434 DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY BORDERING 
distance. It passes near one of the bluffs of magnetic iron ore, to which reference 
is made elsewhere. 
There is a continuous mountain chain from the Montreal River to Bladder Lake, 
the prolongation of the Porcupine Mountain Range in Michigan. I have called it 
the Penokie Range, this being the Indian word for iron, which is found in its 
westerly portion in great force. 
This is no part of the Coast Range, that extends from the Porcupine Mountains to 
the mouth of the Montreal, composed, principally, of conglomerates and slates, but 
a more southern range, removed from six to eight miles back. The Penokie Range 
is visible, throughout its entire length, from La Pointe, or from the water twenty 
miles off shore, dropping down suddenly near Bladder Lake, on the west. Its out- 
line is marked by notches and sharp-cut angles, closely resembling the trap ranges 
east of the Montreal, of which it is a prolongation. But a practised observer, pass- 
ing the eye along the range to the east, beyond where the Montreal cuts through 
it, perceives that the trap-rocks of Black and Presquile Rivers are more isolated 
and more conical than those of the waters of Bad River. 
The summits overlooking the latter are equally numerous and confused, but 
more flat, with vertical faces, indicating volcanic action likewise, but in modified 
form. The general line of the range is southwest by west, which removes it more 
and more from the coast, as it is pursued westward. 
The elevation is to the eye the same throughout, but the measurements made 
by barometer show that the eastern portion is shghtly the highest. At the cross- 
ing of the Portage to Lac Flambeau, it is eleven hundred and eighty-two feet above 
the Lake; at what is apparently the highest peak, four miles west, twelve hundred 
and forty-two feet; at the crossing of the trail, sixteen miles southeast by south of 
Woods's, eleven hundred and eighty-six feet; and south of Lac des Anglais, eleven 
hundred and eighty-nine feet. The length of the range is about thirty-five miles; 
the breadth very variable; sometimes reaching eight miles. 
Looking from the most elevated ridges towards the Lake, the country below has 
the appearance of a flat field, densely covered with evergreens; beyond which is 
the open Lake, the low Apostle Islands, originally parts of the same plain, not yet 
removed by the action of the waves, and far in the distance is the outline of cor- 
responding mountains on the north shore. At the northwest, the bold drift-hills 
that lie between Chegwomigon Bay and the Brulé River, are seen projecting into 
the Lake at the Detour. 
Behind the Penokie Range, looking south towards the interior, the adjacent lands 
are lower by two to three hundred feet, but the descent is sometimes very gradual and 
again more rapid, so that the horizon view, fifteen to twenty miles distant, represent- 
ing the dividing ridge, is apparently on the same elevation as the Penokie Range. 
The easterly portion of this back country is more rolling and abrupt than the western. 
Where the waters of Bad River and Chippewa River interlock, is a vast tract, 
sloping gently to the north, full of tamerack and cedar swamps, and lakes and 
marshes, of little or no practical value, unless it be in future for its pines. These 
waters, which take their rise in the same swamps with the Wisconsin and Montreal 
Rivers, are in a region more elevated and rolling, with some ridges of good soil. 
