NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 233 



flora. The branches of the larches, spruce, and gray pines, were 

 clothed with lichens and floating moss to their very tops, denoting 

 an atmosphere of more than the ordinary humidity. Clumps of 

 gray willows skirted the margin of the stream. 



It was found that the river had made its utmost northing in 

 Queen Anne's Lake. From the exit from that point, the course 

 was nearly due south, and from this moment to our arrival at the 

 ultimate forks, which cannot exceed a mile and a half or two 

 miles, it was evident why the actual source of this celebrated 

 river had so long eluded scrutiny. "We were ascending at every 

 curve so far south^ as to carry the observer out of every old line 

 of travel or commerce in the fur trade (the sole interest here), and 

 into a remote elevated region, which is never visited indeed, ex- 

 cept by Indian hunters, and is never crossed, even by them, to 

 visit the waters of the Eed Eiver — the region in immediate juxta- 

 position north. This semi Alpine plateau, or height of land for 

 which we were now pushing directly, is called in the parlance of 

 the fur trade Hauteurs de Terre. It was evident that we were 

 ascending to this continental plateau by steps, denoted by a series 

 of rapids, presenting step by step, in regular succession, wide- 

 spread areas of flat surface spotted with almost innumerable 

 lakes, small and large, and rice-ponds and lagoons. Thus, after 

 surmounting the step of the Packagama Falls, we enter on a wide 

 and far stretching plateau which embraces the great area of Leech 

 Lake, and its numerous lacustrine beds. This step or plateau 

 may, in the descending order of the Mississippi, be called the fifth 

 plateau, and is, by barometrical observation, 1,856 feet above the 

 Gulf of Mexico. The next, or fourth step, is that of the plateau 

 of Cass Lake, caused chiefly by the lively waters of the Leech 

 Lake, the Upper Eed Cedar, and the Winnepek outlets. The 

 Cass Lake level extends west of this lake to the foot of the 

 Metoswa rapids. This is forty-six feet above the Leech Lake 

 level. The third plateau, on which the Mississippi spreads itself, 

 is that of the Queen Anne summit, which is elevated by the Me- 

 toswa rapids sixty-four feet above the former. "We had now 

 entered on this third plateau, on which we found the river flowing 

 with a just perceptible current, and frequently expanding itself 

 in small lakes. On the first of these, after ascending the left 

 hand, or minor fork, I bestowed the name of Marquette ; and on 



