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DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY BORDERING 



distance. It passes near one of the bluffs of magnetic iron ore, to which reference 

 is made elsewhere. 



There is a continuous mountain chain from the Montreal River to Bladder Lake, 

 the prolongation of the Porcupine Mountain Range in Michigan. I have called it 

 the Penokie Range, this being the Indian word for iron, which is found in its 

 westerly portion in great force. 



This is no part of the Coast Range, that extends from the Porcupine Mountains to 

 the mouth of the Montreal, composed, principally, of conglomerates and slates, but 

 a more southern range, removed from six to eight miles back. The Penokie Range 

 is visible, throughout its entire length, from La Pointe, or from the water twenty 

 miles off shore, dropping down suddenly near Bladder Lake, on the west. Its out- 

 line is marked by notches and sharp-cut angles, closely resembling the trap ranges 

 east of the Montreal, of which it is a prolongation. But a practised observer, pass- 

 ing the eye along the range to the east, beyond where the Montreal cuts through 

 it, perceives that the trap-rocks of Black and Prescpuile Rivers are more isolated 

 and more conical than those of the waters of Bad River. 



The summits overlooking the latter are equally numerous and confused, but 

 more flat, with vertical faces, indicating volcanic action likewise, but in modified 

 form. The general line of the range is southwest by west, which removes it more 

 and more from the coast, as it is pursued westward. 



The elevation is to the eye the same throughout, but the measurements made 

 by barometer show that the eastern portion is slightly the highest. At the cross- 

 ing of the Portage to Lac Flambeau, it is eleven hundred and eighty-two feet above 

 the Lake ; at what is apparently the highest peak, four miles west, twelve hundred 

 and forty-two feet ; at the crossing of the trail, sixteen miles southeast by south of 

 Woods's, eleven hundred and eighty-six feet ; and south of Lac des Anglais, eleven 

 hundred and eighty-nine feet. The length of the range is about thirty-five miles ; 

 the breadth very variable ; sometimes reaching eight miles. 



Looking from the most elevated ridges towards the Lake, the country below has 

 the appearance of a flat field, densely covered with evergreens ; beyond which is 

 the open Lake, the low Apostle Islands, originally parts of the same plain, not yet 

 removed by the action of the waves, and far in the distance is the outline of cor- 

 responding mountains on the north shore. At the northwest, the bold drift-hills 

 that lie between Chegwomigon Bay and the Brule River, are seen projecting into 

 the Lake at the Detour. 



Behind the Penokie Range, looking south towards the interior, the adjacent lands 

 are lower by two to three hundred feet, but the descent is sometimes very gradual and 

 again more rapid, so that the horizon view, fifteen to twenty miles distant, represent- 

 ing the dividing ridge, is apparently on the same elevation as the Penokie Range. 

 The easterly portion of this back country is more rolling and abrupt than the western. 

 Where the waters of Bad River and Chippewa River interlock, is a vast tract, 

 sloping gently to the north, full of tamerack and cedar swamps, and lakes and 

 marshes, of little or no practical value, unless it be in future for its pines. These 

 waters, which take their rise in the same swamps with the Wisconsin and Montreal 

 Rivers, are in a region more elevated and rolling, with some ridges of good soil. 



