266 NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



and there is no further fear of shallow water. "We held on our 

 way for a distance of fourteen miles below the point of junction, 

 and encamped on the right hand bank at eight o'clock P.M. 

 It had rained copiously during the afternoon, and everything in 

 the shape of kindhng stuif had become so completely saturated 

 with moisture, that it was quite an enterprise in the men to light 

 a camp-fire. Lieut. Allen did not reach our encampment this 

 night, having been misled in Allen's Lake, and, being driven 

 ashore by the tempest, he encamped in that quarter. Presuming 

 him to be in advance, I had pushed on, to a late hour, and 

 encamped under this impression. 



The next morning (20th), we set off from our camp betimes, 

 and, having now a full flowing river, made good speed. The 

 river passes for a dozen or more miles through a willowy low 

 tract, on issuing from which there begins a series of strong rapids. 

 Twenty-four of these rapids were counted, which were called the 

 Metunna Eapids. Lieut. Allen estimates that they occupy thirty 

 miles of the channel of the river. Below these rapids, the river 

 extends to a mean width of three hundred feet. At this locality 

 we were overtaken by Mr. Allen, at about two o'clock in the 

 afternoon, and were thus first apprised of the fact that he had 

 been all the while in our rear instead of in front. 



Twenty miles below the Metunna Eapids, Leaf Eiver flows 

 in from the right, by a mouth of forty yards wide. This stream 

 originates in Leaf Lake, and is navigable sixty miles in the 

 largest craft used by the traders.* The volume of the Crow- Wing 

 Eiver is constantly increased in width and velocity by these 

 accessions, which enabled us fearlessly to make a large day's 

 journey. We encamped together after sunset, on an elevated 

 pine bank, having descended ninety miles. 



The 21st, we were early in motion, the river presenting a broad 

 rushing mass of waters, every way resembling the Mississippi 

 itself. On reaching within twenty miles of its mouth, we passed, 

 on the right bank, the mouth of the Long Prairie Eiver,f a 

 prime tributary flowing from the great Ottertail slope, which has 



* The angle of country above Leaf River, on the Crow-AVing, lias been proposed 

 as a refuge for the Menomonee tribe, of Wisconsin, for whom temporary arrange- 

 ments, at least, are now made, on the head of Fox River, of that State. 



f This river has been assigned as the residence of the Winnebago Indians. It 

 is the present seat of the United States agency, and of the farming and mechanical 

 establishment for that tribe. 



