APPENDIX. 327 



agates and otlier subspecies of the quartz family wliich arc found 

 scattered over the surface. This is, in fact, the origin of that 

 extensive diffusion of these species, wliich is found in the valley 

 of the Upper Mississippi, as at Lake Pepin, &c., and which 

 has even been traced, in small pieces, as low as St. Louis and 

 llerculaneum in Missouri.* We may conclude that the ancient 

 sandstones, slates, and rubblestone, and amygdaloids, of which 

 traces still remain, were swept from the summit of the Mississippi 

 by those ancient floods which appear to have diffused the boulder 

 drift from the North. 



Sandy Lake. — The first view of this body of water was ob- 

 tained from one of those eminences situated at the influx of the 

 west Savanna River. 



This lake is bounded, on its western borders, by the delta of the 

 Mississippi ; its outlet is about two miles in length. "We here 

 first beheld the object of our search. The soil on its banks is of 

 the richest alluvial character. From this point, dense forests and 

 a moderately elevated soil, varying from three or four to fifteen 

 feet, confined the view, on either side, during more than two days' 

 march. On the third day after leaving Sandy Lake, at an early 

 hour, Vv'e reached the Falls of Pakagama. Here the rock strata 

 show themselves for the first time on the Mississippi, in a promi- 

 nent ledge of quartz rock of a gray color. Through this forma- 

 tion the Mississippi, here narrowed to less than half its width, 

 forces a passage. The fall of its level in about fifty rods may be 

 sixteen or eighteen feet. There is no cascade or leap, properly so 

 called, but a foaming channel of extraordinary velocity, which it 

 is alike impossible to ascend or descend with any species of water 

 craft. It lies in the shape of an elbow. We made the portage 

 on the north side. 



Pakagama Summit, — The observer, when he has surmounted 

 the summit, immediately enters on a theatre of savannas, level to 

 the eye, and elevated but little above the water, Yistas of grass, 

 reeds, and aquatic plants spread in every direction. On these 

 grassy plains the river winds about, doubling and redoubling on 

 itself, and increasing its cord of distance in a ratio which, by the 

 most moderate computation, would seem extravagant. On those 



* Vide View of the leml mines. 



