OF THE FUR TRADE,. &c. litt

Portage des Carpes is three hundred and ninety paces, from whence the
water {preads irregularly between rocks, five miles North-Weft and
South-Eaft to the portage of Lac Bois Blanc, which is one hundred and
eighty paces. Then follows the lake of that name, but I think impro-
perly fo called, as the natives name it the Lake Pafcau Minac

Sagaigan, or Dry Berries.

Before the {mall pox ravaged this country, and completed, what the
Nodowafis, in their warfare, had gone far to accomplifh, the deftruc-
tion of its inhabitants, the population was very numerous: this was alfo
a favourite part, where they made their canoes, &c. the lake abounding
in fifh, the country round it being plentifully fupplied with various kinds
of game, and the rocky ridges, that form the boundaries of the water,

covered with a variety of berries.

When the French were in pofleffion of this country, they had feveral
trading eftablifhments on the iflands and banks of this lake. Since that
period, the few people remaining, who were of the Algonquin nation,
could hardly find fubfiftence; game having becomé fo {carce, that they
depended principally for food upon fifh, and wild rice which grows
fpontaneoufly in thefe parts.

This lake is irregular in its form, and its utmoft extent from Eaft to
Weft is fifteen miles ; a point of land, called Point au Pin, jutting into it,
divides it in two parts: it then makes a fecond angle at the Weft end, to
the leffer Portage de Bois Blanc, two hundred paces in length, This chan-
nel is not wide, and is intercepted by feveral rapids in the courfe of a

mile ;

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