During the summer of 1882, the United States government had advertised that it would offer at public auction, many townships of land lying along the border between Minnesota and Canada, in Cook, Lake, St. Louis, and Itasca Counties. This country was difficult to reach. The distance from Duluth to Lake Vermilion was upwards of ninety miles. There was not even a road through the woods, over which a loaded team could be driven. Men were obliged to take their supplies upon their backs and carry them over a trail, all of this distance. From Lake Vermilion, it was possible to work both eastward and westward, by using canoes and making numerous portages from one lake to another, and so on for seventy-five miles in either direction along the boundary. Supplies were soon exhausted, so that it was necessary to keep packers on the trail, bringing in on their backs, fresh supplies from Duluth to Vermilion, where now is located the city of Tower. In the Vermilion country, dog trains could sometimes be advantageously used. Estimators of timber were employed either for themselves or for others, in surveying the lands, and in estimating the pine timber in these various townships that were to be offered at public sale in the month of December. This work continued almost to the day when the sale was to begin. That sale was held at the local land office at Duluth, and there were present men interested in the purchase of pine timber, from Maine, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and some men representing Canadian capital. The competition was vigorous, and Uncle Sam's lands were bid in at a round price. During the fall of 1882, while preparing for the approaching land sale at Duluth, the only son of William S. Patrick, Simeon D. Patrick, a veteran land examiner in my employ, and I, made a short trip west of Duluth, exploring a section of country south of where now is the station of Cornwall, on the Northern Pacific Railroad. Our packer and handy man who carried part of our supplies, was an Indian of considerable note, by the name of John LaGarde, familiarly known as Joe LaGarde. He was a fine specimen of Chippewa Indian trapper, tall, straight, muscular, and a good burden bearer, but rather averse to long days' work. He was handy about camp, but, being an Indian, and accustomed to lying down at night with his feet close to a few live embers, he did not share with the white man the wish for large piles of wood to last through the cold nights that prevailed during this trip. [Illustration: "The roots of the lilies are much relished as a food by the moose." (Page 172.)]