Original - North Central Michigan College Library

principally in birch, pine, spruce, fir,and asmall quantity of maple.By the twelfth we arrived where the streamswere large enough to float the canoes with theirlading, though the men walked in the waterpushing them along. Next day we found themsufficiently navigable, though interrupted byfrequent falls and carrying-places. On thetwentieth we reached Lake Sagunac, or Saginaga,27 distant sixty leagues from the GrandPortage. This was the hithermost post in thenorthwest established by the French, and therewas formerly a large village of the Chipewahere, now destroyed by the Nadowessies. Ifound only three lodges filled with poor, dirty,and almost naked inhabitants, of whom Ibought fish and wild rice, 28 which latter theyhad in great abundance. When populous, thisvillage used to be troublesome to the traders,obstructing their voyages and extorting liquor27This lake lies much nearer Lake Superior than hereindicated. Apparently modern Lake Nequaquon, onthe boundary of St. Louis County, Minnesota, is thepoint reached by Henry. Editor.28 Folle avoine, avenafatua, zizania aquatica. Author.The wild rice plant, here mentioned, was widelydistributed over the continent of North America, andwas an important article of sustenance for many tribes.It is still widely used by the natives, and has* evenbecome an article of civilized commerce, being handledregularly by the jobbing houses of Chicago and othercities. For an exhaustive study of the wild rice and its-use see Albert E. Jenks, "Wild Rice Gatherers of theUpper Lakes, " in Nineteenth Annual Report of Ameri-.232