small detachment of
troops, which was ordered to accompany me through the Indian country. I
had invited Mr. Melancthon Woolsey, a printer of Detroit, a young man of
pleasing manners and morals, to accompany me as an aid in procuring
statistical information. I had an excellent crew of experienced men,
guides and interpreters, and full supplies of everything suited to
insure respect among the tribes, and to accomplish, not only the
government business, but to give a good account of the natural history
of the country to be explored. It was the first public expedition,
authorized by the new administration at Washington, and bespoke a lively
interest on the subject of Indian Affairs, and the topics incidentally
connected with it. I was now to enter, after crossing Lake Superior, the
country of the Indian murderers, mentioned 22d June, 1825, and to visit
their most remote villages and hiding places.

It was the 27th of June when we left that point--the exploring party to
pursue its way in the lake, and the ladies, in charge of Lt. Allen, to
return to St. Mary's.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Lake Superior--Its shores and character--Geology--Brigade of boats--Dog
and porcupine--Burrowing birds--Otter--Keweena Point--Unfledged
ducks--Minerals--Canadian resource in a tempest of rain--Tramp in search
of the picturesque--Search for native copper--Isle Royal
descried--Indian precaution--Their ingenuity--Lake action--Nebungunowin
River--Eagles--Indian tomb--Kaug Wudju.

1831. LAKE SUPERIOR lay before us. He who, for the first time, lifts his
eyes upon this expanse, is amazed and delighted at its magnitude.
Vastness is the term by which it is, more than any other, described.
Clouds robed in sunshine, hanging in fleecy or nebular masses above--a
bright, pure illimitable plain of water--blue mountains, or dim islands
in the distance--a shore of green foliage on the one hand--a waste of
waters on the other. These are the prominent objects on which the eye
rests. We are diverted by the flight of birds, as on the ocean. A tiny
sail in the distance reveals the locality of an Indian canoe. Sometimes
there is a smoke on the shore. Sometimes an Indian trader returns with
the avails of his winter's traffic. A gathering storm or threatening
wind arises. All at once the _voyageurs_ burst out into one of their
simple and melodious boat-songs, and the gazing at vastness is relieved
and sympathy at once awakened in gayety. Such are the scenes that atte