It was thus easily reached by the tribes on the east and northeast by Lake Ontario; by the tribes on the north by Lake Simcoe and the portage to Toronto; by the tribes in the great west and northwest (covering a vast territory) by all the upper lakes; by the tribes in the southwest by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Alleghany rivers; by the tribes in the southeast by the Susquehanna River. Even in aboriginal days--by reason of its central location, its portage, its position as a Center of Trade, and its "Erie Stones"--Niagara was the best and most widely known spot on the Continent; even as--for other reasons--it is to-day. Father Ragueneau, in a letter written from the Huron Country, in Canada, in 1648, and published in the "Jesuit Relation" of 1649, makes the second known direct printed reference to the Falls themselves, when he writes,-- "Lake Erie, which is formed by the waters from the Mer Douce [Lake Huron], discharges itself into Lake Ontario, over a Cataract of fearful height," which description was, word for word, the same as is found in a letter, written not later than 1645, from that same Huron Country, by Docteur Gendron, but which was not published until 1660. The third direct printed reference to our Cataract was in a letter, written by Father Bressani, from that same Huron Country, in 1652, and published the following year. He wrote,-- "Lake Erie discharges itself, by means of a very high Cataract, into a third lake, which is still larger and finer, called Lake Ontario." Thus, up to 1660, the Jesuit Fathers, Ragueneau and Bressani, were the only persons, except Champlain, who had made any direct printed reference to Niagara's Waterfall; like him, neither of them ever saw it;--the three known men, who first mentioned in print what is to-day the best known Cataract on Earth, wrote from hearsay,--and none of them gave it a name. Sanson, who, in 1650, had issued a map of North America, largely following those of Champlain, but improving on their accuracy (though not indicating Niagara), in 1656, issued one of New France or Canada, whereon he both correctly places our Waterfall, and, for the first time in Literature or Cartography gave it a direct name, marking it "Ongiara Sault." Much information about Canada had no doubt been made public in France--by Missionaries and Explorers, with the Government's approval--during those half-a-dozen years. Hennepin, in 1683, was the first person to use the word "Niagara," which has been the accepted name ever since; though more than a hundred different ways of spelling it have been found. And from Hennepin's time,--by every known form of pictorial reproduction; during the last forty years by photography more than all other forms put together--Niagara has been the most pictured and therefore the best known spot on earth. DOCTEUR GENDRON