One of the last acts of Neenaba was to present a pipe and speech, to be forwarded to the President, to request him to use his power to prevent the Sioux from crossing the lines.  Having now finished repairing my canoes, I embarked on the ninth, at three o’clock in the afternoon, and went down the river four hours and a half, probably about eighteen miles, and encamped.  Encountered four Indians, from whom we obtained some pieces of venison.  During the night wolves set up their howls near our camp, a sure sign that we were in a deer country.

A PRAIRIE COUNTRY.—­The next morning (10th Aug.) we embarked at five, and remained in our canoes till ten A.M., when we landed for breakfast.  We had now entered a prairie country, of a pleasing and picturesque aspect.  We observed a red deer during the morning; we passed many hunting encampments of the Indians, and the horns and bones of slaughtered deers, and other evidences of our being in a valuable game country.  These signs continued and increased after breakfast.  The river had now increased in volume, so as to allow a free navigation, and the men could venture to put out their strength in following down a current, always strong, and often rapid.  We were passing a country of sylvan attractions, of great fertility, and abounding in deer, elk, and other animals.  We also saw a mink, and a flock of brant.  Mr. Clary shot a turkey-buzzard, the first intimation that we had reached within the range of that bird.  As evening approached we saw a raccoon on a fallen bank.  We came at nightfall to the Kakabika Falls, carried our baggage across the portage, and encamped at the western end, ready to embark in the morning, having descended the river, by estimation, seventy miles.  These falls are over sandstone, a rock which has shown itself at all the rapids below Rice Lake.

SAW MILLS.—­The next morning (11th) we embarked at six o’clock, and, after descending strong and rapid waters for a distance of about fifteen miles, reached the site of a saw mill.  A Mr. Wallace, who with ten men was in charge of it, and was engaged in reconstructing a dam that had been carried off by the last spring freshet, represented Messrs. Rolette and Lockwood of Prairie du Chien.  Another mill, he said, was constructed on a creek just below, and out of sight.

I asked Mr. Wallace where the lines between the Sioux and Chippewas crossed.  He said above.  He had no doubt, however, but that the land belonged to the Chippewas.  He said that no Sioux had been here for seven years.  At that time a mill was built here, and Sioux came and encamped at it, but they were attacked by the Chippewas and several killed, since which they have not appeared.  He told us that this stream is called the FOLLEAVOINE.

The country near the mills is not, in fact, occupied by either Chippewa or Sioux, in consequence of which game is abundant on it.  We saw a wolf, on turning a dense point of woods, in the morning.  The animal stood a moment, and then turned and fled into the forest.  After passing the mills we saw groups of two, five and four deer, and of two wolves at separate points.  Mr. Johnston shot at a flight of brant, and brought down one.  The exclamations, indeed, of “un loup! un chevreuil!" were continually in the men’s mouths.