284 ' DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 
distance. Above the rapids the river is fifty yards wide; below them it contracts 
again to thirty yards in width. 
Three other rapids occur in the distance of a mile and a half. The first one is 
short, but difficult to pass. The river is divided by a small island at the foot of the 
rapid. The channel for canoes is on the east side of the island. The second one 
is made up of granite, with gneiss resting on it; and the third of gneiss and horn- 
blende. In the forenoon the river was much obstructed by drift-wood, and was very 
crooked, except in the vicinity of the rapids, where its channel lay, for some dis- 
tance, between the elevated ridges of rock. The country for a short distance above 
and opposite these rapids is open, bearing thickets of small birch, and a few stunted 
pines scattered through them. Occasionally, a solitary large pine was seen stand- 
ing on a sandy knoll, twenty or thirty feet above the level of the river. Below 
the last rapids the country is made up of sand, apparently destitute of pebbles, 
with sandy loam on top, and supporting a tolerably good growth of pine, birch, and 
aspen. 
October 5. Ninety-six miles (according to our estimate of distances) below the 
mouth of Muscle River, we came to a high range of rocks, consisting of hornblende, 
gneiss, and gneissoid granite. This range is about one hundred and fifty feet high, 
bearing northeast and southwest. The rapids formed by it have a descent of about 
thirty feet in a quarter of a mile. The portage path is on the east side of the river, 
and is about five hundred yards long. 
On a small prairie, half a mile from these rapids, I measured a granite boulder, 
seventy-eight feet in circumference, and ten feet high. 
The rocks continued to show themselves until, ten miles below the last range, 
we came to one about three hundred feet high, composed of syenite and greenstone, 
traversed by veins of felspar, quartz, granite, and titaniferous iron. - The granite 
veins are from two to three feet in width, and porphyritic. 
The average width of the river yesterday was from forty to fifty yards. The 
banks were of sand, from ten to thirty feet in height, and exhibit, at some points, 
extensive slides, similar to those seen on the Chippewa, below the Dalles of that 
river. 
I made an excursion into the country yesterday, commencing at the foot of a 
large island, the first one of any size met with in descending the river. I proceeded 
directly west, and found the country to present a succession of low ridges and 
tamerack swamps. The ridges are sandy, with a thin soil, and from a quarter to 
half a mile wide. On the more elevated grounds are some first-rate, and a great 
number of second-rate pines. 
A few miles south of this, the Kewaykwodo Portage begins. It passes, for some 
distance, over a rolling sandy country, which is the general character of the region 
bordering the river for some miles above and below the beginning of the portage. 
A narrow strip of small pines lines the banks of the river at intervals; but, as you 
recede into the country, there are few trees of any size to be seen. Clumps of very 
small birch and pine are scattered over it. This portage leads to Lac du Flambeau, 
by way of Swamp, Kewaykwodo, Leech, Sheshebagomag, Mishekun, and La Roche 
