Ozawindib hesitated not a moment which branch to ascend, but shooting his canoe out of the stronger current of the Itascan fork, entered the other. His wisdom in this movement was soon apparent. He had not only entered the shallower and stiller branch, but one that led more directly to the base of the ultimate summit of Itasca. This stream soon narrowed to twenty feet. We could distinctly descry the moving sands at its bottom; but its diminished velocity was apparent from the intrusion of aquatic plants along its shores. It was manifest also from the forest vegetation, that we were advancing into regions of a more alpine flora. The branches of the larches, spruce, and gray pines, were clothed with lichens and floating moss to their very tops, denoting an atmosphere of more than the ordinary humidity. Clumps of gray willows skirted the margin of the stream. It was found that the river had made its utmost northing in Queen Anne's Lake. From the exit from that point, the course was nearly due south, and from this moment to our arrival at the ultimate forks, which cannot exceed a mile and a half or two miles, it was evident why the actual source of this celebrated river had so long eluded scrutiny. We were ascending at every curve so far _south_, as to carry the observer out of every old line of travel or commerce in the fur trade (the sole interest here), and into a remote elevated region, which is never visited indeed, except by Indian hunters, and is never crossed, even by them, to visit the waters of the Red River--the region in immediate juxtaposition north. This semi Alpine plateau, or height of land for which we were now pushing directly, is called in the parlance of the fur trade _Hauteurs de Terre_. It was evident that we were ascending to this continental plateau by steps, denoted by a series of rapids, presenting step by step, in regular succession, widespread areas of flat surface spotted with almost innumerable lakes, small and large, and rice-ponds and lagoons. Thus, after surmounting the step of the Packagama Falls, we enter on a wide and far stretching plateau which embraces the great area of Leech Lake, and its numerous lacustrine beds. This step or plateau may, in the descending order of the Mississippi, be called the fifth plateau, and is, by barometrical observation, 1,356 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. The next, or fourth step, is that of the plateau of Cass Lake, caused chiefly by the lively waters of the Leech Lake, the Upper Red Cedar, and the Winnepek outlets. The Cass Lake level extends west of this lake to the foot of the Metoswa rapids. This is forty-six feet above the Leech Lake level. The third plateau, on which the Mississippi spreads itself, is that of the Queen Anne summit, which is elevated by the Metoswa rapids sixty-four feet above the former. We had now entered on this third plateau, on which we found the river flowing with a just perceptible current, and frequently expanding itself in small lakes. On