- 
traders. The Hudson Bay Company continued 
to use it in addition to the Kaministiquia route, 
and Batiste Collin, aged 102, is one of those 
still living, who have “danced the Grande Port¬ 
age” under a Hudson Bay Company pack. 
He was foreman of a brigade at that time. 
Another man who knows Grande Portage 
well is Mr. John McLaurin, of Fort William, 
whose old log house, in which he lived while 
in business as a free trader at the Portage in 
i860, is still standing. His store and fur loft 
were pulled down by the Indian agent a few 
weeks ago, and last August the old fur press 
was to be seen lying on the ground by the lum¬ 
ber of the dismantled building. John McLaurin 
afterward moved to Fort William, to buck the 
Hudson Bay Company. He built a log store 
there. The C. P. R. bought it a few years ago 
for $18,000, and Elevator “D” now occupies the 
site. John’s life would make several volumes of 
adventure. 
The Grande Portage road to-day is still a 
wilderness pathway. You see moose tracks and 
those of red deer when you cross it. Twenty- 
three partridges were counted on the trip over 
and back. But the old trail is as good as ever, 
save for the rotted log bridges. It is a historic 
American foot-path which neglect has chanced 
to preserve. 
[last portage.] 
New York State Game Laws for 1913. 
There shall be no open season for quail 
before Oct. i, 1918, excepting on Long Island, 
where the open season shall be from Nov. i to 
Dec. 31, during which time one person shall 
not take more than 50 quail, 10 in one day; 36 
male pheasants, 6 in a day; 20 grouse, 4 in a 
day. 
Varying hares may be taken and possessed 
from Oct. I to Jan. 31, except on Long Island, 
where the season for varying hares and cotton¬ 
tail rabbits shall be from Nov. i to Dec. 31, 
inclusive. 
Black, gray and fox squirrels. Open season 
Oct. I to Nov. 15, except on Long Island, where 
they shall he taken and possessed Nov. i to 
Dec. 31. 
Varying hares and cottontails when brought 
from without the State may be bought and sold 
at any time. 
Wild deer. Only those having horns not 
less than three inches in length may be taken 
from Oct. I to Nov. 15. 
A person who has not been a resident of 
the State for at least six months, or an un¬ 
naturalized person, or an alien resident, or non- 
