ON THE SOURCES O ¥ T H E MISSISIP P I. 



327 



of corn, and two thousand bushels of potatoes, were raised by them, besides 

 squashes and other vegetables in abundance. A number of the Indians have good 

 log houses ; and their bark lodges are larger and better appointed than in the gene- 

 rality of Indian villages. 



The strip of fine land on which the farms are situated is about eight miles long, 

 and from a quarter to three quarters of a mile wide, and is situated along the south 

 shore of the lake. South of this belt, the soil is sandy and covered with pine and 

 cypress, but is said to grow excellent oats. 



The houses of the missionaries are good and comfortable ; and their farm is kept 

 in as good order and is as well cultivated as any farm in the States. It is really 

 what it is intended to be, a " model farm," and the happy results of their example 

 are seen all around them, in the well-cultivated fields of the Indians, and the 

 excellent cabins of many of them. 



We left Red Lake on the morning of the 26th, and returned to Lake Winibi- 

 goshish over the route already described. 



On the 30th of September, we left Lake Winibigoshish, and began to descend the 

 Mississippi. At the outlet of the lake, the river is about sixty yards wide, and 

 maintains this width for nearly two miles, when it expands into a small lake, a 

 mile and a quarter in length and about half a mile wide. This lake is worthy of 

 notice as being the last one, except Lake Pepin, through which the Mississippi 

 passes in its journey to the sea. After leaving this lake, which is called Little 

 Winibigoshish, the river runs through reed-grass swamps, and is frequently divided 

 into a number of narrow channels. At some points it contains a narrow border of 

 rice. 



The land at the outlet of Lake Winibigoshish is sandy, with a tolerably good 

 soil. There is a large proportion of hard woods in all this section, and it is gene- 

 rally the case, that when the Conifers are burnt oft*, a growth of oak, maple, ash, 

 aspen, and birch, springs up. 



The river-bed contains a great many small and some large boulders. They are 

 principally granitic ; and in some places exist in such quantities as to give rise to 

 slight rapids, like those described in a previous section as occurring between the 

 mouths of Crow Wing and Sandy Lake Rivers. I did not, however, at any point 

 along this portion of the Mississippi, see boulder-beds underlying the clays, though 

 I think it highly probable that they do. The river is from two to six feet deep, 

 and where it washes the base of the ridges, good sections of the sands and clays of 

 which they are composed are often exhibited. The top stratum is a coarse yellow 

 sand, resembling fine-grained brown sugar, and is from three to four feet thick. It 

 rests upon a bed of fine white sand, with small gravel in it, very much like that 

 seen in the sand ridges south of Red Lake. Beneath this are the clay-beds. Below 

 the mouth of Leech Lake River, many springs issue from above the clay-beds, 

 strongly impregnated with iron. Colonel Whittlesey met with one containing 

 sulphuretted hydrogen. 



The river is exceedingly crooked, and winds through broad savannas overgrown 

 with meadow and reed grasses, and intersected by sloughs in every direction. Oak 

 Point is the only place where canoes can land for the distance of many miles, and 



