into sixteen Poses or resting places, its soil is cheifly composed of copper coloured clay the cheif vegetable production of which is spruce, fir, and othe evergreens. M^r Donald Ross has been so long in charge of Fort Charlotte that he has acquired the respectable name of Governor. Next day I assisted my Bourgeois in sending off fourteen canoes for the Red River[.] These N.W. Canoes are about half the Size of the Montreal or Grand River Canoes and when loaded to the utmost can carry a Tun and a half. The number of men required to navigate them is four to five i.e. the near hand posts have but four men. A head clerk or Bourgeouis is allowed by the concern to have an extra man in his canoe to wait upon him[.] There has been great abuse in these things formerly certain gentlemen who were fond of Dashing taking an unecessary number of chosen men into their canoes from motives of vanity. I set out after the fourteen Canoes above mentioned to winter in the Red River[.] The River we navigate from Fort Charlotte falls

into

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