28 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



Pemidji-gomagjOT Pemidji Lake, sometimes called Lake Tra- 

 vels. So far, the Missisippi has received the contribution of 

 ten rivers ; its wide and flattened bed, completely covered 

 by water, presents a lake (or rather pool) from forty to fifty 

 miles square, clogged up with aquatic plants, with intermedi- 

 ary spaces of clear water, looking like channels ; but among 

 which it is difficult to discover the true course of the river, 

 for, at certain seasons of the year, the whole is nothing more 

 than a marshy prairie. 



''^PemidjiLake has not received from geographers the atten- 

 tion that it merits ; so that I cannot resist the temptation of 

 describing the impression it made upon me. It is a magnifi- 

 cent sheet of water, from ten to twelve miles long, with a 

 breadth of from four to five, perfectly clear, and without 

 islands ; the eye having a free command over gently-swelling 

 hills, receding, and thickly Avooded ; and it is said that no 

 other river but the Missisippi empties into it, save an obscure 

 rivulet at its northern extremity. I must confess that, in 

 crossing it, I felt melancholy that, even with my artificial 

 optics, I could not descry any evidences of civilisation — no 

 cottage of the agriculturist ; no meadows, no herds, nor any 

 of those cultivated fields whose mellow shades contrast so 

 gracefully with the foliage of the forest. The piercing, soli- 

 tary cry of the Northern diver — the precursor, according to 

 the Indian tradition, of high winds and hurricanes — was the 

 only evidence of living nature that presented itself." — Nic, 

 pp. 60, 61. 



From Sandy Lake, in about latitude 46^ 45^, to Crow-wing 

 River, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles, the 

 Missisippi may be navigated by small steamboats. In high 

 stages of water, they may pass over the intervening rapids to 

 the Kabikons, or Little Falls, one hundred miles further. 

 Mr. Nicollet further says : — 



