six
miles long, shallow, marshy, with some wild rice and bad water. Bad as
it was, we had to make tea of it.

INDIAN MANNERS.--We found but a single lodge on the island, which was
occupied by a Chippewa woman and a dog. I heard her say to one of our
men, in the Chippewa tongue, that there was no man in the lodge--that
her husband had gone out fishing. She appeared in alarm, and soon after
I saw her paddle away in a small canoe, leaving her lodge with a fire
burning. On awaking in the morning, I heard the sound of talking in the
lodge, and, before we embarked, the man, his wife, and two children, and
an old woman came out.

Four lodges of Indians, say about twenty souls, usually make their homes
at this lake, which yields them fish and wild rice. But at present the
whole tendency of the Indian population is to Rice Lake. The war party
mustering at that point absorbs all attention.

CHAPTER XL.

EXPLORATION OF THE RED CEDAR OR FOLLAVOINE VALLEY OF THE CHIPPEWA RIVER.

Betula Lake--Larch Lake--A war party surprised--Indian manners--Rice
Lake--Indian council--Red Cedar Lake--Speeches of Wabezhais and
Neenaba--Equal division of goods--Orifice for treading out rice--A live
beaver--Notices of natural history--Value of the Follavoine Valley--A
medal of the third President--War dance--Ornithology--A prairie country,
fertile and abounding in game--Saw mills--Chippewa River--Snake--La
Garde Mountain--Descent of the Mississippi--Sioux village--General
impression of the Mississippi--Arrival at Prairie du Chien.

1831. BETULA LAKE. LARCH LAKE.--The 7th of August, which dawned upon us
in Lake Chetac, proved foggy and cool. The thermometer at 4, 7 and 8
A.M., stood respectively at 50 deg., 52 deg. and 56 deg.. We found the outlet very
shallow, so much so, that the canoes could with difficulty be got out
while we walked. It led us by a short portage into a small lake called
Betula, or Birch Lake, a sylvan little body of water having three
islands, which we were just twenty-five minutes in crossing by free
strokes of the paddles. Its outlet was still too shallow for any other
purpose than to enable the men to lead down the empty canoes. We made a
portage of twelve hundred and ninety-five yards into another lake,
called Larch or Sapin Lake--which is about double the size of the former
lake. We were half an hour in crossing it with an animated and free
stroke of the paddle--the men's spirits rising as they find themselves
gettin