58 
Schoolcraft was connected with three expeditions to the Mis- 
sissippi, either as principal or assistant. The volumes he wrote 
concerning them abound in references to the natural history of 
the section he traversed, for he was a careful observer. Among 
these the wild rice finds frequent mention, though least in the ac- 
count of the journey to the central Mississippi, since the plant 
did not particularly characterize that region. In the expedition 
of 1832, when he traced the river to Itasca Lake, and subse- 
quently ascended the St. Croix, he speaks there of the latter 
river. ‘‘ Both branches, together with its lower tributaries, and 
their numerous lakes, yield the northern rice plant. The abun- 
dance of the plant has led to the local term of the Folle Avoine 
country, a name by which it is particularly known in the transac- 
tions of the fur-trade.”* In the account of the first expedition, 
when describing the physical characteristics of the Mississippi, 
and of its origin in a region of lakes, he speaks as follows of its 
upper waters: “It pursues its course to the falls of Peckagama, 
a distance of two hundred miles through a low prairie, covered 
with wild rice, rushes, sword-grass and other aquatic plants.’’t 
And in giving what he regards as the most characteristic plant, 
he continues: “ The wild rice (Zizania aquatica), is not found on 
the waters of the Mississippi south of the forty-first degree of 
north latitude, nor the Indian reed or canef{ north of the thirty- 
eighth. These two productions characterize the extremities of 
_ the river.”§ The range is not strictly correct as to area; it is as 
to abundance and use of the plant by the Indians. One extract 
from the remaining volume will show how he looked upon the 
rice of the lower lakes as compared with that of the Fox River, 
Wis., which belongs to Lake Michigan, and that of the Upper 
Mississippi. He came upon it first at the mouth of the Maumee, 
where now is the city of Toledo, and makes this comparison: 
*Narrative of an expedition through the Upper Mississippi to Itaska Lake, 
embracing an exploratory trip through the St. Croix and Borntwood or Brould 
Rivers. New York, 1834, p. 140. 
+ Narrative Journal of Travels through the dil estern Regions of the United 
States, extending from Detroit through the Great Chain of American Lakes to the 
sources of the Mississippi River, etc, in the year 1820. Albany, 1821, Pp. 255. 
tArundinaria macrosperma and var. 
SL. c. p. 259. 
