of the Grand Calumet Portage. This Small channel its is said is only passable for small canoes[.] [A] league beyond the Grand Marais we got sight of Fort Coulonges, a sorry hut, situated near the foot of the mountains[.] Entered Lac Coulonges; these lakes are in this River what Knots would be on a cord; two or three times the breadth of the River and of various lengths, Lac Coulonges is about two leagues long and is near two miles broad. At the upper end of it is another brulé with which such another sand bank as that opposite to the grand marais but on a smaller scale. The Allumets are the next rapids two Decharges and a Portage[.] [T]he portage is fifteen to twenty paces, over a pretty steep ascent[.] [T]his portage would be worth a good deal of money in a flurishing settlement being the best mill seat I ever saw. The water at the lower end of the portage is from ten to fifteen feet lower than that above it, so that a canal might be made through the rock to act on machinery. After emptying our canoes of their cargoes they were hauled round the point of which this portage is the Isthmus[.] A mile farther we came to the Lac des Allumets about

four

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