After 1743 the French seem to have made no further efforts to
reach the Western Sea by way of the Missouri. If in reality the
brothers had not gone beyond the Black Hills in South Dakota,
then their most important work appears to have been done within
what is now Canada, as discoverers of the Saskatchewan, the
mighty river which carries to far-distant Hudson Bay the waters
melted on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It was by
this route up the Saskatchewan that fifty years later was solved
the tough and haunting problem of going over the mountains to the
Pacific Ocean. La Verendrye now ascended the Saskatchewan for
some three hundred miles to the forks where it divides into two
great branches. He was going deeper into debt but he hoped always
for help from the King. It is pathetic to see today, on the map
of that part of western Canada which he and his sons explored, a
town, a lake, and a county called Dauphin, in honor of the heir
to the throne of France. No doubt La Verendrye had the thought
that some day he might plead with the Dauphin when he had become
King for help in his great task.
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