54                     DISCOVERY OP THE NORTHWEST.
From Lake Huron they had entered upon one of the channels of the magnificent water-way leading out from Lake Superior, and threaded their way, now through narrow rapids, now across (as it were) little lakes, now around beautiful islands, to within fifteen miles of the largest expanse of fresh water on the globe—stretching away in its grandeur to the westward, a distance of full four hundred miles.1 Nico-let saw beyond him the falls; around him clusters of wigwams, which two centuries and a half have changed into public buildings and private residences, into churches and warehous.es, into offices and stores—in short, into a pleasantly-situated American village,2 frequently visited by steamboats carrying valuable freight and crowded with parties of pleasure. The portage around the falls, where, in early times, the Indian carried his birch-bark canoe, has given place to an excellent canal. Such are- the changes which " the course of empire " continually
douce sont les Amikouai, ou la nation du Castor, au Suddesquels est vne Isle dans ceste mer douce longue d'enuiron trente lieues habitee des Outaouan, ce sont peuples venus de la nation des cheueux releuez. Apres lpa Amikouai sur les mesmes riues du grand lac sont les Oumisagai, qu'on passe pour venir a Baou-ichtigouin, c'est a dire, d la nation des gens du Sault, pource qu'en effect il y a vn Sault qui seiette en cetendroit dans la mer douce."
1 Lake Superior is distinctly marked on Champlain's map of 1632, Where it appears as " Grand Lac." Was it seen by Nicolet? This is a question which will probably never be answered to the satisfaction of the historian.
* Sault Sainte Marie (pronounced soo-sainl-mdry), county seat of Chippewa county, Michigan, fifteen miles belov^ the outlet of Lake Superior.