Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada Then And

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Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada Then and Now ERIC W. MORSE First published 1969 © Crown Copyrights reserved Reprinted 1971 Second edition © Minister of Supply and Services Canada 1979 Printed in Canada Reprinted in 2018 Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Morse, Eric W., 1904- Fur trade canoe routes of Canada Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-8020-6384-7 (paper) 1. Fur trade-Canada. 2. Trade routes. I. Canada. Dept. of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. II. Canada. Parks Canada. III. Title. HD9944.c22M65 1979 382'.45'639110971 c79-094313-1 Cover illustration: Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior, 1869, by Frances Ann Hopkins. Courtesy of The Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta. Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada/ Then and Now Fort Chipewyan Fort Lac la :' Assiniboine Biche .. · · · · · ' Athabasca ,: .. ~~~-~;-~~-..... .. o,.,., Edm6nto~ Rmer ~ro;·~R?,TH S,1S,t- ·. : -1?; . : =.......[ .. C',y ·:, •• :·•'. <"Lz.. •.·. "7,r; Na.,,,akan Lake ·········:·· MAIN WATERWAYS OF THE CANADIAN FUR TRADE ~===~100S===i=:c20§0~=,==='3::;00~===;;;,400 MILES 100 200 300 400 KILOMETRES HUDSON BAY ',:• · Lachine 6 ef ~'<; .__,'I: "'"" Albany. University of Toronto Press Toronto Buffalo London Published in association with Environment Canada, Parks Canada, and the Canadian Government Publishing Centre, Supply and Services Canada To all those, including my wife, who have been my companions and fellow-voyageurs on the rivers of the north. Acknowledgements I am indebted to Major-General N. E. Rodger of Winnipeg, and to Dr. W. G. Mathers of Pinawa, Man., for important information as to the current state of inundation of fur-trade rivers in their own Province. I should like also to acknowledge the generous co-operation of Major-General W. J. Megill and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society in making available maps and other material from a set of articles I wrote previously in the Canadian Geographical Journal. E.W.M. Ottawa April, 1968. Preface to Second Edition Resulting from either terrain changes or new material coming to light since 1968, three main changes in text have been made in the Second Edition. They relate respectively to Great Dog and Rat Portages and to Boundary Falls (Portage de !'Isle), all between pp. 76-86. An index also has been added. Frances Hopkins's contemporary,. almost "photographic" painting, "Bivouac of a Canoe Party" shows various evening camping activities of a small brigade of two North Canoes in progress, including wood-gathering, cooking, insect-defence, and sleeping. At the right, side by side, are two different paddles, as used by the milieux and the bouts. .

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Some Red River Fur-Trade Activities / by John Perry Pritchett
SOME RED RIVER FUR-TRADE ACTIVITIES1 With the defeat of France in North America in 1763, the French fur-trading posts in the Red River and Saskatchewan valleys became idle. The continual stream of furs flowing through the trading houses of Montreal and Quebec ceased. About the year 1766 numerous Canadian traders, — Scotch, French, and half-breed, — motivated by the spirit of industry and adventure, made their way into the West following the old French trails. In less than a decade they had pushed their enterprises far beyond the French limits. Until 1784 the bulk of the inland fur traffic was in the hands of these independent traders. Unfortunately, the French license system of trading was put aside as incongruous with the principles of free trade. There were no legal restraints. The consequence was a cut throat system of competition, with all kinds of disorder and crime. Fraud, chicanery, and every concomitant evil were practiced to get the Indian barter. Spirituous liquors were freely and indiscriminately used. In spite of this state of affairs the unrestricted trade acquired great proportions and seriously encroached upon the profits of the Hudson's Bay Company. This company, by virtue of a charter granted by Charles II in 1670, claimed the " sole trade and commerce " over the territory bordering on Hudson Bay and Strait and all the country watered by the streams flowing into the bay. The Canadian adventurers had so advantageously located themselves in the " upland " country and on the sources of the rivers which led to the settlements of the Hudson's Bay Company that the company's trade " was in a great measure cut off from its usual channel.
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Courtesy Thomson Collection Collection Thomson Courtesy Trade goods and supplies were packed into bundles called pieces. A piece Dennis Gale, Portaging a Canoe, 1860 weighed about 90 pounds and was shaped for portaging (carrying canoe and cargo overland) and compact storage in a canoe. Cornelius Krieghoff, Indians in the Employ of the Hudson’s Bay Company at a Portage, 1858 Try to lift this pack. There were two types of voyageurs: Careful—it weighs the pork-eaters and the winterer. 45 pounds. The pork-eaters paddled the large Montreal canoes loaded with goods from Montreal to Grand Portage. At least once during every trip, voyageurs would In August they made the long trip have to portage. That means they had to carry back to Montreal loaded down with their fully loaded canoes past rapids or falls, or to the next big lake. A voyageur would hoist one, two, furs. They were called pork-eaters or even three packs onto his back—and each one because of their daily diet of salt pork was TWICE as heavy as this one! and dried peas. Winterers spent the winter at the post exchanging trade 45 miles? goods for furs. WOW: One portage, from Lac du Flambeau in present-day Wisconsin to Lake Superior, was an amazing 45 miles long. Can you imagine carrying 90 pounds or more on your back all that way? Bark canoes were light enough to carry, yet strong enough to hold heavy loads. And if it needed repairs, you could gather the necessary materials in the woods..
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