SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river. Ill 



upon which they can place the greatest reliance. We have 

 been led to make some inquiry as to the extent of the re- 

 gion in which wild-rice grows, and we find it to be very 

 great. Mackenzie says, that wild-rice is hardly seen, or 

 does not come to maturity, north of the fiftieth degree of 

 latitude, and, we believe that it does not grow west of the 

 Mississippi below the mouth of the Missouri, or on any 

 part of this river. Its western extremities are probably 

 aliout the sources of the St. Peter; it ranges in latitude 

 from the 31st to the 50th degree, and in longitude from 

 the Atlantic to the 97th degree ; for we were informed, by 

 Gen. Brown, that it had been observed on Black river in the 

 state of New York ; we know that it exists on the Delaware 

 above and below Philadelphia ; and it appears that it is also 

 found in the south-east corner of South Carolina, at a place 

 called from this circumstance, the " Wild-oats Marsh." 

 Gen. Macomb, who has seen this marsh, states the Wild- 

 cats to be the same as the wild-rice of our N. W. territory. 

 Doubtless it is to this plant that Hakluyt alludes when he 

 states that in " Virginia there is a kind of reed which bear- 

 cth a seed almost like unto our rice or wheat and being 

 boiled is good meal." This grain, which probably re- 

 sembles oats more than rice in its appearance, was fit for 

 harvest when we were in the Lake of the Woods, and we 

 were told that the Indians were dispersed in all the small 

 hays collecting it 5 we ate of it frequently on the journey, 

 and found it palatable, though inferior to domestic rice ; 

 it is probable that the grain which we had was not well se- 

 parated from the hull, and from this circumstance was not 

 as good as that which is prepared with more care. 



Although most of the islands in the lake are formed of 

 slaty rock, yet some, as for instance, the Red-rock island, on 

 which observations wore made on the 27th of August, are 



