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D E S C R I P T I 0 N OF T H E C O U N T II Y 



the waters of Big Fork and Lake Winibigoshish. The river, which is exceedingly 

 crooked, continues to become wider, until, eleven miles further up, it expands into 

 a lake, called by the Indians Cut Tooth Lake, which is about three quarters of a 

 mile long, and a quarter of a mile wide. This lake connects with Kashebushkag 

 Lake by a narrow stream a little over two miles long. These lakes, together with 

 the expansions of the river below, have large fields of rice in them. They are bor- 

 dered in every direction by tamerack swamps, extending as far as vision can reach, 

 with occasional knolls, a few acres in area, rising out of them, and covered with 

 small pine, spruce, aspen, poplar, and birch. In general appearance the country 

 resembles that described as constituting the highlands between Fond du Lac and 

 Lake Pokegoma, and along the upper part of East Savannah Kiver. There are no 

 high hills, nor are there any exposures of rock south of the one last named, in this 

 section of country, the whole region being covered with drift deposits. 



A small stream connects Kashebushkag with Round Lake, which is the last of 

 the lakes on this route, north of the water-shed, connecting with Big Fork River. 

 From this lake a portage, one thousand four hundred paces in length, leads to a 

 tributary of Lake Winibigoshish. The gentle swell of land which divides these 

 waters, rises, at the highest point seen, only twenty-five feet above the level of 

 Round Lake. It is the lowest " dividing ridge" we met with in the territory, and 

 there is every probability that the information alluded to in a previous chapter, of 

 the interlockage of the northern and southern streams in this vicinity, is correct. 



The small stream down which we descended to Lake Winibigoshish is called by 

 the Indians Ondodawanonan River. It is very narrow and exceedingly crooked, 

 and in these respects resembles very much the upper part of Bois Brule River, and 

 also West Savannah River. Like this last stream, it winds through wet meadows. 

 It was with great difficulty we got our long canoes around the bends. We found 

 in the bed of this stream numerous fragments of limestone, some of them quite large 

 and thin, and of the same character as the limestone fragments met with on St. 

 Louis and Embarras Rivers, and all along our route from Rainy Lake River to this 

 place. The organic remains contained in them, show them to belong to the Silu- 

 rian period. 



We reached the trading-post on Lake Winibigoshish on the evening of the 19th 

 of September. 



8. The Northern Mississippi, including a Reconnaissance between Red Lake and 

 Cass Lake. — As the country lying between Lake Winibigoshish and the sources of 

 the Mississippi, has been well and accurately described by Mr. Schoolcraft and Mr. 

 Nicollet, and the country north of their explorations, as far as Red Lake, does not 

 differ materially from that described by them, I shall confine my remarks to a few 

 points deemed of geological and economical importance. 



We left the house of the Fur Company, at Lake Winibigoshish, on the 21st of 

 September, and crossing the lake, proceeded up the Mississippi to Cass Lake. Our 

 route from this place led through Turtle River, and the chain of lakes described by 

 Mr. J. C. Beltrami, in 1823, as the "Julian Sources of the Mississippi." I may re- 

 mark here, that notwithstanding the almost numberless errors and absurdities con- 



