The next morning (14th), we were again in our canoes before five o'clock. The severe rapids continued, and were rendered more dangerous by limbs of trees which stretched over the stream, threatening to sweep off everything that was movable. We had been one hour passing down a perfect defile of rapids, when we approached the Kakabikoñs Falls. _Kakábik_,[169] in the Chippewa, means a cascade, or shoot of water over rocks. _Oñs_ is merely the diminutive, to which all the nouns of this language are subject. How formidable this little cataract might be, we could not tell. It appeared to be a swift rush of water, bolting through a narrow gorge, without a perpendicular drop, and Ozawindib said it required a portage. Halting at its head, for Lieut. Allen to come up, his bowsman caught hold of my canoe, to check his velocity. It had that effect. But, being checked suddenly, the stern of his canoe swung across the stream, which permitted the steersman to catch hold of a branch. Thus stretched tensely across the rapid stream, in an instant the water swept over its gunwale, and its contents were plunged into the swift current. The water was about four feet deep. Allen and his men found footing, with much ado, but his canoe-compass, apparatus, and everything, was lost and swept over the falls. He grasped his manuscript notes, and, by feeling with his feet, fetched up his fowling-piece; the men clutched about, and managed to save the canoe. Fortunately, I had a fine instrument to replace the lost compass, though wanting the nautical rig of the other. [169] Kakábik. _Abik_ is a rock. The prefixed syllable, _Kak_, may be derived from _Kukidjewum_, a rapid stream. _Ka_ is often a prefix of negation in compound words, which has the force of a derogative. We made a short portage. Two of the canoes, with Indian pilots, went down the rapids, but injured their canoes so much as to cause a longer delay than if they had carried them by land. Below this fall, the river receives a tributary on the right hand, called the _Chemaun_, or Ocano. It contributes to double its volume, very nearly, and hence its savanna borders are enlarged. Conspicuous among the shrubbery on its shores are the wilding rose and clumps of the salix. The channel winds through these savanna borders capriciously. At a point where we landed for breakfast, on an open pine bank on the left shore, we observed several copious and clear springs pouring into the river. Indeed, the extensive sand ranges which traverse the woodlands of the Itasca plateau are perfectly charged with the moisture which is condensed on these elevations, which flows in through a thousand little rills. On these sandy heights the conifera predominate.