far in it that he could not see, but he had to go somewhere. So he, blind 
so far as being able to see anything was concerned, commenced wandering 
about in the woods trying to get to his friends, if possible. He wandered 
about in the woods here and there, now falling over logs, now falling into 
pits, and so on. At last he came to a tree. He felt of it. ‘You are Cedar, 
he addressed it (all things had a mind then and could talk), “show me 
which way to go and give me the direction to the water. You grow by 
the lake.’ 
““Keep on going,’ answered Cedar. 
“So Manabush took two more steps and fell head-foremost into twenty feet 
of water in a big lake. He at once began to flounder about. He swam here 
and there for a considerable time somewhat towards shore, as he was a 
good swimmer. His head, as he swam, brought the caribou head and horns 
to view. The Indians on the shore saw it and supposed it to be a caribou 
swimming. So they set out in their canoes to. attack it. There was quite 
a chase and many arrows were dispatched at the head of the supposed 
beast; but Manabush outswam his pursuers and finally came to shallow 
water. He then stood upright and waded ashore. In his hurry and his not 
being able to see, he fell down over several boulders along the shore. He 
finally fell headlong over a large rock and struck the caribou skull on his 
head on another boulder that laid ahead of him in the direction he fell. 
This rock cracked and broke open the caribou skull and Manabush drew 
forth his head. He was at once recognized and taken to the village and 
feasted. 
“He is our god and lives in the brilliantly colored sunset sky.” The next 
day found me in Indian village of Nett Lake where I took in another grand 
medicine lodge dance scene. similar to the one mentioned above. Towards 
evening I took a canoe and went out to Picture Island and examined the 
chiseled pictures of the long ago. As I was examining the various pictured 
scenes night closed over the land, and before another day I was on my 
way to civilization. But I had enjoyed my trip. 
In Nett lake about a quarter of a mile off shore to the north the Indian 
village of Nett Lake, Koochiching and St. Louis counties, Minnesota (the 
county line runs through the center of the village), is an island of some- 
thing like half an acre in area. Its western and southern slopes are wooded 
with poplar, birch, elm, and some shrubs and some viny species. There is 
also some grass and quite a profusion of flowering plants scattered here and 
there. Its northeastern part has an exposure of bare rocks, pitching into 
the lake on that side. Its central part reaches an elevation of some ten feet 
above the surface of the water of the lake. The island is surrounded by 
rice fields intermingled with cane brakes and flags, except on the south- 
west where the water is too deep for rice to grow. In the ages past this 
island, as well as the surrounding country, was glaciated. At the time of 
the glaciation, the northern sloping rocks on the northeastern part of the 
island were polished to an almost perfect smoothness. 
The rock of this island is of the Koochiching (Couchiching) formation, 
being composed of mica schist and gneiss cut by granite intrusions. The 
