The whole of this country-will long continuein the pofleffion of
its prefent inhabitants', as they .will |remain .contented with the produce
of the w<pods and waters for their fupport, leaving the earthy froth yariou s
caufes, in itsi virgin- date, ti The ^proportion.p&it that is fit fer, eultivaw
tion is very fmall, and ‘iaft&Mejk W4 fee interior parts: it is alfo. very
difficultafaecefs; and whilft any land remains, uncultivated to the Smith
©f it, there will be1 no temptation to fettle it. Befides; its climate is not
in general fufficiently genial to bringifoe^oaispft/the earth to maturity,
It will alfo be an afylum for the defendants of the original inhabitants
o f the country to the South, who prefer the" modes ofolMe/\qf -their
forefathers, to the improvements of civilifation. O f this difpofition
thereasia recent inftab<fo:/ A fmaM coiony o f Iroquois'emigrated fo th e
banks of tjhelSafkatchiwine, in f ygp, who had been brought up from
their infancy under the Romifh miffionaries, and inftrufted by.thfem at
a village within nine miles of Montreal.
A further divifion of this country i? marked by a ridge Toft high
land, rifing, as it were, from the eoaft of Labrador, and running nearly
South’-Weft to the fource o f the Utawas Rivers dividing/the waters
going either way to the. river and gulf of St. Laurence and Hudfha’s
Bay, as before obferved. From thence it {fetches to the ‘North: of
Weft, to the Northward of Lake Superior, to latitude go^-Nditfe, and
longitude 8g. Weft, when it forks from the laft courle at about South-
Weft, and continues the fame divifion ofi waters until it palfes North of
the fource/of the Mifliffipi. The former courfe runs, as has been obferved,
in aNorth-Weft_dire0 |on, until it ftrikes the river Nelfon, .{epaarating the
waters that, difcharge themfelves into Lake Winipic, which forms part
of
of the faid. river, and -thofe that alfo empty themfelves into Hudfon’s
Bay^hy the Albany, Severn, and Hay’s or Hill’s Rivers. From thence
it keeps-a courfe ?®£. nboift. Weft-N©a;tfoWeft, till' it forms the banks of
the Miffinipi pr Churchill River,.‘at Portage de Traite, latitude 55. g p
Jfortb’ It npw'Cóntinues in a Weftern difeêtion, between the Safkatchi-
wine and the fourceof the Miffinipi, or Beaver River, which it leaves
behind, and divides the. Safkatehiwine from the Elk River; when,
leaving thofe alfo behind, and purfuing the fame direaion it leads to
the high larid-that lies between the Unjigah’ and.Taccrutche rivers, from
whence- it may fteluppofed to be the fame ridge. - From the head of the
Beaver River, on the Weft, the, fame kind of high ground runs to the
Ea£| pf :Nprihi between the waters Miffinipi
forming the Portage la Loche, and continuing on to the latitude
53% - -North, dividing the waters that run to Hudfon’s Bay. from thofe
going to: the North Sea : fern thence itaeourfe is nearly North, when an
angle runs *hfcSh*ve Lake, till, ft ftrikes Mackenzie’s
Riyer.
The laft, but by no means the leaft, is the immenfe ridge, or fueeeffion
of ridges p f ftony mountains, who%^qftftefut^5i;t^n3fty dips fo the North
§ea, in latitude yp, North, and longitude W^rfunhing nearly. South-
Eaft#;apdbegingtp be psfal^bwith th^,scOaft,of the Pacific Ocean, from
Cook’sentry, and.fo omwafdsto the. Columbia. < Fromtheraceftappears to
quit the eoaft, bn,t ;divftle the, waters
of the, Atlantic frpm tlaofe .Which rum in to. the Pacific: | In»thofe fnow-rlart
mountains rifes the Miffiffippi' if weuAnft the Miffifouri to be its fource,
C 1 3 "U < which