of
the chief Little Pine--Visit of Wabishkepenais--A despairing
Indian--Geography.

CHAPTER XII.

A pic-nic party at the foot of Lake Superior--Canoe--Scenery--Descent of
St. Mary's Falls--Etymology of the Indian names of Sault Ste. Marie, and
Lake Superior--The wild rice plant--Indian trade--American Fur
Company--Distribution of presents--Death of Sassaba--Epitaph--Indian
capacity to count--Oral literature--Research--Self-reliance.

CHAPTER XIII.

My first winter at the foot of Lake Superior--Copper mines--White
fish--A poetic name for a fish--Indian tale--Polygamy--A
reminiscence--Taking of Fort Niagara--Mythological and allegorical tales
among the aborigines--Chippewa language--Indian vowels--A polite and a
vulgar way of speaking the language--Public worship--Seclusion from
the world.

CHAPTER XIV.

Amusements during the winter months, when the temperature is at the
lowest point--Etymology of the word Chippewa--A meteor--The Indian
"fireproof"--Temperature and weather--Chippewa interchangeables--Indian
names for the seasons--An incident in conjugating
verbs--Visiting--Gossip--The fur trade--Todd, McGillvray, Sir Alexander
Mackenzie--Wide dissimilarity of the English and Odjibwa syntax--Close
of the year.

CHAPTER XV.

New Year's day among the descendants of the Norman French--Anti-philosophic
speculations of Brydone--Schlegel on language--A peculiar native
expression evincing delicacy--Graywacke in the basin of Lake
Superior--Temperature--Snow shoes--Translation of Gen. i.3--Historical
reminiscences--Morals of visiting--Odjibwa numerals--Harmon's
travels--Mackenzie's vocabularies--Criticism--Mungo Park.

CHAPTER XVI.

Novel reading--Greenough's "Geology"--The cariboo--Spiteful
plunder of private property on a large scale--Marshall's
Washington--St. Clair's "Narrative of his Campaign"--Etymology
of the word _totem_--A trait of transpositive languages--Polynesian
languages--A meteoric explosion at the maximum height of the winter's
temperature--Spafford's "Gazetteer"--Holmes on the Prophecies--Foreign
politics--Mythology--Gnomes--The Odjibwa based on monosyllables--No
auxiliary verbs--Pronouns declined for tense---Esprella's
letters--Valerius--Gospel of St. Luke--Chippewayan group of
languages--Home politics--Prospect of being appointed superintendent of
the lead mines of Missouri.

CHAPTER XVII.

Close of the winter solstice, and introduction of a northern
spring--News from the world--