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DESCRIPTION OF THE CO U N T R Y 



distance. Above the rapids the river is fifty yards wide ; below them it contracts 

 again to thirty yards in width. 



Three other rapids occur in the distance of a mile and a half. The first one is 

 short, but difficult to pass. The river is divided by a small island at the foot of the 

 rapid. The channel for canoes is on the east side of the island. The second one 

 is made up of granite, Avith gneiss resting on it ; and the third of gneiss and horn- 

 blende. In the forenoon the river was much obstructed by drift-wood, and was very 

 crooked, except in the vicinity of the rapids, where its channel lay, for some dis- 

 tance, between the elevated ridges of rock. The country for a short distance above 

 and opposite these rapids is open, bearing thickets of small birch, and a few stunted 

 pines scattered through them. Occasionally, a solitary large pine was seen stand- 

 ing on a sandy knoll, twenty or thirty feet above the level of the river. Below 

 the last rapids the country is made up of sand, apparently destitute of pebbles, 

 with sandy loam on top, and supporting a tolerably good growth of pine, birch, and 

 aspen. 



October 5. Ninety-six miles (according to our estimate of distances) below the 

 mouth of Muscle River, we came to a high range of rocks, consisting of hornblende, 

 gneiss, and gneissoid granite. This range is about one hundred and fifty feet high, 

 bearing northeast and southwest. The rapids formed by it have a descent of about 

 thirty feet in a quarter of a mile. The portage path is on the east side of the river, 

 and is about five hundred yards long. 



On a small prairie, half a mile from these rapids, I measured a granite boulder, 

 seventy-eight feet in circumference, and ten feet high. 



The rocks continued to show themselves until, ten miles below the last range, 

 we came to one about three hundred feet high, composed of syenite and greenstone, 

 traversed by veins of felspar, quartz, granite, and titaniferous iron. The granite 

 veins are from two to three feet in width, and porphyritic. 



The average width of the river yesterday was from forty to fifty yards. The 

 banks were of sand, from ten to thirty feet in height, and exhibit, at some points, 

 extensive slides, similar to those seen on the Chippewa, below the Dalles of that 

 river. 



I made an excursion into the country yesterday, commencing at the foot of a 

 large island, the first one of any size met with in descending the river. I proceeded 

 directly west, and found the country to present a succession of low ridges and 

 tamerack swamps. The ridges are sandy, with a thin soil, and from a quarter to 

 half a mile wide. On the more elevated grounds are some first-rate, and a great 

 number of second-rate pines. 



A few miles south of this, the Kewaykwodo Portage begins. It passes, for some 

 distance, over a rolling sandy country, which is the general character of the region 

 bordering the river for some miles above and below the beginning of the portage. 

 A narrow strip of small pines lines the banks of the river at intervals ; but, as you 

 recede into the country, there are few trees of any size to be seen. Clumps of very 

 small birch and pine are scattered over it. This portage leads to Lac du Flambeau, 

 by way of Swamp, Kewaykwodo, Leech, Sheshebagomag, Mishekun, and La Roche 



