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 sippi. 348 Readings ill European History of twenty-seven hundred paces and helped us to transport our canoes to enter that river. After which they returned home, leaving us alone in this unknown country in the hands of Providence. Thus we left the waters flowing to Quebec, four hundred or five hundred leagues from here, to float on those that would henceforth take us through strange lands. . . . They reach The river on which we embarked is called the Meskousing the Missis- j-j e< Wisconsin]. It is very wide. It has a sandy bottom, which forms various shoals that render its navigation very dif- ficult. . . . After proceeding forty leagues on this same route, we arrived at the mouth of our river, and at 42^ degrees of latitude we safely entered the Mississippi on the 17th of June with a joy that I cannot express. Here we are, then, on this renowned river, all of whose peculiar features I have endeavored to note carefully. The Mississippi River takes its rise in various lakes in the coun- try of the northern nations. . . . We gently followed its course, which runs toward the south and southeast, as far as the 42 d degree of latitude. . . . From time to time we came upon monstrous fish, one of which struck our canoe with such violence that I thought that it was a great tree about to break the canoe in pieces. On another occasion we saw on the water a monster with the head of a tiger, a sharp nose like that of a wild-cat, with whiskers and straight, erect ears. The head was gray and the neck quite black. But we saw no more creatures of this sort. . . . When we reached the parallel of 41 degrees 28 minutes, following the same direction, we found that turkeys had taken the place of game and the pisikious or wild cattle [i.e. buffaloes] that of the other animals. We call them " wild cattle " because they are very similar to our domestic cattle. They are not longer, but are nearly as large again and more corpulent. When our people killed one, three persons had much difficulty in moving it. . . . Their heavy coat falls off in summer and the skin becomes as soft as velvet. At that season the savages use the hides for making fine robes, which they paint in various colors. . ..