226 NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



suggestion that an expedition should be organized for visiting 

 remoter regions the next year, and forwarding, at the same time, 

 detailed estimates of the expenditures essential to its efiiciency. 

 These suggestions were approved by the Secretary of War on 

 the 3d of May, 1832, and instructions forwarded to me for organ- 

 izing an expedition to carry the reconnoissance and scrutiny to 

 the tribes on the sources of the Mississippi. A small escort of 

 U. S. infantry was ordered to accompany me, under Lieut. James 

 Allen, U. S. A., who, being a graduate of the West Point Military 

 Academy, undertook the departments of topography and trigo- 

 nometry. I secured the services of Dr. Houghton, as physician 

 and surgeon, and acting botanist and geologist — positions which 

 he had occupied on the prior expedition of 1831. The American 

 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions were invited to 

 send an agent to observe the wants and condition of the Indian 

 tribes in these remote latitudes ; who directed the Eev. Wm. T. 

 Bout well to join me at St. Mary's. I charged myself especially 

 with inquiring into the Indian history and languages, statistics, 

 and general ethnography. 



The expedition left the Sault de Ste. Marie on the 7th of June, 

 taking the route through Lake Superior to Fond du Lac and the 

 St. Louis Eiver, and the Savanna Summit to Sandy Lake, which 

 lies 500 miles above St. Anthony's Falls of the Upper Mississippi. 

 The width of the Mississippi at the outlet of Sandy Lake, by a 

 line stretched across, was found to be 381 feet. At my camp 

 here, a general council was summoned of the lower tribes, who 

 were notified to assemble at the mouth of the River Des Corbeau 

 on the 20th of July ; and a boat with presents and supplies was 

 sent down the Mississippi to await the return of the expedition 

 through that river. Lightened thus of baggage, and having fixed 

 a point of time within which to finish the explorations above, I 

 proceeded up the main channel of the river to, and across the 

 Pakagama Falls, and its wide plateau of savannas, and through 

 the Little and Great Winnipek Lakes, to the Upper Eed Cedar, 

 or Cass Lake, which we entered on the 10th of July. This is a 

 fine lake of transparent water, about eighteen miles in length, 

 with several large bays and islands as denoted in the accompany- 

 ing sketch, which give it an irregular shape. The largest island, 



