Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 Excerpt:...is very beautiful. As we near the outlet of Rainy Lake, and enter Rainy River, the right bank appears very much like a park, the trees standing far apart, and having the rounded tops of those seen in open grounds. Blue oak and balsam poplar, with a few aspen, are the principal forest trees. These line the bank, and for two miles, after leaving the lake, we glide down between walls of living green, until we reach the Fort, which is beautifully situated on the right bank of Rainy River, immediately below the falls. All sorts of grain can be raised here, as well as all kinds of garden vegetables. Barley, three feet high, and oats over tha"t, show there is nothing in the climate or soil to prevent a luxuriant growth. The length of the river is about eighty miles. The right, or Canadian bank, for the whole distance, is covered with a heavy growth of forest trees, shrubs, climbing vines, and beautiful flowers. The forest trees consist of oak, elm, ash, birch, basswood, balsam, spruce, aspen, balsam poplar, and white and red pine near the Lake of the Woods. Thewhole flora of this region indicates a climate very like that of the old settled parts of Ontario, and the luxuriance of the vegetation shews that the soil is of the very best quality. The name of Alberton has been given to the settlement at Fort Frances. Of the lakes in this section, the Lake of the Woods is the most extensive. From Lac Plat, which may be regarded as its western extremity, to White Fish Lake, which is a somewhat similiar extension in an opposite direction, the distance is not far short of 100 miles, and from the mouth of Rainy River, at the entrance of the lake, to its outlet at Rat Portage, in lat 49" 47' north, and long. 94 44' west, the distance is about 70 miles, so that altog...