nds of the Strong Woods Indians--as the inhabitants of the
Great Northern Forest are generally called--lie about one hundred and
fifty miles apart.

The natural overland highways throughout the country, especially those
intersecting the watercourses and now used as the roadbeds for our
great transcontinental railways, were not originally discovered by man
at all. The credit is due to the big game of the wilderness; for the
animals were not only the first to find them, but also the first to use
them. The Indian simply followed the animals, and the trader followed
the Indian, and the official "explorer" followed the trader, and the
engineer followed the "explorer," and the railroad contractor followed
the engineer. It was the buffalo, the deer, the bear, and the wolf who
were our original transcontinental path-finders, or rather pathmakers.
Then, too, the praise bestowed upon the pioneer fur traders for the
excellent judgment shown in choosing the sites upon which trading posts
have been established throughout Canada, has not been deserved; the
credit is really due to the Indians. The fur traders erected their
posts or forts upon the tribal camping grounds simply because they
found such spots to be the general meeting places of the Indians, and
not only situated on the principal highways of the wilderness but
accessible from all points of the surrounding country, and, moreover,
the very centres of excellent fish and game regions. Thus in Canada
many of the ancient tribal camping grounds are now known by the names
of trading posts, of progressive frontier towns, or of important cities.

Now, as of old, the forest Indians after their winter's hunt return in
the early summer to trade their catch of furs, to meet old friends, and
to rest and gossip awhile before the turning leaf warns them to secure
their next winter's "advances" from the trader, and once more paddle
away to their distant hunting grounds.

The several zones of the Canadian wilderness are locally known as the
Coast Country--the shores of the Arctic Ocean and Hudson Bay; the
Barren Grounds--the treeless country between Hudson Bay and the
Mackenzie River; the Strong Woods Country--the whole of that enormous
belt of heavy timber that spans Canada from east to west; the Border
Lands--the tracts of small, scattered timber that lie between the
prairies and the northern forests; the Prairie Country; the Mountains;
and the Big Lakes. These names have been adop