280 CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY BETWE E N 



attract the attention of a cultivator. The Indians, however, who have a village on 

 one of its shores, raise excellent potatoes; better, indeed, than are usuajly grown, 

 with all the aids of cultivation, in the valley of the Ohio. The arm of the Lake, 

 near which we encamped, is called by the Indians Pokegoma ; a name given to any 

 lake connected with another, or with a running stream, by a very short outlet. 



September 28. The Pokegoma arm of Lac du Flambeau, which we crossed this 

 morning, is about three and a half miles long by half a mile in width. It abounds 

 with fine fish, which the Indians take in great numbers in gill-nets and with the 

 spear. From the northeast shore of this lake a portage of half a mile, over sand- 

 hills, covered with small pines, and elevated about thirty feet above the general 

 level of the small lakes, leads to Lake Wepetangok, which we crossed in a high 

 wind. This lake is about two miles long, and our course across it was northeast, 

 to a small channel, four feet wide and eight yards long, which led us into another 

 small lake, three-fourths of a mile long and half- a mile wide, which we crossed 

 northeast, to a portage of one mile in length, leading to Mashkegwagoma Lake. This 

 portage passed over hills of the same character as those seen in the morning. 



We waited some time on the shore of this lake for the wind to subside, and at 

 noon started across. By the time we had made two-thirds of the passage the wind 

 increased to a perfect gale, and wave after wave, which ran almost as high as I 

 have ever seen them in Lake Superior, broke over our canoe, until it was more than 

 half full of water, and in momentary danger of sinking. By great exertions, the men 

 succeeded in reaching the borders of a small island, and we dragged the canoe into 

 a marsh. Everything was thoroughly soaked, with the exception of my note-books, 

 which, very fortunately, were secured on my person. A fire was built in a spruce 

 thicket, the highest part of the island, and we set about drying our persons, clothes, 

 maps, and instruments. As the wind continued high all the afternoon, we were 

 forced to camp on the island. The lake is about two and a half miles long and one 

 mile and a half wide, a very small sheet of water to afford so heavy a swell. Our 

 misfortune is to be attributed, however, more to the size of our canoe than to the 

 roughness of the lake. 



September 29. Crossed to the main shore, and made a portage of a mile and a 

 half, to the Chippewa or Manidowish Kiver. The trail, for nearly the whole dis- 

 tance, leads through swamps flooded with water almost ice cold. The river at this 

 point is about forty feet wide, winding to the northwest through marshes like the 

 one just passed. 



Had it not been desirable to visit Lac du Flambeau, we might have reached this 

 point by ascending the river from " Six Pause Portage," through " Cross" and other 

 small lakes ; and this was the route pursued by Mr. A. B. Gray and party, in 1846, 

 as I have since learned. I knew nothing of the route, however, at that time. It is 

 the one commonly followed by the Vieux Desert and Trout Lake Indians, in passing 

 from their villages to La Pointe, and is, in every respect, preferable to the one pur- 

 sued by us, for persons wishing to pass from the head of Wisconsin River to the 

 neighbourhood of Montreal and Bad Rivers, or to any point northwest of Lac du 

 Flambeau. 



While the men were sent up the river with the canoe, Mr. Gurley and myself 



