328 APPENDIX. 



plateaux, and the small rivers and lakes connected with them, the 

 wild rice reaches the highest state of perfection. 



Our men toiled with their paddles till the third day, through 

 this unparalleled maze of water and plants, when we reached the 

 summit of the Upper Bed Cedar or Cass Lake, where we en- 

 camped. In this distance no rock strata appeared, nor any forma- 

 tion other than a jutting ridge of sand, or an alluvial plain. 

 Plateau on plateau had, indeed, carried us from one level or basin 

 to another, like a pair of steps, till we had reached our extreme 

 height. 



Cass Lake Basin". — From estimates made, this lake is shown 

 to lie at thirteen hundred and thirty feet above the Atlantic* 

 This is a small elevation, when we consider it as lying on the 

 southern flank of the transverse formation which forms the con- 

 necting link with the Rocky Mountains. A rise or a sub- 

 sidence of this part of the continent to this amount, would 

 throw the Hudson's Bay and Arctic waters down the Mississippi 

 valley. The scenery of its coasts is in part arenaceous plains, 

 and in part arable land, yielding corn to the Indians. 



SoUECES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. — In order to understand the 

 geology of this region, it is necessary to premise, that the St. 

 Lawrence, the Hudson's Bay, and the Mexican Gulf waters are 

 separated by a ridge or watershed of diluvial hills, called the 

 Hauteur des Terres, which begins immediately west of the basin 

 of the Rainy Lakes and Rainy Lake River. This high ground 

 subtends the utmost sources of the Mississippi, and reaches to the 

 summit of Ottertail Lake, where it divides the tributaries of the 

 Red River of Lake Winnepec from those of the Des Corbeau, or 

 Great Crow-Wing River. 



Within this basin, which circumscribes a sweep of several 

 hundred miles, there appears to have been deposited, upon the 

 trap and primary rocks which form its nucleus, a sedimentary 

 argillaceous deposit, capable of containing water. Upon this, the 

 sand and pebble drift reposes in strata of unequal thickness, and 

 the sand is often developed in ridges and plains, bearing species 

 of the pine. The effect has been, that the immense amount of 



* Agreeable to barometric observations made in 1836, by Mr. Nicollet, its true 

 altitude is found to be 1,402 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. Its latitude, by the 

 game authority, is 47° 25^ 23". 



