on dry ground. Relieved from the entanglement about our feet, we soon found ourselves ascending an elevation of the drift stratum, consisting of oceanic sand, with boulders. On the side of this eminence we enjoyed our first onwaybee. The day had developed itself clear and warm, and glad indeed were we to find the chief had put down his canoe, and by the time we reached had lit his pipe. The second onway bee brought us to the summit of this elevation; the third to the side of a ridge beyond it; the fourth to another summit; in fine, we found ourselves crossing a succession of ridges and depressions, which seemed to have owed their original outlines to the tumultuous waves of some mighty ocean, which had once had the mastery over the highlands. Trail there was often none. The day being clear, the chief, however, held his course truly, and when he was turned out of it by some defile, or thicket, or bog, he again found his line at the earliest possible point. In one of the depressions, we crossed a little lake in the canoes; in another, we followed the guide on foot, through and along the border of a shallow lake, to avoid the density of the thickets.

Ripe strawberries were brought to me at one of our onway bees. I observed the diminutive rebus nutkanus on low grounds. The common falco was noticed, and the Indians remarked tracks of the deer, not, however, of very recent date. The forest growth is small, by far the most common species being the scrubby pinus banksianus, exhibiting its parasitic moss. The elevated parts of the route were sufficiently open, with often steep ascents. Over these sienite and granite, quartz and sandstone boulders were scattered. Every step we made in crossing these sandy and diluvial elevations, seemed to inspire renewed ardor in completing the traverse. The guide had called the distance, as we computed it, about six, or six and a half miles. We had been four hours upon it, now clambering up steeps, and now brushing through thickets, when he told us we were ascending the last elevation, and I kept close to his heels, soon outwent him on the trail, and got the first glimpse of the glittering nymph we had been pursuing. On reaching the summit this wish was gratified. At a depression of perhaps a hundred feet below, cradled among the hills, the lake spread out its elongated volume, presenting a scene of no common picturesqueness and rural

beauty. In a short time I stood on its border, the whole cortege of canoes and pedestrians following; and as each one came he deposited his burden on a little open plat, which constituted the terminus of the Indian trail. In a few moments a little fire threw up its blaze, and the pan of pigieu, or pine pitch, was heated to mend the seams of the bark canoes. When this was done, they were instantly put into the lake, with their appropriate baggage; and the little flotilla of five canoes was soon in motion, passing down one of the most tranquil and pure sheets of water of which it is possible to conceive. There was not a breath of wind. We often rested to behold the scene. It is not a lake overhung by rocks. Not a precipice is in sight, or a stone, save the pebbles and boulders of the drift era, which are scattered on the beach. The waterfowl, whom we disturbed in their seclusion, seemed rather loath to fly up. At one point we observed a deer, standing in the water, and stooping down, apparently to eat moss. The diluvial hills inclosing the basin, at distances of one or two miles, are covered with pines. From these elevations the lands slope gently down to the water's edge, which is fringed with a mixed foliage of deciduous and evergreen species. After passing some few miles down its longest arm, we landed at an island, which appeared to be the only one in the lake. I immediately had my tent pitched, and while the cook exerted his skill to prepare a meal, scrutinized its shores for crustacea, while Dr. Houghton sought to identify its plants. While here, the latter recognized the mycrostylis ophioglossoides, physalis lanceolata, silene antirrhina, and viola pedata. We found the elm, lynn, soft maple, and wild cherry, mingled with the fir species.

An arm of the lake stretches immediately south from this island, which receives a small brook. Lieutenant Allen, who estimates the greatest length of the lake at seven miles, drew the following sketch of its configuration. (See p. 243.)

The latitude of this lake is 47° 13' 35"* The highest grounds passed over by us, in our transit from the Assowa Lake, lie at an elevation of 1,695 feet. The view given of the scene in the first

By the report of Governor Stevens (June, 1854), the selected pass for the contemplated railroad through the St. Mary to the Columbia valley is in 47° 30', where there is but little snow at any time, and rich pasturage for cattle. The phenomena of the climates of our northern latitudes are but little understood.

volume of my Ethnological Researches, p. 146, is taken from a point north of the island, looking into the vista of the south arm of the

Itasca Lake, the source of the Mississippi River, 3,160 miles from the Balize.
A. Mississippi River. B. Route of expedition to the Lake. c. Schoolcraft's

Island.

lake. I inquired of Ozawindib the Indian name of this lake; he replied Omushkös, which is the Chippewa name of the Elk.* Having previously got an inkling of some of their mythological and necromantic notions of the origin and mutations of the country, which permitted the use of a female name for it, I denomi nated it ITASCA.t

*The Canadian French call this animal la Biche, from Biche, a hind.

This myth is further alluded to, in the following stanzas from the Literary World, No. 387:

STANZAS.

L.

Ha! truant of western waters! Thou who hast

So long concealed thy very sources-fitting shy,
Now here, now there-through spreading mazes vast
Thou art, at length, discovered to the eye
In crystal springs, that run, like silver thread,

From out their sandy heights, and glittering lie

Narrative of an Expedition to Itasca Lake. Harpers. 1884. 1 vol. 8vo. p. 307.

The line of discovery of the Mississippi, explored above Cass Lake, taking the east fork from the primary junction, as shown by Mr. Allen's topographical notes, is one hundred and twentythree miles.* This is the shortest and most direct branch. The line by the Itascan or main branch of it is, probably, some twenty or twenty-five miles longer. It is evident, as before intimated, that the river descends from its summit in plateaux. From the pseudo-alpine level of the parent lake, there is a principal and minor rapids, for the former of which the Indians have the appropriate name of Kakabikons, which is a descriptive term for a cascade over rocks or stones. Then the river again deploys itself in a lake and a series of minor lakes on the same level, and this process is repeated, until it finally plunges over the horizontal rocks at St. Anthony's Falls, and displays itself, for the last time, in Lake Pepin. Commencing with the latter lake, it may be observed for the purposes of generalization, and to give definite notions rather of its hydrography than geology, that there are nine plateaux, of which Governor Cass, in 1820, explored six. The other three, beginning at his terminal point, have now been indicated. The heights of these are given, barometrically. The distances travelled are given from time. The annexed diagram of these plateaux, extending to the Pakagama summit, will impress these deductions on the eye.

Within a beauteous basin, fair outspread

Hesperian woodlands of the western sky,

As if, in Indian myths, a truth there could be read,
And these were tears, indeed, by fair Itasca shed.

II.

To bear the sword, on prancing steed arrayed;
To lift the voice admiring Senates own;

To tune the lyre, enraptured muses played;

Or pierce the starry heavens-the blue unknown

These were the aims of many sons of fame,

Who shook the world with glory's golden song.

I sought a moral meed of less acclaim,

In treading lands remote, and mazes long;

And while around aerial voices ring,

I quaff the limpid cup at Mississippi's spring.

H. R. S.

* Mr. Nicollet, who ascended the same fork in 1836, makes the distance twelve