SAULT SAINTE MARIE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Sault Sainte Marie

... head of the first rapid of the St. Lawrence, therefore, the control of the water was the decisive factor in the general military situation. Both on the upper lakes, where water communication from Sault Sainte Marie to Niagara was unbroken, and on Ontario, separated from the others by the falls of Niagara, the British had at the outset a slight superiority, but not beyond the power of the United States to overtake and outpass. Throughout the rapids, to Montreal, military conditions resembled those ...

— Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 - Volume 1 • Alfred Thayer Mahan