ON THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISIPPI. 327 
of corn, and two thousand bushels of potatoes, were raised by them, besides 
squashes and other vegetables in abundance. A number of the Indians have good 
log houses; and their bark lodges are larger and better appointed than in the gene- 
rality of Indian villages. 
The strip of fine land on which the farms are situated is about eight miles long, 
and from a quarter to three quarters of a mile wide, and is situated along the south 
shore of the lake. South of this belt, the soil is sandy and covered with pine and 
cypress, but is said to grow excellent oats. 
The houses of the missionaries are good and comfortable; and their farm is kept 
in as good order and is as well cultivated as any farm in the States. It is really 
what it is intended to be, a “model farm,” and the happy results of their example 
are seen all around them, in the well-cultivated fields of the Indians, and the 
excellent cabins of many of them. 
We left Red Lake on the morning of the 26th, and returned to Lake Winibi- 
goshish over the route already described. 
On the 30th of September, we left Lake Winibigoshish, and lectin to descend the 
Mississippi. At the outlet of the lake, the river is about sixty yards wide, and 
maintains this width for nearly two miles, when it expands into a small lake, a 
mile and a quarter in length and about half a mile wide. This lake is worthy of 
notice as being the last one, except Lake Pepin, through which the Mississippi 
passes in its journey to the sea. After leaving this lake, which is called Little 
Winibigoshish, the river runs through reed-grass swamps, and is frequently divided 
into a number of narrow channels. At some points it contains a narrow border of 
rice. 
The land at the outlet of Lake Winibigoshish is sandy, with a tolerably good 
soil. There is a large proportion of hard woods in all this section, and it is gene- 
rally the case, that when the Conifer are burnt off, a growth of oak, maple, ash, 
aspen, and birch, springs up. 
The river-bed contains a great many small and some large boulders. They are 
principally granitic; and in some places exist in such quantities as to give rise to 
slight rapids, like those described in a previous section as occurring between the 
mouths of Crow Wing and Sandy Lake Rivers. I did not, however, at any point 
along this portion of the Mississippi, see boulder-beds underlying the clays, though 
I think it highly probable that they do. The river is from two to six feet deep, 
and where it washes the base of the ridges, good sections of the sands and clays of 
which they are composed are often exhibited. The top stratum is a coarse yellow 
sand, resembling fine-grained brown sugar, and is from three to four feet thick. It 
rests upon a bed of fine white sand, with small gravel in it, very much like that 
seen in the sand ridges south of Red Lake. Beneath this are the clay-beds. Below 
the mouth of Leech Lake River, many springs issue from above the clay-beds, 
strongly impregnated with iron. Colonel Whittlesey met with one containing 
sulphuretted hydrogen. 
The river is exceedingly crooked, and winds through broad savannas overgrown 
with meadow and reed grasses, and intersected by sloughs in every direction. Oak 
Point is the only place where canoes can land for the distance of many miles, and 
