324 CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY 
to extend over this whole district of country. These clay-beds, as has been before 
remarked, are overlaid by a bed of sand. Where the deposit of sand is thick, the 
soil is barren, the principal growth being pine and other Conifer. It is only where 
the stratum of sand is thin, and the plough can turn up the clay, that the soil is 
highly productive. As before stated, in describing other sections of this northern 
country, these clays contain a great deal of calcareous matter, and, when mingled 
with the sand, which also contains limestone gravel, form a strong, rich soil. On 
our return from Red Lake, we were received in the most hospitable manner by Mr. 
and Mrs. Adams, and Mr. Wright, who are attached to the Mission here. 
About a hundred and fifty yards above the mouth of Turtle River, which is 
twenty-five yards wide, it expands into a small lake, on the slopes around which 
we noticed gardens of corn and potatoes, cultivated by the Indians. Rather less 
than half a mile beyond this, we entered another lake, three-fourths of a mile long, 
and four hundred yards wide. Above this, the channel of the river winds through 
rice-fields, amounting in all to several hundred acres. Of all this, the produce of 
scarcely an acre is gathered by the Indians. When it is considered that an acre of 
this rice is nearly or quite equal to an acre of wheat for sustaining life, the waste 
of breadstuff in this region, from the indolence and improvidence of the Indians, 
can be understood. 
In this connexion, it may not be out of place to remark that, so far as the mere 
support of life is concerned, taking into account the amount of labour: required to 
do it, this region is equal, if not superior, to many portions of the settled States. 
The rice-fields, which require neither sowing nor cultivation, only harvesting, 
cover many thousands of acres, and yield all that is essential for breadstuff; but, 
in addition to this, corn can be cultivated with as little or less labour than in the 
Middle States. Potatoes, far superior in size and flavour to any I have ever seen 
in the Ohio Valley, are grown with little attention; and turnips and beets produce 
abundantly. Extensive natural meadows border the lakes and streams, the luxu- 
riant grasses of which are sweet and nutritious, and eagerly eaten by cattle; while 
the streams and almost innumerable lakes abound with a great variety of fish of 
the finest quality, and which may be taken at all seasons with little trouble. The 
uplands are generally covered with a good growth of both hard and soft woods, 
sufficient for all the wants of man. The sugar-maple is abundant; sufficiently so 
to yield a supply of sugar for a large population. In addition to all this, the 
forests are stocked with game, and the lakes and rice-fields must always, as they 
do now, attract innumerable flocks of water-fowl. 
Above the last rice lake mentioned, the river is bordered by meadows, with a 
skirting of rice along the margins; and beyond the meadows are low ridges, like 
those on the Mississippi between Winibigoshish and Cass Lakes, bearing the same 
kinds of timber. The only objects worth noting up to Gnat Lake Portage, were 
the occurrence of clay-beds, and the entrance of Cormorant River, which is the out- 
let of Sturgeon Lake. This lake is about fifteen miles north of Cass Lake, and, 
according to information derived from Mr. Beaulieu, it connects, in a large swamp, 
with both Lake Winibigoshish and Red Lake. The clays found in this portion of 
Turtle River are used by the Indians for paint, and also for ornamenting their 
