western side are the wonderful gas springs. The "amphitheatre,"
sweeps around to, and is cloven by, that stream, its elevation
on the west side being lofty, and deeply grooved from its summit
downward, the whole locality at the time of our visit being
covered with raspberry bushes loaded with fruit.

The gas escapes from a hole in the ground near the water's edge in
a pillar of flame about thirty inches high, and which has been
burning time out of mind. It also bubbles, or, rather, foams up,
for several yards in the river, rising at low water even as far
out as mid-stream. There is a level plateau at the springs, several
acres in extent, backed by a range of hills, and if a stake is
driven anywhere into this, and withdrawn, the gas, it is said,
follows at once. They are but another unique feature of this
astonishing stream.

For a long distance the upper prairie level exposes good soil,
always clay loam, and there can be little doubt that there is
much fertile land in this district. That night we slept, or
tried to sleep, in the boat, and made a very early start on a
raw, cloudy morning, the tracking being mainly in the water.
We now passed great cliffs of sandstone, some almost shrouded
in the woods, and came upon many peculiar circular stones, as
large as, and much resembling, mill-stones. Towards evening we
passed Pointe la Biche, and met Mr. Connor, a trader, with two
loaded York boats, going north, and whom we silently blessed,
for he brought additional mail for ourselves. What can equal
the delight in the wilderness of hearing from home! It was
impossible to make Grand Rapids, and we camped where we were,
the night cold and raw, but enlivened by the reading and
re-reading of letters and newspapers.

Next morning, crossing the right bank of the river, and leaving
the boat, we walked to the foot of Grand Rapids. Our path, if
it could be called such, lay over a toilsome jumble of huge,
sharp-edged rocks, overhung by a beetling cliff of reddish-yellow
sandstone, much of which seemed on the point of falling. This whole
bank, like so much of this part of the river, is planted, almost at
regular intervals, with the great circular rocks already referred
to. These globular or circular masses are a curious feature of this
region. They have been shaped, no doubt, by the action of eddying
water, yet are so numerous, and so much alike, as to bespeak some
abnormally uniform conditions in the past.

The Grand Rapids--Ki