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MISSISSIPPI BASIN
153

the portage of Yjadakoin. It began at the mouth of a little stream called Rivière aux pommes ["apple River"],—the 3rd that is met after entering the lake, and thus it may be easily recognized."[1]

On the seventeenth the party began the tedious portage and "made a good league." On the day following "our people being fatigued, we shortened the intervals between the stations, and we hardly made more than half a league . . the 22nd, the portage was entirely accomplished."

Six days were thus spent in crossing the nine-mile path—a very good indication of how difficult was the journey. And yet Bonnècamps affirms "The road is passably good."[2] This road was opened by a detachment under Villiers and Le Borgne sent out by Céloron on the sixteenth—"nearly three-quarters of a league of road" being cleared the first day.[3]

A detailed study of this path has been made by Dr. H. C. Taylor of Brocton, New

  1. Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. lxix, p. 159.
  2. Id., p. 161.
  3. Céloron's Journal in Darlington's Fort Pitt, p. 12.