LAKE SUPERIOR AND THE WISCONSIN RIVER 279 



The Manidowish River at this point comes from the northeast, is deep and clear, 

 about thirty feet wide, and winds through the centre of a broad wet meadow, with 

 grass from two to five feet high. After the portage was made, Ave descended the 

 river four miles, though probably not more than one mile in a direct line from the 

 portage to a favourable place for a camping-ground. 



September 26. The river is exceedingly crooked, and from forty to fifty feet in 

 width from the camp to the mouth of Lac du Flambeau River, a distance of three 

 miles. Where the bends of the river aj)proach the margin of the meadows, the 

 banks are from four to six feet high, and composed entirely of a yellowish coarse 

 sand, resembling very much that found on the Chippewa below the Dalles. Soon 

 after entering Lac du Flambeau River, which we ascended to the lake of which it 

 is the outlet, large boulders began to show themselves, some of them of great dimen- 

 sions. One which was examined, measured fifteen feet in the long diameter, twelve 

 feet in the transverse, and stood seven feet out of the water. It was composed of 

 mica slate, and studded with garnets of small size. 



Just before reaching a range of hills, the river runs through what was once 

 evidently the bed of a large lake, now drained, and overgrown with aquatic grasses. 

 Through this the river flows in many channels, some of them fifty yards wide. 

 This alternate widening and narrowing of the river occurs all the way to the lake. 

 The trunks of hundreds of dead tameracks are standing in all the spaces between 

 the channels, and give a peculiar air of desolation to the scene, only partially 

 relieved by the evergreens on the distant highlands. 



About three miles above the mouth of Lac du Flambeau River, in a direct line, 

 we came to a range of low hills, on either side of the wide meadows through which 

 it flows, which gradually recede until they reach the height of from forty to eighty 

 feet. One mile higher the rocks show themselves in place, and are composed of 

 quartz rock, granite, and mica slate, with innumerable garnets disseminated through 

 them. Disthene, tremolite, and crystals of hematite were also abundant in the 

 slate, which dips 37° to the southwest. The rocks are in parallel ridges, the sum- 

 mits of which are from one to two hundred yards apart, and becoming more elevated 

 as they trend to the northeast and southwest. The ridges are bare, with the excep- 

 tion of an occasional bush, and in the intervening valleys only a little coarse grass 

 is found. 



Shortly after passing this range the swamps again show themselves, and continue 

 on either side of the river up to Lac du Flambeau. The river is exceedingly 

 crooked, its general course being south-southeast. We reached the Lake late in the 

 afternoon, and, crossing its northwest arm, camped near the old Trading-House of 

 the American Fur Company, now deserted. 



Lac du Flambeau is the largest body of water we have seen in this region. It is 

 exceedingly irregular in its outline, resembling rather an assemblage of several 

 small lakes, united by short narrow channels. It has a number of thickly-wooded 

 islands dotting its surface. The shores recede with a gentle slope, to the height of 

 twenty and thirty feet, and are covered at some points with bushes and grass, and 

 by a dense forest at others. The soil, like that in the neighbourhood of Turtle 

 Lake, is a light sandy loam; and, judging from its general appearance, would hardly 



