INTRODUCTION. xxv 
The danger from this source becomes imminent, if the explorer, unprovided with 
an experienced guide, happens to lose his way. It is hardly necessary here to warn 
the inexperienced, as so many Western travellers already have done, how readily, 
in these wild regions, this may occur. I will here mention but a single instance, 
that of one of my assistants, travelling alone in the country north of Lake Pepin, 
who, deceived by an incorrect map, mistook the Kinnikinick for Rush River, missed, 
in consequence, a deposit of provisions left for him on the Eau Gallée, travelled 
three days without other food than a few wild berries, and was relieved, at last, in 
a state of complete exhaustion, by the tenant of a solitary cabin, which he disco- 
vered soon after striking the Mississippi, above Lake Pepin. 
In 1848, though we had not the cholera to contend with, I found, on one occasion, 
even greater difficulty in procuring voyageurs than during the prevalence of the 
epidemic. This occurred in consequence of my determining, soon after reaching the 
mouth of Crow Wing, in June of that year, to descend the Red River of the North, 
a resolution adopted from the following considerations. 
The appearance of the country between the Falls of St. Anthony and Crow Wing, 
did not augur well for facilities of observation in developing the geology of the 
district which lay before us to the north. After conversing with several of the 
Indian traders, who had just arrived at the Crow Wing post, with furs from their 
respective stations in the interior, I became convinced that the only practicable 
method of gaining an insight into the geology of the northern portion of the Chip- 
pewa Land District, was to shape my course along the deep cuts of the great valleys. 
On consulting the maps of the territory we were about to enter, it was evident 
that the channels of the Mississippi, Red River of the North, and St. Louis River, 
together with the basins of the great lakes, afforded.the best prospect of throwing 
open to our view sections of rocky beds, if such existed accessible to observation. 
To the assistant geologist, Dr. Norwood, I therefore assigned the duty of exa- 
mining the valleys of the Mississippi and St. Louis Rivers, Red Lake, Leech Lake, 
Cass, Winibigoshish, and Vermilion Lakes, as well as a part of the north shore of 
Lake Superior. 
With my own corps I decided to ascend Crow Wing River to Leaf River, a branch 
coming in from the west, to follow up that stream, and, by a series of small lakes 
and intervening portages, to gain Otter Tail Lake. Thence I proposed to enter Red 
River, descend its channel to the United States line, and proceed thence to the Sel- 
kirk colony, for the purpose of procuring a fresh supply of provisions. From this 
settlement I proposed to reach the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake by the most 
feasible route, and on my way back to the Mississippi, make a reconnoissance of 
that part of the north shore of Lake Superior not included in Dr. Norwood’s 
route. 
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