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it descends.

At the mouth of Sand Lake River, the river becomes sixty-two yards wide and twelve feet deep. Sand Lake River, south 48° east, is sixty-eight miles from Red Cedar Lake. In this distance there are ten miles of lake and fifty-eight of river; the windings on the river make the distance to be travelled on it two hundred miles. The descent from Turtle Lake to Cedar Lake is ninety-seven feet nine inches, and from Cedar Lake to Sand Lake River 333 feet four inches, making a change of level of no less than 431 feet in an apparently even country.

Arriving at Sand Lake River on the 6th, Mr. Thompson entered it to make his way to Lake Superior. This river is twenty yards wide, five in depth, and runs a mile and a half an hour. When he had proceeded a mile, half the distance to Sand Lake, Mr. Thompson arrived at another trading-house of the North-West Company, under charge of Mr. Boiské. Here were the women and children of about twenty families. All the furs bought at this post were the produce of the country between the Mississippi River and Lake Superior. Twenty heads of families brought their furs here; reckoning seven to a family, this post must have been supported by the labour of two hundred and ninety-four Indians, men, women and children. This trading-house was found to be in north latitude 46° 46′ 30′′, longitude, 93° 44′ 17′′ west.

Mr. Thompson had now to cross the country to reach the river St. Louis, by which he was to descend to Lake Superior. Crossing Sand Lake, May 7th, which is about four miles in length and one wide, to Savannah Brook, he proceeded eight geographical milesmade nine by détours-to a great swamp a mile wide, in a north 81° east direction; the latter portion, consisting of a bog, being passed over by means of a few sticks to form a road, to slip from which entailed the penalty of sinking down to the waist. Across this description of country, growing scrubby pines a few feet high, all the baggage of the party had to be carried. Over this route the North-West Company had to carry all the furs, provisions, baggage, goods, and canoes connected with their trade between Lake Superior and the Mississippi. The custom was for the person in charge of the brigade to cross this bog and swa mp as rapidly

as possible, leaving the men to take their own time. It was so difficult to get canoes or goods over this swamp, of which no one standing in the middle could see the end, in any direction; it was the custom of the North-West Company to keep canoes at both ends. The swamp having been crossed, after a hard day's work and with the aid of an extra man, Mr. Thompson found the latitude to be 46° 52′ 3′′ north, longitude 92° 28′ 42′′ west, variation six degrees east.

Passing through a small brook a distance of twelve miles in a direct line, but twenty by its course, Mr. Thompson entered the River St. Louis, a stream about one hundred yards wide and eight deep. The men of his party, who had been in the habit of navigating this river for years, assured him that in August and the two following months it has only eighteen inches of water, running among stones, which it is often necessary to turn the canoe aside to avoid. In one of the many rapids of this river the canoe filled with water. Then came cataracts formed by a series of small steps round a point of rock, necessitating resort to a carrying place 1,576 yards long. Then after four miles more another carrying place of seven miles, where, on the left of the travellers, the river has a series of falls estimated at one hundred and twenty feet, below which the river flows with a moderate course into Lake Superior. Near the mouth of the river was a trading-house of the North-West Company, under charge of M. Lemoine, in latitude 46° 44′ 33′′, longitude 92° 9′ 45′′, variation five and a half degrees east. M. Lemoine's returns were six hundred pounds of furs, and he expected to obtain four hundred pounds more, nine kegs of gum from the fir trees to staunch the canoes, and one hundred and twenty gallons of maple sugar. About two hundred and twenty Indian families traded at this house, representing two hundred and ten persons in all.

"I have," says Mr. Thompson, "only set down my observations made at certain places, but they are numerous all over the survey, as every clear day no opportunity was omitted of taking observations for latitude and longitude to correct the courses and distances of the survey."

It was customary to lay up the canoes that descended the river to Lake Superior, as well as those that came up the lake. Mr. Thompson's party had to take a northern canoe twenty-eight feet in length, in a state of dilapidation. They repaired it and fitted up with two oars, as there were only three men, to encounter the winds and waves of Lake Superior.

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In canoes such as that Mr. Thompson here obtained, the fur trade was carried great distances into the interior; in his own words, it "extended to within two or three days' march of the shores and factories of Hudson's Bay."

OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY.

You will endeavour to prevail on them [Indians or Esquimaux] by such reward, and to be paid in such manner as may best answer the purpose, to carry to any of the settlements of the Hudson's Bay Company, or of the North-west Company, an account of your situation and proceedings; with an urgent request that it may be forwarded to England with the utmost despatch.-Official instructions of Wm. Edward Parry, Commander of the Expedition, comprising the Hecla and the Gripper, by the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, May 1, 1819. (Signed)

MELVILLE.

G. MOORE.
G. COCKBURN.

[The foregoing clause had previously been inserted in the official instructions of John Ross, R. S., Captain Royal Navy, who had command of His Majesty's ships the Isabella and the Alexander, March 31, 1818, signed Melville, J. S. Yorke, George Hope, and G. Moore, Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.]

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Their enterprise in the North-West after the conquest...... 220
Extent of Country occupied by the North-West Company

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The North-West Company officially recognized.....

CANADA, BOUNDARIES OF:-

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245

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Answer of the British Court to French memorial...................

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Mr. Pitt to M. De Bussy...

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Ultimatum of France in reply to that of England.............

Answer of the British Minister to the Ultimatum of France 215
The last memorial of France to England....

COMPAGNIE DU NORD:-

Complains of the losses it has sustained at the hands of the

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137

Is obliged to repeat its demand for aid against the English. 140
The Canadian garrison will perish if not aided by the King. 143
Company not in a condition to send a vessel to Hudson's Bay 143

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