OS EXPEDITION TO THE 



bears ; moose are seldom found so far south ; beaver has be- 

 come scarce ; the country is too wet for deer ; and the ab- 

 sence of prairies restricts the buffalo from roving in that 

 direction. The principal subsistence of these Indians, and 

 perhaps of the greater part of the Chippewa nation, is 

 fish and wild rice, of which they collect a great quantity 

 in their numerous marshes, lakes, &c. In the course of this 

 day we observed signs of an igneous action upon some of 

 the rocks ; we had alread)^ remarked the phenomenon on 

 one or more occasion, but the characters were indistinct ; 

 whereas, at one of the portages passed on the 22d of Au- 

 gust, the semi-vitrification at the surface of the fragment 

 of a rock found there, appeared more distinct. The gene- 

 ral character of the country was still, however, a gneiss and 

 granite, which offered many instructive views of veins of 

 the latter rock shooting through the gneiss; they were 

 judged to be, for the most part, of contemporaneous for- 

 mation. 



The river, as we proceeded, lost altogether the usual cha- 

 racters of a stream ; it appeared to be a series of lakes of 

 from one hundred yards to three or four miles in diameter, 

 "which were united by rapids. These lakes were encom- 

 passed by an iron-bound coast, which the current had in- 

 dented into bays. A difference of level of several feet, se- 

 parated these lakes, and gave rise to the rapids ; in one case 

 where the portage did not exceed fifteen yards in length, 

 there was a fall of six feet. In these small lakes nume- 

 rous islands are seen, all resting upon a rocky foundation. 

 On the 23d, after proceeding eight miles, we arrived at 

 the falls, called by the Chippewas Awak'an'e Paw'etik, 

 which has been translated " Slave Fall." It is related that 

 a slave of the Chippewas, having escaped from his master, 

 was travelling down the river with all possible speed in a 



