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sion he visited the tent or hut of an Indian chief, whom he found sitting amidst his children, and grand-children, ten in number. The hut was constructed of rushes, platted into mats. In the month of December, Mr. Pike and some of his men proceeded, in sledges, up the Mississippi. On the twenty-fourth, they reached _Corbeau river_; which, at its mouth, was nearly as wide as the Mississippi. For a considerable distance, the Mississippi was interrupted by a continued succession of rapids, shoals, and falls. One of the latter, called the _Falls of the Painted Rock_, formed the third important obstacle to the navigation of the river, which Mr. Pike had encountered. Most of the timber, now observed near the banks, consisted of pine-trees. On the thirty-first, Mr. Pike passed _Pine river_. For many miles, the Mississippi had been much narrower, and more free from islands, than in the lower parts of the stream. The shores, in general, presented a dreary prospect of high barren knobs, covered with dead and fallen pine-timber; and most of the adjacent country was interspersed with small lakes. Deer of various kinds, were plentiful; but no buffaloes, nor elks, had been seen. Near the mouth of the Pine river, an encampment of _Chippeway Indians_ was observed. This had been occupied in the summer, but it was now vacant. By certain marks which had been left, the voyagers understood that these Indians had marched a party of fifty warriors against the Sioux, and had killed four men and four women, who were here represented by figures carved in wood. The figures of the men were painted, and put into the ground, to the middle; and, by their sides, were four painted poles, sharpened at the end, to represent the women. Near this spot were poles with deer-skins, plumes, silk-handkerchiefs, &c. and a circular hoop of cedar, with something attached to it which resembled a scalp. Beyond this place, Mr. Pike observed, on the bank of the river, six elegant bark-canoes, which had been laid up by the Chippeways, and a camp, which appeared to have been evacuated about ten days before. After having endured considerable hardship and much fatigue for some weeks longer, he accomplished the object of his expedition, by arriving, on the 1st of February, at _Leech Lake_, from which issues the main source of the Mississippi. He crossed this lake, (about twelve miles in width,) to an English fort, an establishment belonging to the North West Company
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