shores of that great inland sea, they
required canoes of great size and strength. These "great north canoes,"
as they were called, could easily carry from a dozen to a score of
paddlers, with a cargo of a couple of tons of goods. In the old days of
the rival fur-traders, these great canoes played a very prominent part.
Before steam or even large sailing vessels had penetrated into those
northern lakes, these canoes were extensively used, loaded with the rich
furs of those wild forests, they used to come down into the Ottawa, and
thence on down that great stream, often even as far as to Montreal.

Sir George Simpson, the energetic but despotic and unprincipled governor
of the Hudson's Bay Company for many years, used to travel in one of
these birch canoes all the way from Montreal up the Ottawa on through
Lake Nipissing into Georgian Bay; from thence into Lake Superior, on to
Thunder Bay. From this place, with indomitable pluck, he pushed on back
into the interior, through the Lake of the Woods, down the tortuous
river Winnipeg into the lake of the same name. Along the whole length
of this lake he annually travelled, in spite of its treacherous storms
and annoying head winds, to preside over the Council and attend to the
business of the wealthiest fur-trading company that ever existed, over
which he watched with eagle eye, and in every department of which his
distinct personality was felt. His famous Iroquois crew are still
talked about, and marvellous are the stories in circulation about many a
northern camp fire of their endurance and skill.

How rapid the changes which are taking place in this world of ours! It
seems almost incredible, in these days of mighty steamships going almost
everywhere on our great waters, to think that there are hundreds of
people still living who distinctly remember when the annual trips of a
great governor were made from Montreal to Winnipeg in a birch-bark
Canoe, manned by Indians.

Of this light Indian craft Longfellow wrote:--

"Give me of your bark, O Birch tree!
Of your yellow bark, O Birch tree!
Growing by the rushing river,
Tall and stately in the valley!
I a light canoe will build me,
Build a swift canoe for sailing.

"Thus the Birch canoe was builded
In the valley, by the river,
In the bosom of the forest;
All its mystery and its magic,
All the brightness of the birch tree,
All the toughness of the cedar,
All the larch trees supple sinews;