NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 229 



scattered pines. This appears to be the particular feature alluded 

 to by tlie Indian name. About four miles above this lake, and 

 say fifteen from Cass Lake, the rapids commence. It Avas eight 

 o'clock A. M. when we reached this point, and we had then been, 

 four hours in our canoes from the Andriisia portage. These 

 rapids soon proved themselves to be formidable. Boulders of 

 the geological drift period are frequently encountered in ascend- 

 ing them, and the river spreads itself over so considerable a sur- 

 face that it became necessary for the bowsmen and steersmen to 

 get out into the shallows and lead up the canoes. These canoes 

 were but of two fathoms length, drew but a few inches water, and 

 would not bear more than three persons. It was ten o'clock when 

 we landed, on a dry opening on the right shore, to boil our kettle, 

 and prepare breakfast. So dry, indeed, was the vegetation here, 

 that the camp-fire spread in the grass and leaves, and it required 

 some activity in the men to prevent its burning the baggage. 

 There were ten of these rapids encountered before we reached 

 the summit, or plateau, of Lake Pemidjegumaug, which is the 

 Lac Traverse of the French, These were called the Metoswa 

 rapids, from the Indian numeral for ten. 



The term Lac Traverse has been repeated several times by the 

 Canadian French, in our northwestern geography ; being promi- 

 nently known in the Upper Mississippi for a handsome sheet of 

 water, connecting the St. Peter's, or Minnesota River, with Red 

 River of Hudson's Bay ; and as the Indian name, thougli very 

 graphic, is not euphonious, I named it Queen Anne's Lake.'" It 

 is a clear and beautiful sheet of water, twelve miles in length, 

 from east to west, and six or seven broad, with an open forest of 

 hard wood. It is distant forty-five miles from Cass Lake, and 

 lies at an elevation of fifty-four feet above that lake, and of 1,456 

 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. The latitude is 47° 28' W. 

 The peculiarity recognized by the Indian name of Pemidjegum- 

 aug, or Crosswater, is found to consist in the entrance of the 

 Mississippi into its extreme south end, and its passage through 

 or across part of it, at a short distance from the point of entrance. 

 Another feature of its topography consists of its connection, by 



* In allusion to an interesting period of Britislx history, in its influences on 

 America, 



