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 the remarkable features of the Loramie portage was the deadened trees to be seen here—indicative of busy canoe-building.

At the head of the Maumee—the "Miami river of Lake Erie"—a portage path led to the Wabash. It began on the left bank of the St. Mary River, a short distance above its junction with the St. Joseph, and ran eight miles to Little River, the first branch of the Wabash. This route from the Lakes to the Mississippi, at first of least importance, became finally the most important of the five great French passage ways southwest. It was discovered to be the shortest route from the capital of New France to the Mississippi and Illinois settlements and has been appropriately called "the Indian Appian Way." The importance of this route in the history of the Old Northwest has been effectively presented by Elbert Jay Benton.

The voyager's canoes followed the Ottawa river from Montreal, then by portage to Lake Nipissing, and to Georgian bay, an