One would accomplish a great good by discovering, on the coast of Florida, some passage running near to the great lake before referred to, where the water is salt; not only on account of the navigation of vessels, which would not then be exposed to so great risks as in going by way of Canada, but also on account of the shortening of the distance by more than three hundred leagues. And it is certain that there are rivers on the coast of Florida, not yet discovered, extending into the interior, where the land is very good and fertile, and containing very good harbors. The country and coast of Florida may have a different temperature and be more productive in fruits and other things than that which I have seen; but there cannot be there any lands more level nor of a better quality than those we have seen. The savages say that, in this great Baye de Chaleurs, there is a river extending some twenty leagues into the interior, at the extremity of which is a lake [229] some twenty leagues in extent, but with very little water; that it dries up in summer, when they find in it, a foot or foot and a half under ground, a kind of metal resembling the silver which I showed them, and that in another place, near this lake, there is a copper mine. This is what I learned from these savages. ENDNOTES: 215. _Orignac_. Moose.--_Vide antea_, note 179. 216. Martens, _martres_. This may include the pine-marten, _Mustela martes_, and the pecan or fisher, _Mustela Canadenfis_, both of which were found in large numbers in New France. 217. York River. 218. Molues Bay, _Baye des Moluès_. Now known as Mal-Bay, from _morue_, codfish, a corruption from the old orthography _molue_ and _baie_, codfish bay, the name having been originally applied on account of the excellent fish of the neighborhood. The harbor of Mal-Bay is enclosed between two points, Point Peter on the north, and a high rocky promontory on the south, whose cliffs rise to the height of 666 feet.--_Vide Charts of the St. Lawrence by Captain H. W. Bayfield_. 219. _Isle Percée.--Vide_ Vol. II, note 290. 220. _Baye de Chaleurs_. This bay was so named by Jacques Cartier on account of the excessive heat, _chaleur_, experienced there on his first voyage in 1634.--_Vide Voyage de Jacques Cartier_, Mechelant, ed. Paris, 1865, p. 50. The depth of the bay is about ninety miles and its width at the entrance is about eighteen. It receives the Ristigouche and other rivers. 221. By a portage of about three leagues from the river Matane to the Matapedia, the Bay of Chaleur may be reached by water. 222. _Tregaté_, Tracadie. By a very short portage Between Bass River and the Big Tracadie River, this place may be reached. 223. _Misamichy_, Miramichi. This is reached by a short portage from the Nepisiguit to the head waters of the Miramichi.