72 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



ground inside of this courtyard is covered -with plank, and a plank 

 road, also enclosed by a palisade, leads up the slope from the river 

 to the gate-way, which is surmounted by a sort of barbican. 



July loth. — There was a dense mist and an easterly wind this 

 morning, much like one of our chilly sea-fogs. This was the first in- 

 stance of fog after sunrise we had met with on the lake, though it was 

 often foggy early in the morning. The air was never colder than the 

 water, so that condensation could take place only when the saturated 

 atmosphere was cooled by the lake, unresisted by the action of the 

 sun, that is, before sunrise. That the air was full of moisture 

 seemed to be shown by the fact that we could often see our breath 

 when the air was by no means cold, the atmosphere being so charged 

 with moisture as to raise the dew point, or degree of temperature at 

 which the vapor becomes visible, unusually high. 



Tlie pitch-pine woods behmd the post had been burnt over, and 

 the trees, though yet standing, were mostly dead, affording food for 

 myriads of wood-beetles, QMonohamus scutellaris,^ whose creaking 

 resounded on all sides. These in their turn were fed upon by the 

 Canada jays, and by two rare species of woodpeckers, (P. arcticiis, 

 and P. hirsutus.') The arcticiis in particular was very abundant 

 and noisy, having a shrill, startling cry. 



The Professor got a number of fishes, among others a brilliant 

 green pickerel, a new species. A sturgeon was caught in the river 

 opposite our tent, in a net belonging to one of the Indians, who dis- 

 patched him after some contest, with a fish-spear. Prof. Agassiz re- 

 quested me to make a sketch of this fish, which was some four or five 

 feet long. This took some time, and meanwhile we observed that all 

 the inhabitants of the lodge to which it belonged were assembled and 

 crouching in a row in front of us. We supposed this to be mere curi- 

 osity, but one of our men happening to come up, discovered that 

 the whole family had been without food all day, and were waiting 

 to eat the fish as soon as we were done with it. We were shock- 

 ed at having committed such a breach of propriety, but the sketch 

 not being finished, we proposed to them to lunch meanwhile on some 

 of our pork and biscuit, to which they readily agreed. 



Jul// l-ith. — Started this morning with a strong head wind. We 

 were obliged to leave behind one of our number, who had been ailing 



