OF THE FUR TRADE, &z.. lv

the Portage is Weft by North for fixteen miles more from the Beaver
Dam, and into the Eaft bay is a road which was frequented by the
French, and followed through lakes and rivers until they came to Lake
Superior by the river Caminiftiquia, thirty miles Eaft of the Grand

Portage.

Portage la Croix is fix hundred paces long: to the next portage is a
quarter of a mile, and its length is forty paces; the river winding four
miles to Vermillion Lake, which runs fix or feven miles North-North-
Welt, and by a narrow flrait communicates with Lake Namaycan, which
takes its name from a particular place at the foot of a fall, where the
natives fpear flurgeon: Its courfe is about North-North-Weft and South-
South-Eaft, with a bay running Eaft, that gives it the form of a triangle: ~
its length is about fixteen miles to the Nouvelle Portage. The difcharge
of the lake is from a bay on the left, and the portage one hundred and
eighty paces, to which fucceeds a very fmall river, from whence there
is but a {hort diftance to the next Nouvelle Portage, three hundred and
twenty paces long. It is then neceflary to embark on a fwamp, or over-
flowed country, where wild rice grows in great abundance. There is a
channel or {mail river in the centre of this {wamp, which is kept with
difficulty, and runs South and North one mile and a half, with deepening
water. The courfe continues North-North-Weft one mile to the Chau-
diere Portage, which is caufed by the difcharge of the waters running
on the left of the road from Lake Naymaycan, which ufed to be the
common route, but that which I have defcribed is the fafeft as well as -
fhorteft. From hence there is fome current though the water is wide
fpread, and its courfe about North by Welt three miles and an half to

the