the vast rainfall of this region into the Bay of Hudson. Thus, when the
voyageur has paddled, tracked, poled, and carried his canoe up any of the
many rivers which rush like mountain torrents into Lake Superior from the
north, he reaches the height of land between the Atlantic Ocean and
Hudson Bay. Here, at an elevation of 1500 feet above the sea level, and
of 900 above Lake Superior, he launches his canoe upon water flowing
north and west; then he has before him hundreds of miles of quiet-lying
lake, of wildly rushing river, of rock-broken rapid, of foaming cataract,
but through it all runs ever towards the north the ocean-seeking current.
As later on we shall see many and many a mile of this wilderness--living
in it, eating in it, sleeping in it-although reaching it from a different
direction altogether from the one spoken of now, I anticipate, by
alluding to it here, only as illustrating the track of the Expedition
between Lake Superior and Red River. For myself, my route was to be
altogether a different one. I was to follow the lines of railroad which
ran-out into the frontier territories of the United States, then, leaving
the iron horse, I was to make my way to the settlements on the west shore
of Lake Superior, and from thence to work Round to the American
boundary-line at Pembina on the Red River; so far through American
territory, and with distinct and definite instructions; after that,
altogether to my own resources, but with this summary of the general's
wishes: "I will not ask you to visit Fort Garry, but however you manage
it, try and reach Wolseley-before he gets through from Lake Superior, and
let him know what these Red River men are going to do." Thus the military
Expedition under Colonel Wolseley was to work its way Across from Lake
Superior to Red River, through British territory; I was to pass round by
the United States, and, after ascertaining the likelihood of Fenian
intervention from the side of Minnesota and Dakota, endeavour to reach
Colonel Wolseley beyond Red River, with all tidings as to state of
parties and chances of fight. But as the reader has heard only a very