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flags were hoisted; the military canoes paid all possible devotion to Mars. There were five canoes. I led the advance, the men striking up one of their liveliest songs-which by the way was some rural ditty of love and adventure of the age of Louis XIV.-and we landed in front of the village with a flourish of air (purely a matter of ceremony) as if the Grand Mogul were coming, and they would be swallowed up. I immediately sent to the chiefs, to point out the best place for encamping, which they did.

COUNCIL AT RICE LAKE.-As soon as my tent was pitched, Neenaba, Wabezhais, and their followers, to the number of twentytwo persons, visited me, were received with a shake of the hand and a “bon-jour," and presented with tobacco. Notice was immediately given that I would meet them in council at the firing of signal guns by the military. They attended accordingly. This council was preliminary, as I intended to halt here for a couple of days, in order to put new bottoms to my canoes. I wished, also, some geographical and other information from them, prior to my final council. Neenaba agreed to draw a map of the lower part of the river, &c., denoting the lines drawn by the treaty of Prairie du Chien, and the sites of the saw-mills erected, without leave, by squatters.

NATIVE SPEECHES.-Next day (8th) the final council was held, at the usual signal. Wabezhais and Neenaba were the principal speakers. They both disclaimed setting themselves up against the authority or wishes of the United States. They knew the lines, and meant to keep them. But they were on the frontiers. The Sioux came out against them. They came up the river. They had last year killed a man and his two sons in a canoe, on the opposite banks of Rice Lake, where they lay concealed. Left to protect themselves, they had no choice. They must strike, or die. Their fathers had left them councils, which, although young and foolish, they must respect. They did not disregard the voice of the President. They were glad to listen to it. They were pleased that he had honored them with this visit, and this advice. This is the substance of both speeches.

Neenaba complained that the lumbermen had built mills on their land, and cut pine logs, without right. That the Indians got no

thing but civil treatment, when they went to the mills, and tobacco. This young chief appears to have drawn a temporary notoriety upon himself by his position in the late war party, which is, to some extent, fallacious. His modesty is, however, a recommendation. I proposed to have invested him with a second class medal and flag; but he brought them to me again, laying them down, and saying that he perceived that it would produce dissatisfaction and discord in his tribe; and that they were not necessary to insure his good influence and friendship for the United States. On consultation with the band, these marks of authority were finally awarded to WABEZHAIS. Presents, including the last of my dry goods, were then distributed. Among them, was a small piece of fine scarlet cloth, but too little to make a present to each. The divider of the goods, which were given in camp, who was Indian, when he came to this tore it into small strips, so as to make a head-band or baldric for each. The utmost exactness of division was observed in everything.

ORIFICES FOR TREADING OUT RICE.-I saw artificial orifices in the ground near our encampment. On inquiry, I learned that these were used for treading out the wild rice. A skin is put in these holes which are filled with ears. A man then treads out the grain. This appears to be the only part of rice making that is performed by the men. The women gather, dry, and winnow it.

A LIVE BEAVER.-The Indians brought into camp one morning, while I was at Rice Lake, a young beaver; an animal more completely amphibious, it would be difficult to find. The head and front part of the body resemble the muskrat. The fore legs are short, and have five toes. The hind legs are long, stout, and webfooted. The spine projects back in a thick mass, and terminates

spatula-shaped tail, naked and scale-form. The animal is young, and was taken about ten days ago. Previously to being brought in, it had been taken out in a canoe into the lake, and immersed. It appeared to be cold, and shivered slightly. Its hair was saturated with water, and it made use of its fore paws in attempts to express the water, sometimes like a cat, and at others, like a squirrel. It sat up, like the latter, on its hind legs, and ate bread in the manner of a squirrel. In this position

it gave some idea of the kangaroo. Its color was a black body, brownish on the cheeks and under the body. The eye small and not very brilliant. Its cry is not unlike that of a young child. The owner said, it would eat rice and fish. It was perfectly tamed in this short time, and would run to its owner.

NOTICES OF NATURAL HISTORY.-I took out of the bed of the river, in the descent below Red Cedar Lake, a greenish substance attached to stone, having an animal organization resembling the sponge. In our descent, the men caught, and killed with their poles, a proteus. The wild rice, which fills this part of the river, is monacious. The river abounds in muscles, among which the species of unios is common, but not of large size, so far as we observed. The forest growth improves about this point, and denotes a better soil and climate. Pine species are still present, but have become more mixed with hard wood, and what the French canoe-men denominate "Bois Franc."

