Not more than three or four miles above the latter,
the Mississippi exhibits the junction of its ultimate forks. The right
hand, or Itasca branch, was represented as by far the longest, the most
circuitous, and most difficult of ascent. It brings down much the
largest volume of water. I availed myself of the geographical knowledge
of my Indian guide by taking the left hand, or what I had occasion soon
to call the Plantagenian branch. It expanded, in the course of a few
miles, into a lake, which I called Marquette, and, a little further,
into another, which I named La Salle. About four miles above the latter,
we entered into a more considerable sheet of water, which I named
Plantagenet, being the site of an old Indian encampment called
Kubbakunna, or the Rest in the Path.
We encamped a short distance above the upper end of this lake at the
close of the day, on a point of low land covered with a small growth of
gray pine, fringed with alder, tamarisk, spruce, and willow. A bed of
moss covered the soil, into which the foot sank at every step.
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