NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 91 



mit to tlic increased delay, during wliicli we made ourselves as 

 familiar with the neighboring parts of the lake shore as possible. 

 During the time the expedition remained encamped at the port- 

 age, I made a short excursion up the peninsula northeastwardly, 

 accompanied by Captain Douglass, Mr, Trowbridge, and some 

 other persons. The results of this trip are sufficiently compre- 

 hended in what has already been stated respecting the geology 

 and mineralogy of this prominent peninsula. 



On the following morning (27th) the wind proved fair, and 

 the day was one of the finest we had yet encountered on this 

 fretful inland sea. We embarked at half-past four A. M., every 

 heart feeling rejoiced to speed on our course. The prominent 

 headlands, west of this point, are capped, as those on its south- 

 eastern border, with red sandstone. The wind proved full and 

 adequate to bear us on, without endangering our safety, which 

 enabled the steersmen to hold out boldly, from point to point. 

 "We had not proceeded far beyond the cliffs west of the portage, 

 when the dim blue outlines of the Okaug or Porcupine Mountains* 

 burst on our view.f Their prominent outline seemed to stretch 

 on the line of the horizon directly across our track. The atmo- 

 sphere was quite transparent, and they must have been seen at 

 the distance of sixty miles. Captain Douglass thought, from the 

 curve of the earth, that they could not be less than eighteen 

 hundred feet in height. We successively passed the entrance of 

 Little Salmon-Trout, Graverod, Misery, and Firesteel Eivers, at 

 the latter of which a landing was made ; when we again resumed 

 our course, and entered the Ontonagon Eiver, at half-past three 

 in the afternoon, A large body of water enters the lake at the 

 spot, but its mouth is filled up very much by sands. One of 

 those curious refluxes is seen here, of which a prior instance has 

 been noticed, in which its waters, having been impeded and dammed 

 up by gales of wind, react, at their cessation, with unusual force. 

 The name of the Eiver Ontonagon:}: is, indeed, due to these re- 

 fluxes, the prized dish of an Indian female having, agreeably to 

 tradition, been carried out of the river into the lake. 



Captain Douglass made observations for the latitude of the 



* From kaug, a porcupine. 



f For the view of this scene, see Information on the History, Condition, and 

 Prospects of the Indian Tribes, vol. iv. Title iv. 



X From the expression nontonajon, my dish ; and neen, the pronoun mi/. 



