52 NARRATIVE, &c. 



ed it better to go on, that we might have nothing to do in the 

 morning, but to put our canoes in the water. On reaching the 

 bank of the stream, we found its current placid, and our guide 

 informed us that we had now surmounted the last rapids. 



A fog prevented our embarking until five o'clock in the mor- 

 ning, (13th) and it was then impossible to discern objects at a 

 distance. We found the channel above the Naiwa, diminished 

 to a clever brook, more decidedly marshy in the character of 

 its shores, but not presenting in its plants or trees, any thing 

 particularly to distinguish it from the contiguous lower parts of 

 the stream. The water is still and pond-like. It presents some 

 small areas of wild rice. It appears to be a favorite resort for 

 the duck and teal, who frequently rose up before us, and were 

 aroused again and again by our progress. An hour and a half 

 diligently employed, brought us to the foot of Ossowa Lake. 

 We halted a moment to survey it. It exhibits a broad border of 

 aquatic plants, with somewhat blackish waters. Perch abound in 

 it. It is the recipient of two brooks, and may be regarded as 

 the source of this fork of the Mississippi. We were precisely 

 twenty minutes in passing through it. We entered one of the 

 brooks, the most southerly in position. It possessed no current 

 and was filled with broad leaved plants, and a kind of yellow 

 pond-lily. We appeared to be involved in a morass, where it 

 seemed equally impracticable to make the land, or proceed far 

 by water. In this we were not mistaken ; Oza Windib soon 

 pushed his canoe into the weeds and exclaimed, Oma, mikunna, 

 (here is the portage.) A man who is called on for the first time, 

 to debark, in such a place, will look about him to discover some 

 dry spot to put his feet upon. No such spot however existed 

 here. We stepped into rather warm pond water, with a miry 

 bottom. After wading a hundred yards, or more, the soil be- 

 came firm, and we soon began to ascend a slight elevation, 

 where the growth partakes more of the character of a forest. 

 Traces of a path appeared here, and we suddenly entered an 

 opening affording an eligible spot for landing. Here our bag- 



