258 NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



CHAPTER XXYI. 



Geogi'apliical account of Leech Lake — History of its Imlians, the Mukundwas — 

 The expedition proceeds to the source of tlie Crow-Wing River, and descends 

 that stream, in its whole length, to the Jlississippi. 



Leech Lake is a large, deep, and very irregularly-shaped body 

 of water. It cannot be less than twenty miles across its extreme 

 points. I requested the chief to draw its outlines, furnishing a 

 sheet of foolscap. He began by tracing a large ellipsis, and then 

 projecting large points and bays, inwardly and outwardly, with 

 seven or eight islands, and that peculiar feature, the Kapuka 

 Sagotawa, which I apprehend to originate in gigantic springs. 

 The following eccentric figure of the lake is the result. 



This lake has been the seat of the Mukundwa, or Pillagers, 

 from early days. The date of their occupancy is unknown. The 

 French found them here early in the seventeenth century, when 

 they began to push the fur trade from Montreal. They were the 

 advance of the Algonquin group, who, when they had reached 

 the head of Lake Superior, proceeded still towards the west and 

 northwest. Two separate bodies assumed the advance in this 

 migratory movement, one of which went from the north shore, 

 at the old Grand Portage, north-northwest, by the way of the 

 Rainy Lakes, and the other went northwest from Fond du Lac. 

 The former soon earned for themselves the title of Killers, or 

 Kenistenos,* and speak a distinct dialect ; the other, whose 

 language continued to be, with little variations, good Odjibwa, 

 acquired in a short time the name of Takers, or Mukundwa. The 

 Kenistenos advanced, through the Great Lake Winnepeck, and 

 up its inflowing waters, to the Portage du Trait, of the great 

 Churchill or Missi-nepi (much water) River, where they sent up 



* Called by the Fi-ench Crees. 



