for work or burden and constantly alert for new and interesting things
in Nature.

At the foot of Wild Rice Lake we prepared our canoes for voyaging, and
began our long paddle toward the source of the Mississippi, whence we
were to descend to civilization. A brief description of our little ships
and equipment will help to a better understanding of our cruise. Each
voyager had a Rob Roy canoe, slightly improved as to model and built
upon the incomparable plan of Mr. Rushton of Canton, New York. The
canoes are fourteen feet long, ten and a half inches deep and
twenty-seven inches wide, decked over except a man-hole sixteen by about
thirty-six inches, and weighing, with the mast and lug sail, from fifty
to fifty-six pounds. The paddle is eight feet long, bladed at each end,
grasped in the middle, and drives the canoe by strokes alternating on
each side. The traveller sits flat upon the boat's floor, facing the
bow. The canoe is not only a vehicle, but furnishes a dry and secure bed
for sleeping at night, and, with its rubber apron, is a refuge from rain
and storm. Each boat was equipped with an air-pillow, rubber blanket,
rubber poncho, woollen blankets, rubber navy-bag and haversack. The
general outfit represented a fine double shot-gun, a small and effective
rifle, a revolver, fishing-tackle for each man, compass, aneroid
barometer, thermometer, folding stove, stew-pans in nests, frying-pan,
broiler, table-ware, and provisions for three weeks based upon the army
ration, with dried fruits, condensed milk, brandy, medicines, etc.,
purchased at St. Paul.

Our stores and equipment suitably divided between the canoes, we paddled
up through the outlet and into the lake, followed by Metagooe and
Waisonbekton in a large birch-bark canoe bearing the provisions and
camp-supplies of the Indians, while their companions walked across the
country.

Wild Rice Lake is about one mile by five miles in extent. It is named
from the wild rice which grows up from its shallow depths over almost
its whole extent. Each autumn hundreds of Indians gather upon its shores
in tents and lodges to secure the crop. Two squaws pass slowly through
the thick rice in a birch canoe, one paddling at the stern and the other
at the bow, drawing the ripe rice over the gunwale and with a club
flailing the grain out of the straw into the boat. There and thus every
family upon the reservation may secure an important part of the winter's
provisions.

Through an