away to the north-west there
dwelt wild tribes to be sought out by two classes of men-by the black
robe, who laboured for souls; by the trader, who sought for skins-and a
hard race had these two widely different pioneers who sought at that
early day these remote and friendless regions, so hard that it would
almost seem as though the great powers of good and of evil had both
despatched at this same moment, on rival errands, ambassadors to gain
dominion over these distant savages. It was a curious contest: on the one
hand, showy robes, shining beads, and maddening fire-water, on the other,
the old, old story of peace and brotherhood, of Christ and Calvary--a
contest so full of interest, so teeming with adventure, so pregnant with
the discovery of mighty rivers and great inland seas, that one would fain
ramble away into its depths; but it must not be, or else the journey I
have to travel myself would never even begin.

Vast as is the accumulation of fresh water in Lake Superior, the area of
the country which it drains is limited enough. Fifty miles from its
northern shores the rugged hills which form the backbone or "divide" of
the continent raise their barren heads, and the streams carry from thence
the vast rainfall of this region into the Bay of Hudson. Thus, when the
voyageur has paddled, tracked, poled, and carried his canoe up any of the
many rivers which rush like mountain torrents into Lake Superior from the
north, he reaches the height of land between the Atlantic Ocean and
Hudson Bay. Here, at an elevation of 1500 feet above the sea level, and
of 900 above Lake Superior, he launches his canoe upon water flowing
north and west; then he has before him hundreds of miles of quiet-lying
lake, of wildly rushing river, of rock-broken rapid, of foaming cataract,
but through it all runs ever towards the north the ocean-seeking current.
As later on we shall see many and many a mile of this wilderness--living
in it, eating in it, sleeping in it-although reaching it from a different
direction altogether from the one spoken of now, I anticipate, by
alluding to it here, only as illustrating the track of the Expedition
between Lake Superior and Red River. For myself, my route was to be
altogether a different one. I was to follow the lines of railroad which
ran-out into the frontier territories of the United States, then, leaving
the iron horse, I was to make my way to the settlements on the west shore
of Lake Superior, and from