The mission at Yellow Lake had been in progress two years. Several families had listened with glowing interest to religious instruction, schooled their children, and cultivated gardens near the mission, when Mr. Ayer visited the band of Indians at Pokegama. Here were some thirty-five or forty families in the year 1835. The chief and two or three families expressed to him a desire to settle down and school their children. They requested him to come and bring all with him who wished to come from Yellow Lake. The reasons that induced him to Pokegama were, first, the means of subsistence were more abundant, both for the Indians and the mission family--wild rice and fish in particular; this being the case the Indians could be more stationary and send their children to school. Second, the soil for agricultural purposes was superior to that of Yellow Lake. As one of the leading objects of the mission was to induce the Indians to settle down and adopt habits of civilization, this object could be better attained at this place than at Yellow Lake, where it was comparatively sterile and sandy. A third object gained would be to locate in the midst of a larger number of Indians, with whom we could come in more frequent contact, and last, but not least, put the mission in a nearer point of communication with St. Peter, from whence all the family necessaries were obtained at that day. These reasons, together with the solicitation of one of the chiefs, and his permission to build on his land, and use his wood, water and fish, led Mr. Ayer, in the fall of 1835, to remove to Pokegama. For the continued history of this mission the reader is referred to the history of Pine county. CHIPPEWAS OF WOOD LAKE.--A small band of Chippewas, as late as 1870, lingered about Big Wood lake, unwilling to leave their old hunting grounds. Though brought directly in contact with civilization, they adopted its vices, otherwise remaining savages, taking no part in cultivating the soil or educating their children, contented to live and die in the old fashion of their race. They subsist, as far as possible, by hunting and fishing, and are by no means above begging when occasion may offer. They retain their annual dances and festivals, at the occurrence of which other bands join them from a distance. A dance with its accompanying feasts occupies generally about ten days, and is conducted according to rigid formulas. These dances are intended as representations of hunting, fishing or fighting, and are honored accordingly. They are accompanied with music upon rude instruments, and a weird chant in guttural and nasal tones, which may be understood as a poetic recital of their deeds or expression of their feelings. Their dead are buried in conspicuous places. The graves are decorated with splints of timber. A pole with rags and trinkets is planted near the graves. There is nothing that can long mark their resting places or keep them from being desecrated by the share of the plowman.