ative to the various tribes inhabiting this
region.

Previous to 1634, nothing had been learned of Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair,
or Lake Michigan although it was understood there was some kind of a
water-way connecting the Fresh Sea (Lake Huron) with Ontario. A little
knowledge had been gained of a great body of fresh water lying beyond
the "Mer Douce," "a grand lac," so called by the French--now known as
Lake Superior. The length of this superior lake with that of the Fresh
Sea (Lake Huron), the Indians declared was a journey of full thirty days
in canoes. At the outlet of the great lake was what was described by the
savages, as a considerable rapid, to which the French gave the name of
"Sault de Gaston," the present Sault St. Marie, in the St. Mary's river,
the stream, which, it is well known, flows from Lake Superior into Lake
Huron.

Accounts also had been received from the Indians prior to the year last
mentioned, of a lake of no great size, through which flowed a river
discharging its waters into the Fresh Sea (Lake Huron). These were
reports of Lake Winnebago and Fox river, in what is now the State of
Wisconsin. As the French upon the St. Lawrence had no knowledge as yet
of Lake Michigan, they imagined the location of this small lake, and its
river was beyond, and to the northwest of Lake Huron and that they
emptied into it; Green Bay into the head of which Fox river really
flows, being (like Lake Michigan) wholly unknown to them.

It had further been reported by the Indians before this date that there
was a mine of copper on an island in what has been mentioned as probably
Lake Winnebago; doubtless, however, this island should have been located
in Lake Superior. A specimen of native copper had as early as 1610, been
exhibited by an Indian to an interested Frenchman upon the St. Lawrence,
and an account given by him as to the rude method employed by the
savages in melting that metal. But other islands besides the one
containing the copper mine had been brought to the knowledge of the
French settlers. A large one southeast of the "Sault de Gaston" being
described, and two smaller ones, to the south of it. These islands were,
it is suggested, the Great Manitoulin, Drummond, and Little Manitoulin,
of the present day.

* * * * *

Dr. Leeds has said that spices were adulterated to a great extent, but
only such substances were added as were purely non-poisonous. Mustards
were never fou