RK-564

332

Grand Portage Lake Supe rior July 29h 1858

Robert Kennicott Jr Esq

Dear Brother Shraelinger[?].

To day I have put up a large jar and several[?] small ones with specimens for you and sent them to direct at ed care of Rev. T Judson, Chicago Ill. I feel rather disappointed as to the size of the collec tion, for the animal [illegible] I found to be very represented[?] in this region where Nature seems to have exhausted it self in mineral riches. I took all that came in my way and with that the little I have may prove acceptable. All you find is collected on the North Shore mostly between this and Fort William. To collect at all you must travel in the canoe, the steamboat landings amount to almost nothing. There is little hope

for any encouragement from the Hudsons bay compaynie, who are a [illegible] selfish concern[], who if they could would keep their whole territory shut up like a sealed book. There is in this Place quite a good and intelligent american Resident, Mr. Nelson Drouilard, the Indian Agent. As he has to pay the annuities to the Indians of the interior he has communication with tribes that live 6-700 miles north of this on the Red River of the North He offered me his Agency as a collector, and as he seems to me an intelligent and honest man I left all the rest of the jars[?] and the Alcohol in his care and promised him also to write to you

and ask for some Avoenia[?] for him that he may in the winter collect [illegible] of birds and furanimals. Please therefore to make him up some small outfit and send him also some of the Smithsonian Pamphlets for further instruction[?]. I think he may prove a valuable acquaintance, for except an expedition on some scale be fitted out with all necessities, I think it impossible that much can be accomplished in any other way. The means of communications are limited, and from the Hudsons bay as well as from the resident traders little or nothing is to be expected. Should any thing be undertaken Good Portage

will be the starting point, for there is by way of Pigeon river and a number of lakes a direct communication with the Red River and Mr Drouilard as well as some Misionaries have obtained a little influence over the Indians.

If you send a little package to Mr Drouillard please direct it to care of Moore & Foote Detroit, Michigan

When I leave this I intend to go to the copper region, and from there down the St Lawrence, please therefore to write [illegible] post office Quebec Canada.

Yours most truly

Wm Heine.