NAEEATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 235 



the tea-kettle, and our cook's art iu spitting ducks, the night 

 here, in a gloomy and damp thicket, just elevated above the line 

 of the river flags, and quite in the range of the frogs and lizards, 

 proved to be one of the most dreary and forlorn. It was felt that 

 we were no longer on the open Mississippi, but were winding up 

 a close and very serpentine tributary, nowhere over thirty feet 

 wide, which unfolded itself in a savanna, or bog, bordered closely 

 with lagoons and rice ponds. Indian sagacity, it was clear, had 

 led Ozawindib up this tributary as the best, shortest, and easiest 

 possible way of reaching to, and surmounting the Itasca plateau, 

 but it required a perpetual use of hand, foot, paddle, and pole ; nor 

 was there a gleam of satisfaction to be found in anything but the 

 most intense onward exertion. Besides, I had agreed to meet the 

 Indians at the mouth of the Crow-Wing Eiver on the 2-4th of 

 July, and that engagement must be fulfilled. 



At five o'clock the next morning (12th) we were on our feet, 

 and resumed the ascent. The day was rainy and disagreeable. 

 There was little strength of current, but quite a sufficient depth 

 of water; the stream was excessively tortuous. Owing to the 

 sudden bends, we often frightened up the same flocks of brant, ducks, 

 and teals again and again, who did not appear to have been in 

 times past much subjected to these intrusions. The flora of this 

 valley appeared unfavorable. Dr. Houghton has reported a new 

 species of malva and some five or six other species or varieties 

 from the general region, but these have not, I think, been elabo- 

 rately described. The localities of the known species of fauna 

 might be marked by the occurrence, on this fork, of the cervus 

 virginianus, which had not been seen after leaving the Sandy 

 Lake summit till after getting above the primary forks, which 

 flow from the south and west. 



We toiled all day without intermission from daybreak till dark. 

 The banks of the river are fringed with a species of coarse marsh- 

 land grass. Clumps of willows fringe the stream. Eush and 

 reed occupy spots favorable to their growth. The forest exhibits 

 the larch, pine, and tamarack. Moss attaches itself to everything. 

 Water -fowls seem alone to exult in their seclusion. After we 

 had proceeded for an hour above Lake Plantagenet, an Indian in 

 the advance canoe fired at and killed a deer. Although fairly 

 shot, the animal ran several hundred yards. It then fell dead. 



