228 NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



provisions, and baggage, leaving the camp in charge of Louis 

 Default, a trusty man, of the metif class, well acquainted with the 

 Indian language, who had been a guide in 1820, and to make 

 explorations, in the lightest class of Indian canoes, provisioned 

 for an elite movement. Lieutenant Allen also determined to en- 

 camp the United States soldiers of the party, leaving them under 

 a sergeant. To give each gentleman of the party an opportunity 

 of joining in this movement, it was necessary to procure five 

 hunting canoes, which were of no greater capacity than to bear 

 one sitter* and two paddlers. 



Ozawindib and his companions produced these canoes at an 

 early hour on the following morning, and having, at m^y request, 

 drawn a map of the route, embarked himself as the guide to the 

 party. "We left the island before it was yet daylight. The party 

 now consisted of sixteen persons, including three Chippewas and 

 eight engagees. The Mississippi enters this lake through a sa- 

 vanna, on its extreme western borders, after performing one of 

 those evolutions through meadow lands so common to its lower 

 latitudes ; after reaching to within fifty yards of the lake, it winds 

 about, through a natural meadow, for many miles before its de- 

 bouchure. The chief, who was familiar with this feature, carried 

 me to a fifty yards portage, by which we saved some miles of 

 paddling. We reached the Mississippi at a place where it ex- 

 pands into an elongated lake, for which I heard no name, and 

 which I called Lake Andrusia.f After passing through this, 

 the river appeared very much in size and volume as it had on 

 the outlet below Cass Lake. It winds its way through the same 

 species of natural meadows, during which there is but little 

 current. On ascending this channel but a short distance, the 

 river is found to display itself in a second lake — which the natives 

 call Pamitascodiacij: — which, in general appearance and character, 

 may be deemed the twin of Lake Andrusia. On its upper mar- 

 gin, a tract of prairie land appears, of a sandy character, bearing 



* The term "sitter," which is a northwest phrase in common use, is equivalent 

 to the Canadian word hoiirgoise. 



■j- From Andrew Jackson, at that time President of the United States. 



\ This word appears to be a derivation from pemidj, across, muscoda, a jnairie, 

 and ackee, land. 



