Passing through this lake, the expedition met the brigade of boats of the late Mr. Wm. Aitken, from the Upper Mississippi waters, with the annual returns of furs from that region. He represented the urgent necessity of an official visit to that section of the country, where the Indians were in turmoil; but stated, at the same time, that the waters were too low in the streams at the sources of the Mississippi to render explorations practicable. He also represented it impracticable, this season, to enter the Mississippi by the way of the _Broulé_, or Misakoda River. This information was confirmed on reaching Chegoimegon, at the remarkable group of the Confederation Islands (_ante_, p. 105). Returning eight miles on my track, I entered the Muskigo, or Mauvais River, and ascended this stream by all its bad rafts, rapids, and portages, to the upper waters of the River St. Croix of the Mississippi. Crossing the intermediate table-lands, with their intricate system of lakes and portages to _Lac Courteroille_, or Ottawa Lake, I entered one of the main sources of Chippewa River, and descended this prime tributary stream to its entrance into the Mississippi, at the foot of Lake Pepin. From the latter point I descended to Prairie du Chien, and to Galena in Illinois. Dispatching the men and canoes from this place back to ascend the Wisconsin River, and meet me at the portage of Fort Winnebago, I crossed the lead-mine country by land, by the way of the Pekatolica, Blue Mound, and Four Lakes, to the source of the Fox River, and rejoining my canoes here, descended this stream to Green Bay, and returned to my starting-point by the way of Michilimackinac and the Straits of St. Mary. Two months and twelve days were employed on the journey, during which a line of forests and Indian trails had been passed, of two thousand three hundred miles. The Indians had been met, and counselled with at various points, at which presents and provisions were distributed, and the peace policy of the Government enforced. A Chippewa war party, under Ninaba, had been arrested on its march against the Sioux in descending the Red Cedar fork of the Chippewa River. Information was obtained that nine tribes or bands had united in their sympathies for the restless Sauks and Foxes, who broke out in hostility to the United States the following spring. Messages, with pipes and belts, and in one case notice, with a tomahawk smeared with vermilion, to symbolize war, had passed between these tribes.[153] [153] An outline of the expedition of 1831 is found in Schoolcraft's "Thirty Years on the American Frontiers." Lippincott & Co. Phila. 1850.