84 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



against time. I did not time their stroke, but the rate must have 

 been upwards of sixty dips per minute, for their common oar-stroke 

 was forty-five per minute, and this seemed twice as quick. 



A mile or two up, the river is narrow and the forest closes again 

 upon its banks, which are somewhat higher ; the trees larger than 

 any we had seen on the lake ; at first mostly aspens, afterwards 

 spruce and elm. Five or six miles up, the banks are often thirty or 

 forty feet high, and in some places broken away, showing horizontal 

 layers of yellow, sandy loam, occasionally interrupted by sand and 

 by narrow beds of clay. The margin of the river filled with sagittaria 

 and other water-plants. Mr. M. says ducks and geese are very 

 abundant here in spring and fall. At present there were only a few 

 creek-sheldrakes. 



The course of the river is very winding, and our men cut off half 

 a mile or more in one place, by making a portage through the woods 

 from one bend to another. They carried a surprising weight of lug- 

 gage, suspended on the back by a portage strap, a broad thong of 

 leather passed across the forehead. 



For the distance of eleven miles the current is very sluggish. 

 Then we came to rapids, where it was thought advisable to get out 

 and make our way by land, leaving the men to pole the canoes up. 

 We disembarked on a piece of marshy bottom-land, covered with a 

 fine growth of elms. After proceeding some distance through rank 

 grass and undergrowth, we came to the bluff, which was a very stiff 

 fifteen minutes' climb. This brought us on to a table-land covered 

 principally with scrub-pine (P. Banksiana^) much like our com- 

 mon pitch-pine, but more pyramidal in shape, with shorter leaves and 

 curious contorted cones. This table-land was dry, sandy, and thinly 

 covered with wood, with wide openings covered only by scanty, with- 

 ered grass. The fire had been through in several places, and 

 here woodpeckers and black flies abounded. This seems, from what 

 we heard, to be the general character of the interior, except on the 

 water-courses. 



A fast walk of two hours and a half brought us to the river, 

 where we waited about an hour before the boats made their appear- 

 ance. All of them had touched repeatedly, and received some 

 scratches ; one had been obliged to put in to gum up a leak. We 



