to our traveling cuisine.  It was observed that he had nothing besides in his canoe but a gun and war club, a little boy being in the boat.  We descended the stream some seven or eight miles, and encamped on the right bank.  It rained hard during the night.  Next morning (6th) we were in motion at six o’clock, which was as early as the atmosphere would permit.  An hour’s travel brought us to the mouth of a creek, which led us in the required direction.  It was a narrow and deep stream, very tortuous, and making bends so short that we with difficulty forced our canoes through.  In two hours we came to the portage to the Ca Ta—­a pond at the distance of 1916 yards, which we crossed at two pauses.

LAKE CHETAC.—­Before the canoes and baggage came up, I crossed over to Lake Chetac.  There is a portage road around the pond.  After passing the first poze from it, the canoes may be put in a brook and poled down two pozes—­then they must be taken out and carried 1600 yards to Lake Chetac.  The whole portage is 5600 yards.

It was seven o’clock in the evening before we could embark on the lake.  We went down it four miles to an island and encamped.  The lake is 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.