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Pathfinders of the West - Being the Thrilling Story of the Adventures of the Men Who - Discovered the Great Northwest: Radisson, La Vérendrye, - Lewis and Clark by Agnes C. (Agnes Christina) Laut
page 85 of 335 (25%)
Groseillers long ago. Then the Crees had great store of beaver pelts;
and trade must not be forgotten. No sooner had peace been arranged
between Sautaux and Crees, than Cree hunters flocked out of the
northern forests to winter on Lake Superior. A rumor of Iroquois on
the war-path compelled Radisson and Groseillers to move their camp back
from Lake Superior higher up the chain of lakes and rivers between what
is now Minnesota and Canada, toward the country of the Sioux. In the
fall of 1659 Groseillers' health began to fail from the hardships; so
he remained in camp for the winter, attending to the trade, while
Radisson carried on the explorations alone.

This was one of the coldest winters known in Canada.[16] The snow fell
so heavily in the thick pine woods of Minnesota that Radisson says the
forest became as sombre as a cellar. The colder the weather the better
the fur, and, presenting gifts to insure safe conduct, Radisson set out
with a band of one hundred and fifty Cree hunters for the Northwest.
They travelled on snow-shoes, hunting moose on the way and sleeping at
night round a camp-fire under the stars. League after league, with no
sound through the deathly white forest but the soft crunch-crunch of
the snowshoes, they travelled two hundred miles toward what is now
Manitoba. When they had set out, the snow was like a cushion. Now it
began to melt in the spring sun, and clogged the snow-shoes till it was
almost impossible to travel. In the morning the surface was glazed
ice, and they could march without snow-shoes. Spring thaw called a
halt to their exploration. The Crees encamped for three weeks to build
boats. As soon as the ice cleared, the band launched back down-stream
for the appointed rendezvous on Green Bay. All that Radisson learned
on this trip was that the Bay of the North lay much farther from Lake
Superior than the old Nipissing chief had told Dreuillettes and
Groseillers.[17]
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