236 KAREATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



The man who had killed it brought the carcass to the banks of 

 the river. The dexterity with which he skinned and cut it up, 

 excited admiration. He gave the moze, which I understood to 

 'mean the hide and feet, to my guide, Ozawindib. Signs of this 

 animal were frequent along the stream. But we were impelled 

 forward by higher objects than hunting. It was, indeed, geo- 

 graphical and scientific facts that we were hunting for. To trace 

 to its source an important river, and to fix the actual point of its 

 origin, furnished the mental stimulus which led us to care but 

 little where we slept or what we ate. 



When the usual hour for breakfast arrived, the banks of the 

 river proved too marshy to land, and we continued on till a 

 quarter past twelve P.M., before a convenient landing could be 

 made. After this recruit to stomach and spirits, the men again 

 pushed forward, threading the stream as it wound about in a 

 savanna, seldom halting more than' a few minutes at a time. 

 Frequently, a shot was fired at the numerous water-fowl, so abund- 

 ant on these waters. Sometimes a small unio or anadonta was 

 picked up from the shores ; occasionally a plant pulled up, for the 

 botanical press. Nowhere was the water found too shallow for 

 our canoes, which were only embarrassed at some points by the 

 density of vegetable tissue. Eain showers were encountered 

 during the whole of the day, the equilibrium of the atmosphere 

 being disturbed by rolling, cumulous clouds, which often poured 

 down their contents with little warning, and without, indeed, 

 driving us from our canoes. For, on these occasions, where a 

 fixed point is to be made, and the showers are not anticipated to 

 be long or heavy, it is better to travel in the rain and submit to 

 the wetting, than to attempt landing. Neither can the meal of 

 dinner be stopped for. At length, at half-past five o'clock in the 

 evening, we came to the base of the highlands of the Itasca or 

 Hauteurs de Terre summit. The flanks of this elevation revealed 

 themselves in a high, naked precipice of the drift and boulder 

 stratum, on the immediate margin of the stream which washed 

 against it. Our pilot, Ozawindib, was at the moment in the rear ; 

 halting a few moments for him to come up, he said that we were 

 within a few hundred yards of the Naiwa rapids, and that the 

 portage around them commenced at this escarpment. We had 

 seen no rock of any species, in place, thus far. 



