ich is the stronger side and takes it.
When the King is dead he is ready to shout, Long live the new King. I
have heard that down on the point, on the south side of the Forks of the
two rivers, the Frenchmen built a fort, but there wasn't a stick or a
stone of it left when the Selkirk Colonists came in 1812. But perhaps
you know that part of the story better than I do," ventured the old
patriarch. That is the Story of the French Explorers.

"Oh! Yes," replied the writer, "you know the world of men and things
about you; I know the world of books and journals and letters."

"Let us hear of that," said the patriarch eagerly.

[Illustration: MOUND BUILDERS' REMAINS
A. Native Copper Drill.
B. Soapstone Conjurer's tube.
C. Flint Skinning Implement.
D. Horn Fish Spear.
E. Native Copper Cutting Knife.
F. Cup found in Rainy River Mound by the Author, 1884.]

Well, you know the French Explorers were very venturesome. They went,
sometimes to their sorrow, among the wildest tribes of Indians.

A French Captain, named Verandrye, who was born in Lower Canada, came up
the great lakes to trade for furs of the beaver, mink, and musk-rat.
When he reached the shore of Lake Superior, west of where Fort William
now stands, an old Indian guide, gave him a birch bark map, which showed
all the streams and water courses from Lake Superior to Lake of the
Woods, and on to Lake Winnipeg. This was when the "well-beloved" Louis
XV. was King of France, and George II. King of England. It was heroic of
Verandrye to face the danger, but he was a soldier who had been twice
wounded in battle in Europe, and had the French love of glory. By
carrying his canoes over the portages, and running the rapids when
possible, he came to the head of Rainy River, went back again with his
furs, and after several such journeys, came down the Winnipeg River from
Lake of the Woods, to Lake Winnipeg, and after a while made a dash
across the stormy Lake Winnipeg and came to the Red River. The places
were all unknown, the Indians had never seen a white man in their
country, and the French Captain, with his officers, his men and a
priest, found their way to the Forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.
This was nearly three-quarters of a century before the first Selkirk
Colonists reached Red River. The French Captain saw only a few Indian
teepees at the Forks, and ascended the Assiniboine. It was a very dry
year, and the water in the Assiniboine was so low that it was wi