As evening approached we saw a raccoon on a fallen
bank. We came at nightfall to the Kakabika Falls, carried our baggage
across the portage, and encamped at the western end, ready to embark in
the morning, having descended the river, by estimation, seventy miles.
These falls are over sandstone, a rock which has shown itself at all the
rapids below Rice Lake.
SAW MILLS.--The next morning (11th) we embarked at six o'clock, and,
after descending strong and rapid waters for a distance of about fifteen
miles, reached the site of a saw mill. A Mr. Wallace, who with ten men
was in charge of it, and was engaged in reconstructing a dam that had
been carried off by the last spring freshet, represented Messrs. Rolette
and Lockwood of Prairie du Chien. Another mill, he said, was constructed
on a creek just below, and out of sight.
I asked Mr. Wallace where the lines between the Sioux and Chippewas
crossed. He said above. He had no doubt, however, but that the land
belonged to the Chippewas. He said that no Sioux had been here for seven
years.
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