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Article: Portages and Water Routes
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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PORTAGES AND WATER ROUTES
PORTAGES AND WATER ROUTES.
Foremost among the factors that governed the exploration and settlement of the United States and Canada were the mountain ranges and the river systems
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the former an obstacle, the latter an aid to travel. For more than a century the Allegheny Mountains barred the British from the interior. By contrast, the French, who secured a foothold at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, found ready access to the interior along that waterway. By the Richelieu River
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Lake Champlain route, they could pass southward to the Hudson River, while numerous tributaries of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers pointed the way to Hudson Bay.
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