CHIPPEWA RIVER.—­At twelve o’clock precisely we came to the confluence of this fork with the main stream.  The Chippewa is a noble mass of water, flowing with a wide sweeping majesty to the Mississippi.  It excites the idea of magnitude.  Wide plains, and the most sylvan and picturesque hills bound the view.  We abandoned our smallest canoe at this point, and, pushing into the central channel of the grand current, pursued for six hours our way to its mouth, where we encamped on a long spit of naked sand, which marked its entrance into the Mississippi.

SNAKE.—­The only thing that opposed our passage was a large serpent in the centre of the channel, whose liberty being impinged, coiled himself up, and raised his head in defiance.  Its colors were greenish-yellow and brownish.  It appeared to be of the thickness at the maximum of a man’s wrist.  The bowsman struck it with a pole, not without some trepidation at his proximity to the reptile, but it made off, apparently unhurt, or not disabled.

MONT LE GARDE.—­The picturesque and grass-clad elevation called Le Garde by the canoe-men, attracted our notice.  It is a high hill, the top of which commands a view of the whole length of Lake Pepin, where Chippewa war parties look out for their enemies.  It was from this elevation that Kewaynokwut’s party spied poor Finley and his men in 1824, and there could have been no reason whatever for mistaking their character, for he had a linen tent and other unmistakeable insignia of a trader.

The Chippewa enters the Mississippi by several channels, which at this stage of the water, are formed by long sand bars, which are but a few inches above the water.  The tracks of deer and elk were abundant on these bars.  We had found something of this kind on a bar of the Folleavoine below the mills, where we landed to dry the doctor’s herbarium and press, which had been knocked overboard in a rapid.  The tracks of elk at that spot were as numerous as those of cattle in a barn yard.  There are high hills on the west banks of the Mississippi opposite the entrance, and an enchanting view is had of the foot of Lake Pepin and its beautiful shores.

Deer appear to come on to these sand bars at night, to avoid the mosquitoes.  Wolves follow them.  We estimate our distance at forty miles, inclusive of the stop at the mill.  We had the brant roasted on a stick for supper.

DESCENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI.—­We embarked on our descent at four o’clock A.M.  We passed three canoes of Sioux men with their families.  The canoes were wooden.  We stopped alongside, and gave them tobacco.  The women club their hair like the Chippewas, and wear short gowns of cloth.  Soon afterwards we overtook four Sioux of Wabashaw’s band, in a canoe.  We stopped for breakfast at nine o’clock, under a high shore on the west bank.  Found fine unios of a large size, very abundant on a little sandy bay.  I found the unio alatus, overtus, rugosus and gibbosus, also some anadontas.  The Sioux came up, and gave us to understand that a murder had been committed by the Menomonies in the mine country.  Some of my voyageurs laughed outright to hear the Sioux language spoken, the sound of its frequent palatals falling very flat on men’s ears accustomed only to the Algonquin.