BORDERING ON THE ST. LOUIS RIVER. 301 
morphic, and trap rocks, which lie south and east of this place. Among the boulders 
which cover the summit-level, are a great many large ones of gneiss. 
For the first four and a half miles, the portage is dry, and passes over ridges 
covered with young birch, maple, and pine. On some of the ridges, the pine may 
be considered first-rate. The east end of the portage, for the distance of a mile and 
a half, runs through a tamerack swamp, which was flooded with water, and next 
to impassable. It is generally considered the worst “carrying place” in the North- 
west, and, judging from the great number of canoes which lie decaying along this 
part of it, having been abandoned in consequence of the difficulty experienced in 
getting them over, its reputation is well deserved. 
Kast Savannah River, where the portage strikes it, is about five yards wide. It 
comes from the northwest, and turning a short distance below the portage, pursues 
a general northeasterly direction to its junction with St. Louis River. 
Soon after leaving the portage, the river increases in width to one hundred and 
fifty or two hundred yards, and is thickly grown up with rushes, except about the 
centre, where there is a channel fifteen or twenty feet wide, without obstruction. 
Some of the low ground bordering the river is wet prairie, with a good growth of 
grass, but most of it, for the distance of fifteen miles (following the course of the 
stream), east of the summit-level, is a bog, with low, narrow ridges and knolls rising 
out of it like islands, and covered with a diminutive growth of tamerack, aspen, and 
birch. 
About thirteen miles below the portage, the banks of the river are composed of 
sand and gravel, and three miles further, a red clay-bed appears above the water, 
and gradually increases in thickness to fifteen feet, overlaid by twenty-five feet of 
sand and marl. Where the clay-banks come up to the water, frequent slides occur, 
by which the upper beds, of less tenacious material, are precipitated into the stream, 
carrying with them their growth of trees, which collect in the bends and narrow 
parts, and form “ rafts.” 
The clay in the lowest exposed portion of the beds is in thin layers, from an 
eighth of an inch to an inch thick, and is extremely indurated. Where the slides 
occur, many large boulders are exposed in the upper part of the deposits, derived 
from the same rocks as those seen on the dividing ridge. 
The country between the boggy lands and St. Louis River, is timbered princi- 
pally with aspen, maple, ash, elm, birch, hemlock, pine, and fir. 
On the morning of the 26th, we reached St. Louis River, and hastened to Fond 
du Lac, at which place we arrived on the 28th. The distance between Sandy Lake 
and the Trading-Post, by way of the Savannah Rivers, is, according to my estimate, 
ninety-six miles. 
The day after our arrival at Fond du Lac, I sent two men, with a canoe, to La 
Pointe, to procure supplies sufficient to last during the progress of the reconnois- 
sance of the north shore of Lake Superior. During the absence of these men, Colonel 
Whittlesey was to remain at the Trading-Post, for the purpose of making astrono- 
mical observations; or, in case the weather should prove unfavourable for such 
purposes, to investigate the geology of the range of hills north of the village ; while 
I proceeded to examine Left-hand and Black Rivers, the latter of which is crossed 
