Original - North Central Michigan College Library

we came to the carrying-place of Toranto. 76Here the Indians obliged me to carry a burdenof more than a hundred pounds weight. Theday was very hot and the woods and marshesabounded with mosquitoes; but the Indianswalked at a quick pace, and I could by nomeans see myself left behind. The wholecountry was a thick forest, through which ouronly road was a footpath, or such as in Americais exclusively termed an Indian path.Next morning at ten o'clock we reached theshore of Lake Ontario. Here we were employedtwo days in making canoes out of the bark ofthe elm tree in which we were to transportourselves to Niagara. For this purpose theIndians first cut down a tree; then stripped offthe bark in one entire sheet of about eighteenfeet in length, the incision being lengthwise.The canoe was now complete as to its top, bottom,and sides. Its ends were next closed bysewing the bark together; and a few ribs andbars being introduced, the architecture wasfinished. In this manner we made two canoes,of which one carried eight men and the othernine.On the twenty-first we embarked at Toranto76Toranto, or Toronto, is the name of a French trading-houseon Lake Ontario, built near the site of thepresent town of York, the capital of the province ofUpper Canada. Author."The present town of York" has since become, by ahappy transformation, the modern city of Toronto.Editor.172