PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 2^ 



" Over the whole route which I traversed after leaving 

 Crow-wing River, the country has a different aspect from that 

 which the banks of the Missisippi above the Falls of St. 

 Anthony present. The forests are denser and more varied ; 

 the soil, which is alternately sandy, gravelly, clayey, and 

 loamy, is, generally speaking, lighter, excepting on the shores 

 of some of the larger lakes. The uplands are covered with 

 white and yellow pines, spruce and birch ; and the wet, low 

 lands, by the iVmerican larch and the willow. On the slopes 

 of sandy hills, the American aspen, the canoe-birch, with 

 a species of birch of dwarfish growth, the alder, and wild rose, 

 extend to the very margin of the river. On the borders of the 

 larger lakes, where the soil is generally better, we find the 

 sugar-maple, the black and bur oaks (also named over-cup 

 white oak, but differing from the white oak), the elm, ash, 

 lime-tree, &c. Generally speaking, however, this wood-land 

 does not extend back farther than a mile from the lakes. 

 The white cedar, the hemlock, spruce pine, and fir, are occa- 

 sionally found ; but the red cedar is scarce throughout this 

 region, and none, perhaps, are to be seen but on islands 

 of thgse lakes called by the Indians Red Cedar Lakes. The 

 shrubbery consists principally of the wild rose, hawthorn, 

 and wild plum ; and raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, 

 and cranberries, are abundant. 



" The aspect of the country is generally varied by hills, 

 dales, copses, small prairies, and a great number of lakes; the 

 whole of which I do not pretend to have laid down on my map. 

 The natural beauties of the country are, however, impressed 

 with a character of sternness and melancholy ; the silence 

 and solitude of which are interrupted or revived only by the 

 flocks of water-fowl that congregate about its waters, to nestle 

 amidst and fatten upon the wild rice. The naturalist, how- 

 ever, has still an endless field of observation in the insect 



