NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 187 



with difficulty. It was now the 19th of August, and the waters 

 had reached their lowest summer stage. The entire distance of 

 twelve miles from the Konamik to the Kakala fall may be deemed 

 to be, at this season, a continuous rapid. Our barge was aban- 

 doned on the rapids. While the men toiled in these rapids to 

 get down their canoes, it was found rather a privilege to walk, 

 for it gave a more ample opportunity to examine the mineral 

 structure and productions of the country. 



It was high noon when we reached the rapids of the Kakala. 

 This is a formidable rapid, at which the river rushes with furious 

 velocity down a rocky bed, which it seems impossible boats or 

 canoes should ever safely descend. It demands a portage to be 

 made, under all circumstances, the water sweeping round a curve 

 or bow, of which the portage path is the string. This is the 

 apparent meaning of the term, in the Indian tongue; but it is dis- 

 guised by early orthography, in which the letter I has taken the 

 place of 71, and the syllable in of cm. The term Icakina is the 

 ancient French form of the Indian transitive-adjective aZZ, inclu- 

 sive, entirely. There is another root for the term in hakiwa, 

 which is the ordinary term for a portage, or walk across a point 

 of land, which is rendered local by the usual inflection, o-nong. 



We found the portage path to be a well-beaten wagon road 

 across a level fertile plain, which appeared to have been in cul- 

 tivation from the earliest Indian period. Probably it had been a 

 locality for the tribes, where they raised their favorite maize, long 

 before the French first reached the waters of Green Bay. Evi- 

 dence of such antiquity in the plain of Kakala appeared in an 

 ancient cemetery of a circular shape, situated on one side of the 

 road, on a comparatively large surface, which had reached the 

 height of some eight or ten feet, by the mere accumulation of 

 graves. This has all the appearance of a sepulchral mound, in 

 the slow process of construction ; for, on viewing it, I found a 

 recent grave. We passed, on this plain, a Winnebago village of 

 ten or twelve lodges, embracing two hundred souls. The portage 

 is continued just one mile. Embarking again, at this point, we 

 proceeded down the river, and encamped eight miles below this 

 point, having, with every exertion, made but twenty miles this 

 day. 



The interest which had been excited by the conchology of the 