VALUE OF THE FOLLEAVOINE FORK.-The name by which this tributary of the Chippewa is called, on the Lake Superior side, namely, Red Cedar, is quite inappropriate. Above Rice Lake it is characterized by the wild rice plant, and the name of Folleavoine, which we found in use on the Mississippi border, better expresses its character. The lower part of the stream appears to be not only more plenteous in the class of resources on which an Indian populalation rely, but far better adapted to the purposes of agriculture, grazing, and hydraulics.

MEDAL OF THE THIRD PRESIDENT.-During the assemblages at Rice Lake, I observed a lad called Ogeima Geezhick, or Chief Day, having a Jefferson medal around his neck. I called him and his father, and, while inquiring its history, put a new ribbon to it. It was probably given by the late Col. Bolvin, Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, to the chief called Peesh-a-Peevely, of Ottawa Lake. The latter died at his village, an old man, last winter. He gave it to a young man who was killed by the Sioux. His brother having a boy named after him, namely, Ogeima Geezhick, gave it to him.

WAR-DANCE. This ceremony, together with what is called strik

ing the post, was performed during our stay. The warriors, arrayed for war, danced in a circle to the music of their drum and rattles. After making a fixed number of revolutions, they stopped simultaneously and uttered the sharp war yell. A man then stepped out, and, raising his club and striking a pole in the centre, related a personal exploit in war. The dance was then resumed, and terminated in like manner by yells, when another warrior related his exploits. This was repeated as long as there were exploits to tell. One of the warriors had seven feathers in his head, denoting that he had marched seven times against the enemy. Another had two. One of the young men asked for Lieut. Clary's sword, and danced with it in the circle.

An old woman, sitting in a ring of women on the left, when the dancing and drumming had reached its height, could not restrain her feelings. She rose up, and, seizing a war-club which one of the young men gallantly offered, joined the dance. As soon as they paused, and gave the war-whoop, she stepped forward and shook her club towards the Sioux lines, and related that a war party of Chippewas had gone to the Warwater River, and killed a Sioux, and when they returned they threw the scalp at her feet. A very old, deaf, and gray-headed man, tottering with age, also stepped out to tell the exploits of his youth, on the war path.

Among the dancers, I noticed a man with a British medal. It was the medal of the late Chief Peesh-a-Peevely, and had probably been given him while the British held the supremacy in the country. I explained to him that it was a symbol of nationality, which it was now improper to display as such. That I would recognize the personal authority of it, by exchanging for it an American silver medal of equal size.

ORNITHOLOGY.-While at Rice Lake, I heard, for the first time, the meadow-lark, and should judge it a favorite place for birds obtaining their food. The thirteen striped squirrel is also common. A quantity of the fresh-water shells of the lake were, at my request, brought in by the Indian girls. There was very little variety. Most of them were unios of a small size.

I found the entire population to be one hundred and forty-two souls, of whom eleven were absent.

One of the last acts of Neenaba was to present a pipe and speech,

to be forwarded to the President, to request him to use his power to prevent the Sioux from crossing the lines. Having now finished repairing my canoes, I embarked on the ninth, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and went down the river four hours and a half, probably about eighteen miles, and encamped. Encountered four Indians, from whom we obtained some pieces of venison. During the night wolves set up their howls near our camp, a sure sign that we were in a deer country.

A PRAIRIE COUNTRY.-The next morning (10th Aug.) we embarked at five, and remained in our canoes till ten A. M., when we landed for breakfast. We had now entered a prairie country, of a pleasing and picturesque aspect. We observed a red deer during the morning; we passed many hunting encampments of the Indians, and the horns and bones of slaughtered deers, and other evidences of our being in a valuable game country. These signs continued and increased after breakfast. The river had now increased in volume, so as to allow a free navigation, and the men could venture to put out their strength in following down a current, always strong, and often rapid. We were passing a country of sylvan attractions, of great fertility, and abounding in deer, elk, and other animals. We also saw a mink, and a flock of brant. Mr. Clary shot a turkey-buzzard, the first intimation that we had reached within the range of that bird. As evening approached we saw a raccoon on a fallen bank. We came at nightfall to the Kakabika Falls, carried our baggage across the portage, and encamped at the western end, ready to embark in the morning, having descended the river, by estimation, seventy miles. These falls are over sandstone, a rock which has shown itself at all the rapids below Rice Lake.

SAW MILLS.-The next morning (11th) we embarked at six o'clock, and, after descending strong and rapid waters for a distance of about fifteen miles, reached the site of a saw mill. A Mr. Wallace, who with ten men was in charge of it, and was engaged in reconstructing a dam that had been carried off by the last spring freshet, represented Messrs. Rolette and Lockwood of Prairie du Chien. Another mill, he said, was constructed on a creek just below, and out of sight.

I asked Mr. Wallace where the lines between the Sioux and

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