from Detroit for Niagara; passed Lake Erie along the north shore in a birch canoe, and arrived the eighth of October at Niagara. The navigation of the lake is dangerous for batteaux or canoes, by reason that the lake is very shallow for a considerable distance from the shore. The bank for several miles is high and steep, and affords a harbor for a single batteau. The lands in general, between Detroit and Niagara, are high, and the soil good, with several fine rivers falling into the lake. The distance from Detroit to Niagara is computed three hundred miles."[1]
Mr. Croghan does not mention a river portage path, undoubtedly because it was not considered worthy of mention. Often the portage path in a river portage followed the river bed closely, so that canoes could be dragged in the water if it was not too swift or too shallow. A brave Catholic missionary wrote concerning his journey up the St. Lawrence that the canoes were carried (over portages whose length varied from one to ten miles) thirty-five times and
- ↑ Croghan's Journal, "The Olden Time," vol. i., pp. 409–415.
