Arrangements for a light party to ascend the Mississippi, and seek for its sources, having been made, we left Sandy Lake, in two canoes, at nine o'clock in the morning on the 17th. This party, in addition to his Excellency Gov. Cass, consisted of Dr. Alex. Wolcott, Capt. Douglass, Lieut. Mackay, Maj. Forsyth, and myself, with nineteen voyageurs and Indians, provisioned for twelve days. A voyage of about a mile across the western prolongation of the lake, brought us to its outlet--a wide winding stream, with a very perceptible current, and rich alluvial banks, bearing a forest. After pursuing it some mile and a half, we descended a small rapid, where the average descent of water in a short distance may be perhaps three feet; it appeared, however, to give the men no concern, for they urged their way down it, with full strength of paddle and song, and we soon found ourselves in the Mississippi. The first sight of this stream reminded me of one of its striking characteristics, at far lower points, namely, its rapidity. Its waters are slightly turbid, with a reddish tint. Its width, at this point, as denoted by admeasurements subsequently made,[68] is three hundred and thirty-one feet. Its banks are alluvial and of a fertile aspect, bearing a forest of oaks, maples, elms, ash, and pines, with a dense undergrowth of shrubbery. I observed a species of polyganum in the water's edge, and wherever we attempted to land it was miry and the borders wet and damp. We were now, from our notes, a hundred and forty-seven miles due west of the head of Lake Superior, by the curved lines of travelling, and probably one hundred in an air line; and had struck the channel of the Mississippi, not less, by the estimates, than two thousand five hundred miles above its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico. It could not, from the very vague accounts we could obtain from the traders, originate, at the utmost, more than three hundred miles higher, and our Canadian voyageurs turned up the stream, with that Troubadour air, or _gaite de cour_, keeping time with song and paddle, with which New France had at first been traversed by its Champlains, Marquettes, and Frontenacs. To conquer distance and labor, at the same time, with a song, has occurred to no other people, and if these men are not happy, in these voyages, they, at least, have the semblance of it, and are merry. To keep up this flow of spirits, and bravery of capacity in demolishing distances, they always overrate the per diem travel, which, as I have before observed, is put about one-third too high--that is to say, their league is about two miles. On we went, at this rapid rate, stopping every half hour to rest five minutes. During this brief rest, their big kettle of boiled corn and pork was occasionally brought forward, and dipped in, with great fervency of spoon; but, whether eating or working, they were always gay, and most completely relieved from any care of what might happen to-morrow.