the Indians of
the neighborhood have always been noted for their good character, their
docility and their industry.

[Illustration: ANDREW McDERMOTT, ESQ., Greatest Merchant of the Red
River Settlement. Came to Red River Settlement in 1813. Died in
Winnipeg in 1881.]

A short delay at Oxford House led to the continuation of the journey
over what was now the roughest, most desolate, and most trying part of
the voyage. On this rough passage, perhaps the most distressing spot was
"Windy Lake," a small but tempestuous sheet. The voyageurs declare that
they never cross "Lac de Vent" without encountering high winds and very
often dangerous storms. Again "the Real Hill Difficulty" is encountered
above the lake at the "Big Hill" portage and rapids--one of the sudden
descents of this alarming stream. Those coming toward Oxford Lake run it
at the very risk of their lives, but the painful portages impress
themselves on all going up the "Height of Land," which is reached after
passing through a narrow gorge between hills and mountains of rocks, the
stream dashing headlong down from the mile-long Robinson Portage.

This region is an elevated, rugged waste, with no signs of animal life
about it. It is the terror of the voyageurs. This eerie tract culminates
in the ascending "Haute de Terre," as the French call it--the dividing
ridge between the waters running eastward to Hudson Bay and those
running westward and descending to meet the Nelson River, on its
headlong way to Hudson Bay as well. The obstacle known as the "Painted
Stone" being passed the Colonists' brigade was now on its way to the
inland plain of the Continent.

The portage led from this string of five small lakes to the head waters
of a trifling, but very interesting stream called the "Echimamish
River." A doubtful but curious explanation has been given of the name.
On the stream are ten beaver dams; which ever of these filled first gave
the voyageur the opportunity to launch in his canoe or boat and go down
the little runway to Black Water Creek. It was said that in consequence
it was called "Each-a-Man's" brook, according as each voyageur took the
water with his craft first. The way was now clear, down stream until
shortly was seen the dashing Nelson River, or as it is here called, "The
Sea River." When this was accomplished the Immigrants had only to pull
stoutly up stream for forty miles or more until Norway House, the great
Hudson's Bay Fort at the north end of