108 NAKRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



been formed of pebbles and sands, driven up by the tempests, at 

 the distance of a mile or two, outside of the original shore. The 

 result is shown by an elongated piece of water, resembling a lake, 

 which receives at the north, the Eiver St. Louis, and the Agoche, 

 or Lefthand Kiver, at its south extremity. 



About three miles above the mouth of the river, we landed at 

 a Chippewa village. "While exchanging the usual salutations 

 with them, we noticed the children of an African, who had inter- 

 married with this tribe. These children were the third in descent 

 from Bongo, a freed man of a former British commanding officer 

 at the Island of Michilimackinac. They possessed as black skins 

 as the father, a fact which may be accounted for by observing, 

 what I afterwards learned, that the marriages were, in the case of 

 the grandfather and father, with the pure Indian, and not with 

 Africano-Algonquin blood ; so that there had been no direct ad- 

 vance in the genealogical line. 



The St, Louis Eiver discharges a large volume of water, and 

 is destined hereafter to be a port of entry for the lake shipping, 

 but at present it has shoals of sand at its mouth which would 

 bar the entrance of large vessels. Proceeding up the river, we 

 found it very serpentine, and abounding in aquatic plants, por- 

 tions of it yielding the wild rice. At the computed distance of 

 twenty-four miles, we reached the establishment of the American 

 Fur Company. It was seven o'clock when we came to the place, 

 where we encamped. 



Lake Superior is called by the Chippewas a sea. 



The superficial area of the lake has been computed by Mr. 

 Darby at a little under nine hundred billions of feet, and its depth 

 at nine hundred feet. By the latest surveys and estimate, the 

 altitude of Lake Superior above tide water, is about six hundred 

 and forty feet.* Allowing Mr. Darby's computation to be correct, 

 this would sink its bed far below the surface of the Atlantic. 



This lake has been the theatre of very extensive volcanic 

 action. Vast dykes of trap traverse its northern shores. One 

 of the principal of these has apparently extended across its bed, 

 from northeast to southwest, to the long peninsula of Keweena, 

 producing at the same time, the elevated range of the Okaug 



* Vide Appendix. 



