replies our boatmaster, and presently it is explained to us that 

 the wall is a natural formation. The bottom of the lake is of 

 stone, disposed in strata of various thicknessses. The water 

 in winter freezes clear to the bottom along the shores. When 

 the spring thaws come, the ice rises to the top, bearing masses 

 of stone in its embrace. The wind dashes the ice-cakes upon 

 the beach, where, age after age, they have dropped their bur- 

 den of stones, thus forming a stout barrier along the shore. 

 Then other cakes of ice and other stones, driven by the waves, 

 have pounded away at the barrier, until a smooth perpendicu- 

 lar wall has been produced, looking for all the world like a 

 Cornishman's masonry. 



We thought that wall alone worth a day's journey to see. 

 But what next? Indians in a boat, gathering wild rice! It 

 must be remembered that Leech Lake is surrounded on all 

 sides, save the north, by an Indian reservation, and that here 

 they yet follow many of their primitive methods of life. Wild 

 rice grows abundantly in the more shallow lakes of this region, 

 and affords to the Indians an important food-supply. Pres- 

 ently we land in the vicinity of some Indian dwellings, but 

 find the people uncommunicative, so we soon take to our 

 launch again. 



It was autumn, the season of the most abundant bird life, 

 and as our boat again got in motion, we witnessed considerable 

 flights of wild geese, ducks of several kinds, loone and gulls. 

 A statelier presence, too, we are told, may sometimes be seen 

 there, when 



"On thy fair bosom, silver lake, 



The wild swan spreads his snowy sail, 

 And round his breast the ripples break 

 As down he bears before the gale." 



And now for the "woods primeval." There are yet, in the 

 region surrounding Leech Lake, several tracts of primeval 

 pine forests. It was chiefly to see these that our present trip 

 had been undertaken to renew once more the pleasure ex- 

 perienced in boyhood, of threading the aisles of the solemn 

 pines, walking on their carpet of "needles," and inhaling 

 their aromatic odor. We found that the passing of many 



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