Volume 1

3
V
KNIFE LAKE AND PORTAGES. 1
we entered Lake Saginaga and came to L'Anse de Sable.
Here we found some Indians making canoes for sale ; but
as none of them were to my taste, we proceeded to the
detroit in the lake. My canoe ran afoul of a sharp rock
and in an instant was full of water. We put ashore to
repair the damage, and in the meantime dried our goods,
which had got wet, and embarked. We soon came to the
last Petit Rocher de Saginaga portage, which is about
50 paces long. We thence proceeded to Prairie portage,"
where we found the water so low that it was with the
utmost difficulty we could unload. We carried about 600
paces, and then proceeded to Petit Rocher des Couteaux
portage, which is about 150 paces long. We loaded again,
embarked, and went to the W. end of Lac des Couteaux,
where we camped.
July 26th. We early embarked, descended seven small
rapids, and passed through the same number of small lakes,
when we arrived at Petit Rocher, a short portage of about
50 paces ; thence we went through a small lake to the last
Petit Rocher des Couteaux portage, about 200 paces long,
notes a place along here only 4 yards wide. Henry's "last Petit Rocher de
Saginaga" is now called Portage la Roche, which conducts us from Lake
Saganaga into a small one now called Swamp 1. The passage between these
two lakes is nearly, if not exactly, on the line between Cook Co., Minn., which
has thus far been on our left the whole way from Fort Charlotte, and Lake Co.
of the same State.
The elder Henry, who was here July 20th, 1775, speaks of Lake Sagunac, i. e.,
Saganaga, as the situation of the hithermost French post in the N, W, , where
there had been a large Chippewa village, destroyed by the Sioux. When
populous this village had been a menace to the traders, by extorting liquor and
other goods ; but he found only three squalid lodges : Trav., p. 241.
'* Through the small Swamp 1. named in my last note. Prairie p. is now
called Swamp p., being in part boggy; it is little over 300 yards long, W. S. W.,
and conducts into a narrow body of water now known as Otter Track 1., 3 or
4 m. long, and for the most part quite narrow, like a river. Petit Rocher des
Couteaux is present Little Knife portage ; Thompson calls it Little Knife Stone
Carrying Place, 52 yards long. Lac des Couteaux or Knife 1. is a narrow body
of water some 7 m. long from N. E. to S. W.; its name, as well as those of
the several portages through and beyond it, refers to the sharp stones which
abound in this portion of the route.