beard, wearing, besides one other garment, a pair of pants made
from a red blanket. The surroundings were certainly not inviting, and a
closer inspection of the squalid accommodation did not lead them to form
any more favorable opinion. However, travelers cannot always be
choosers, and they really fared much better than they had expected,
dining very agreeably on fresh fish and vegetables; breakfast the next
morning being selected from the same simple bill of fare, varied only by
the addition of "flap-jacks." In default of habitable beds their
hammocks were swung from the rafters of the loft.

Leech Lake is one of the most irregularly shaped bodies of water that
can be imagined. It has no well-defined form, being neither oval nor
circular, but rather a combination of curves and varied outlines made by
peninsulas and bays, of which only a map could convey any accurate idea.
Ten islands are found upon its surface, and seven rivers and creeks
enter it from various directions. It extends not less than twenty miles
from North to South, and a still greater distance from East to West,
with a coast line of over four hundred miles. It was for many years the
seat of the Chippewa Indian Agency, but is now consolidated with the
White Earth and Red Lake agencies. Major C. A. Ruffe is at present agent
of the three departments, with headquarters at White Earth. The village
consists of some half dozen government buildings, as many log-cabins,
and about twenty or thirty wigwams scattered here and there along the
shore of one of the arms of the lake.

The day after the arrival of Captain Glazier's party, the agency was
thrown into a state of excitement by the announcement that Major Ruffe
was on his way to Lake Winnibegoshish by way of Leech Lake. The Major
came the next day, accompanied by Captain Taylor of St. Cloud, one of
the pioneer surveyors of Minnesota; Paul Beaulieu, the veteran
government interpreter, and White Cloud, the present chief of the
Mississippi Indians, who succeeded Hole-in-the-day, the latter having
been killed some time before by one of the Leech Lake band.

Paul Beaulieu, the half-breed interpreter to Major Ruffe, possesses a
fund of information concerning the Upper Mississippi which cannot be
ignored by those who are in pursuit of its mysterious source, and
Captain Glazier considered himself most fortunate in meeting him before
his departure for Lake Itasca. Beaulieu deserves more than a passing
mention, as he