even the
most minute liquid bodies, as we hear it, in the compound term
_mushkuagomee, i.e._ strong drink. Under the government of the term
_gitchee_, it appears to express simply the sense of great water, but
conveys the idea, to the Indian mind, of sea-water. I have cast about,
to find a sonorous form of elision, in which it may come into popular
use, but find nothing more eligible than _I-go-mee_, or _Igoma_. A more
practical word, in the shape of a new compound, may be made in Algoma, a
term in which the first syllable of the generic name of this tribe of
the Algonquin stock, harmonizes very well with the Indian idea of goma
(sea), giving us, Sea of the Algonquins. The term may be objected to, as
the result of a grammatical abbreviation, but if not adopted
practically, it may do as a poetical synonym for this great lake. Such
is, at least, the result of a full discussion of these names, with the
very best speakers of the language.

_30th. The Wild Rice Plant_.--Having received a request for some of this
native grain to send abroad, and knowing that the smoked rice, such as
the Indians usually bring in, will not germinate, I this day dispatched
my interpreter in a canoe, with some Indians, to the northern shores of
the straits to gather some of it for seed; the result was successful.
This plant may be deemed a precious gift of nature to the natives, who
spread over many degrees of northern latitude. They call it _mon-o-min_,
a compound descriptive phrase, which differs only from their name for
the zea maize in putting an _o_--the third syllable--for the imperative
future in _dau_.

_Sept. 1st. Indian Trade_.--Congress has provided a code of laws to
regulate this, the object of which is a good one, and the provisions of
the various enactments appear to be founded on the highest principles of
justice and benevolence. It is still a question, it appears to me,
whether some of these provisions do not merely sanction by the forms of
law what was formerly done, not always well, without it, and whether
the measure of protection which they afford to the tribes against the
cupidity of the whites is very efficacious. It was heretofore pretended
by the British traders that all this country belonged to Great Britain,
and they told the Indians that the war of 1812 would settle all this. It
did so; but, contrary to their wishes and the predictions to the
Indians, it settled it precisely on the basis of the treaty of 1783,
which r