there were in it elevated frames where the boys are kept to scare away the blackbirds. I saw smoke near the frames, the boys having kindled a fire to roast ears of corn for their comfort. The Sioux have winter & summer houses. The latter are conical made of buffalo robes covering poles. The summer lodges looked something like poor log huts & are made of poles & elm bark. Near Red Wings village there is a Miss^y establishment from Switzerland.--Lake Pepin is a beautiful sheet of water thro wh the M. flows or is an expanse of the M. & is 25 miles by 3. It apparently abounded in large fish, for they were constantly jumping out of the water. Its banks you know are celebrated for agates--but we have not time to stop a moment.--The settlements above P. du Chien are very few--now and then a solitary dwelling & a wood yard. At one of these places the man told me his nearest neighbor was 20 miles off. In winter there is a good deal of travelling on the river in sleighs. About half way up Lake Pepin is the lover's rock of which you have heard, the Chippeway river enters from the East just below the commencement of the Lake, & its Mouth is 100 Miles below St. Peters. Up it & like wise up the St. Croix are saw mills, as that country abounds with Pine. The Mouth of the St. Croix is 30 miles below St. Peters. Here is a beautiful lake as large as L. Pepin thro' which the St. C. flows just before it joins the M.--We have a Mr. Akin on board whose trading establishment is 300 Miles north of the St. Peters & 60 west of Lake Superior. Then he has been among the Chippeways 33 yrs. He has been thro' Lake Superior 30 times to New York for goods & returned as often; and now for the first time he has traded with St. Louis. He knows perfectly all the languages around him. The most copious is the Chippeway. He says they have some what of a written language, and he has frequently seen an Indian write off a ... [illegible] for another on a piece of bark. He thinks the characters are something like those of the Mexicans.--Now I suppose you would like to receive a letter with the S. Peter's post Mark; and if I ascertain it will not take more than a Month on its journey you shall receive this thro that channel; otherwise I will reserve it for the p. o. of P. du Chien".[472] The narrative is continued in a letter of August 29, 1843, written from Potosi, Wisconsin, to his son: