NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 239 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



The Expedition having reacheJ the source of the east fork in Assa-vv.a Lake, crosses 

 the highlands of the Hauteurs de Terre to the source of the main or west fork in 

 Itasca Lake. 



The next morning (13tb) a dense fog prevailed. We had 

 found the atmosphere warm, but charged with water and vapors, 

 which frequently condensed into showers. The evenings and 

 nights were, however, cool, at the precise time of the earth 

 hiding the sun's disk. It was five o'clock before we could discern 

 objects with sufficient distinctness to venture to embark. We 

 found the channel of the river strikingly diminished on getting 

 above the Naiwa. Its width is that of a mere brook, running in 

 a valley half a mile wide. The water is still and pond-like, the 

 margin being encroached on by aquatic plants. It presents some 

 areas of the zizania palustris, and appeared to be the favorite re- 

 sort for several species of duck, who were continually disturbed 

 by our progress. After diligently ascending an hour and a half, 

 or about eight miles, the stream almost imperceptibly began to 

 open into a lake, which the Indians called Assawa, or Perch Lake. 

 Its borders are fringed with the monomin of the Chippewas, or 

 wild rice, and several of the liliaceous water plants. The water 

 is transparent when dipped up and viewed by the light, but from 

 the falling of leaves and other carbonaceous fibre to the bottom, 

 it reflects a sombre hue. We were just twenty minutes in passing 

 through it, denoting a length of perhaps two miles, and a width of 

 half a mile. Our course through it was directly south. Ozawindib, 

 who took the advance, entered an inlet, but had not ascended it 

 far, when he rested on his paddles, and exclaimed o-omali mehun- 

 nah, here is the path, or portage. We had, in fact, traced 'this 

 branch of the river into its utmost sources. It was seven o'clock 

 in the morning. We were surrounded by what the natives term 



