NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 117 



the year, and the avails being sent to Michilimackinac (for this 

 was the head-quarters of the factor whom we had met at Shell- 

 drake River), the probabilities of its being a hunting party were 

 less. We informed them that we were an advance party of an 

 expedition sent out to explore the sources of the Mississippi 

 River, under the personal order of his Excellency Governor Cass, 

 who was urging his way up the St. Louis to the Savanna Portage, 

 through which he intended to descend into Sandy Lake. " 



It was near sunset before we landed at the establishment. We 

 found the trading fort a stockade of squared pine timber, thirteen 

 feet high, and facing an area a hundred feet square, with bastions 

 pierced for musketry at the southeast and northwest angles. 

 There were three or four acres outside of one of the angles, pick- 

 eted in, and devoted to the culture of potatoes. The stockade 

 inclosed two ranges of buildings. This is the post visited by 

 Lieut. Z. Pike, U. S. A., on snow-shoes, and with dog-trains, in 

 the winter of 1806, when it was occapied by the British north- 

 west trading company. As a deep mantle of snow covered the 

 country, it did not permit minute observations on the topography 

 or natural history ; and there have been no explorations since. 

 Pike's chief error was in placing the source of the Mississippi in 

 Turtle Lake — a mistake which is due entirely, it is believed, to 

 the imperfect or false maps furnished him by the chief traders 

 of the time. 



We were received with all the hospitality possible, in the actual 

 state of things, and with every kindness ; and for the first time, 

 since leaving Detroit, we slept in a house. We were informed 

 that we were now within two miles of the Mississippi River, into 

 which the outlet of Sandy Lake emptied itself, and that we were 

 five hundred miles above the Falls of St. Anthony. We had 

 accomplished the transference of position from the head of the 

 basin of Lake Superior, that is, from the foot of the falls of the 

 St. Louis River, in seven days, by a route, too, certainly one of 

 the worst imaginable, and there can be no temerity in supposing 

 that it might be efiected in light canoes in half that time. 



