Kaskaskia. Another post, established a hundred miles farther up the great river, on the western bank, on a high and commanding place, was called Carondolet. Some twenty miles above the last post, the explorers found another mighty river pouring a turbid flood into the Misashapi on the western side. These posts were situated near the mouths of rivers navigable for long distances by Indian canoes. Facilities were thus given to the Indians for bringing in from an immense region their furs and peltries to trade. Thus the fur trade of Aristopia soon came to exceed that of Canada. Although the furs were not quite so good as those of more northern latitudes, the skins intended for leather, as those of the deer and elk, were of the best, while in the matter of buffalo skins Aristopia had almost a monopoly.
As a means of communication between these posts horse-boats were built, three or four of which plied between Onondio on the upper Ohio, and the post at the mouth of the Wabash. From this post to Kaskaskia the communication was overland, and the distance about a hundred miles, mostly over a prairie region. One horse-boat plied between Kaskaskia and
