hardship now
threatened us--our rations gave out entirely, and most of the
ammunition having become wet, starvation stared us in the face. To
buy anything in that wild country was, of course, impossible. This
danger was barely averted by the marksmanship of our leader, and
the dexterity of the Indian guides, who would occasionally kill a
duck with their paddles. We got down at last to 'hard pan,' and had
gone without any breakfast or supper the day we reached Lake
Bemidji. Here we were lucky enough to meet an Indian, who had a
little flour and pork, and having replenished our larder, we
crossed the lake and continued our course down the river.

"A new danger now beset us in the shape of rapids which would occur
every few miles, rendering canoe navigation extremely hazardous.
Several times holes were stove in the thin birchen canoes, and a
number of times we were precipitated into the water, but no one was
dangerously hurt, and the guides were very deft in repairing the
canoes.

"A half-day's journey from Lake Bemidji is Cass Lake, a fine sheet
of water, twenty miles in length by ten wide. The next day,
Winnibegoshish, the largest lake of the Mississippi, was reached.
It is twenty miles in diameter, and greeted us with a heavy sea,
which nearly swamped us as we paddled across the corner to a few
scattered wigwams which form the little Indian village on its
banks. Two days we were wind-bound, getting away on the morning of
the third. That night our camp was invaded by a number of hostile
Indians, but, owing to our vigilance, bloodshed was avoided.

"In three days more Pokegama Falls were reached, and we saw the
first white man since leaving Leech Lake. Making a portage around
the falls, we shot Grand Rapids a few miles below, and slept that
night beneath the shelter of a roof. Nothing worthy of mention
occurred between this point and Aitkin, which we reached in four
days, and at last found ourselves within the bounds of
civilization, and bade farewell to our Indian guides. Captain
Glazier tried to induce these dusky sons of the forest to accompany
him to the Gulf, but the stories they had heard of the alligators
and snakes of the Sunny South terrified them, and they refused. A
short rest was taken at Aitkin, and then we re-embarked in the