126 NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



CHAPTER X. 



Proceed up the Mississippi River — Its velocity and character — Swan River — Trout 

 River, and Mushcoda or Prairie River- — Rapids ascended — Reach, and make a 

 portage around Pakagama Falls — Enter a vast lacustrine region — Its character 

 and productions, vegetable and animal — Tortuous channel— Vermilion and Deer 

 Rivers — Leech Lake branch — Lake Winnipek — Ascent of the river to Upper Red 

 Cedar, or Cass Lake — Physical character of the Mississippi River. 



Our encampment was near the mouth of Swan River, a con- 

 siderable stream, originating in Swan Lake, near the head of the 

 St. Louis River of Lake Superior. 



We had been pushing our way, daily, up to our arrival at 

 Sandy Lake ; but the word, from leaving that point, was, em- 

 phatically, push — and we can hardly be said to have taken proper 

 time to eat or sleep. There was a shower of rain, during the 

 night ; it ceased at four o'clock, and we again embarked at five, 

 in a cloudy and misty morning, and it continued cloudy all day. 

 The current of the Mississippi continues to be strong ; its velo- 

 city, during the ascent of this day, was computed by Capt. 

 Douglass at two and a half miles per hour. We passed a rapid 

 about six miles below Trout River, where there is a computed 

 descent of three feet in a hundred and fifty yards. A few miles 

 before reaching Trout River, we passed through a forest of dead 

 pines, occupying ridges of sand, through which the river has cut 

 its way. Four miles above the entrance of Trout River, we 

 passed the mouth of a considerable stream, called by the Chip- 

 pewas Mushkoda, or Prairie River, and encamped about five 

 hundred yards above its mouth on a high sandy elevation. It 

 was now eight o'clock P. M. We had ascended the river fifty- 

 one miles, having been fifteen hours in our canoes, and we here 

 first took our breakfast. This severity of fasting was, I think, 

 quite unintentional, the mess-basket being in the other canoe, 



