Chapter VIII
Proceed up the St. Louis River, and around its falls and rapids to Sandy Lake in the valley of the Upper Mississippi--Grand Portage--Portage aux Coteaux--A sub-exploring party--Cross the great morass of Akeek Scepi to Sandy Lake--Indian mode of pictographic writing--Site of an Indian jonglery--Post of Sandy Lake.
We had now reached above nine hundred and fifty miles from our starting-point at Detroit, and had been more than forty days in traversing the shores of Lakes Huron and Superior. July had already commenced, and no time was to be lost in reaching our extreme point of destination. Every exertion was therefore made to push ahead. By ten o'clock of the morning after our arrival at the Fond du Lac post, we embarked, and after going two miles reached the foot of the first rapids of the St. Louis. This spot is called the commencement of the Grand Portage--over this path all the goods, provisions, and canoes are to be carried by hand nine miles. During this distance, the St. Louis River, a stream of prime magnitude, bursts through the high trap range of what Bouchette calls the Cabotian Mountains, being a continuation of the upheavals of the north shore of Lake Superior, the river leaping and foaming, from crag to crag, in a manner which creates some of the most grand and picturesque views. We sometimes stood gazing at their precipices and falls, with admiration, and often heard their roar on our path, when we were miles away from them. Capt. Douglass estimated the river to fall one hundred and eight feet during the first nine miles; and from estimates furnished me by Dr. Wolcott, the aggregate fall from the mouth of the Savannè, to that point, is two hundred and twelve feet. We found the first part of the ascent of its banks very precipitous and difficult, particularly for the men who bore burdens, and what rendered the labor almost insupportable was the heat, which stood at 82°, in the shade, at noon. We made but five pauses the first day; and were three days on the portage. It rained the second day, which added much to the difficulty of our progress. We now found ourselves, at every step, advancing into a wild and rugged region. Everything around us wore the aspect of remoteness. Dark forests, swampy grounds, rocky precipices, and the distant roaring of the river, as it leapt from rock to rock, would have sufficiently impressed the mind with the presence of the wilderness, without heavy rains, miry paths, and the train of wild and picturesque Indians, who constituted a part of our carriers.
The rocks, at the foot of the portage, consisted of horizontal red sandstone. On reaching the head of it, we found argillite in a vertical position. I found the latter, in some places, pervaded by thin veins of quartz, and in one instance by grauwackke. At one spot there was a small vein of coarse graphite in the argillite. Large blocks of black crystallized hornblende rock lie along the shores, where we again reached the river, and are often seen on its bed, amid the swift-running water, but I did not observe this rock in place. Among the loose stones at the foot of the portage, I picked up a specimen of micaceous oxide of iron. Such are the gleams of its geology and mineralogy. The growth of the forest is pines, hemlock, spruce, birch, oak, and maple. In favorable situations, I observed the common red raspberry, ripe.
On embarking above the portage, the expedition occupied seven canoes, of a size most suitable for this species of navigation. Our Indian auxiliaries from Fond du Lac were here rewarded, and dismissed. On ascending six miles, we reached the Portage aux Coteaux, so called from the carrying path lying over a surface of vertical argillite. This rock, standing up in the bed, or on the banks of the stream, with a scanty overhanging foliage of cedar, gives a peculiarly wild and abrupt aspect to the scene; which is by no means lessened by the loud roaring of the waters. There is a fall and rapid at this portage, where the river, it may be estimated, sinks its level about fourteen feet.
We encamped at the head of this portage, where the water again permits the canoes to be put in. Thus far, we had found this stream a broad, flowing torrent, but owing to its rapids and rocks, anything but favorable to its navigation by boats, or canoes of heavy burden. His excellency Gov. Cass, therefore, determined to relieve the river party, by detaching a sub-expedition across the country to Sandy Lake. It was thought proper that I should accompany this party. It consisted, besides, of Lieut. Mackay, with eight soldiers, and of Mr. Doty, Mr. Trowbridge, and Mr. Chase. We were provided with an interpreter and two Chippewa guides, being sixteen persons in all.
Thus organized, we left the camp at the head of the portage, the following morning, at six o'clock. Each one carried provisions for five days, a knife, a musquito bar, and a blanket or cloak. There were a few guns taken, but generally this was thought to be an incumbrance, as we expected to see little game and to encounter a toilsome tramp. The guides, taking their course by the sun, struck west into a close forest of pine, hemlock, and underbrush, which required energy to push through. On travelling a couple of miles, we fell into an Indian path leading in the required direction; but this path, after passing through two ponds, and some marshes, eventually lost itself in swamps. These marshes, after following through them, about four miles, were succeeded by an elevated dry sandy barren, with occasional clumps of pitch pine, and with a surface of shrubbery. Walking over this dry tract was quite a relief. We then entered a thick forest of young spruce and hemlock. Two miles of this brought us to the banks of a small lake, with clear water, and a pebbly shore. Having no canoe to cross it, our guides led us around its southern shores. The fallen timber and brush rendered this a very difficult march. To avoid these obstructions, as they approached the head of the lake, we eventually took its margin, occasionally leading into the water. While passing these shores, I picked up some specimens of the water-worn agates, for which the diluvians in this quarter are remarkable. We now fell into an old Indian path, which led to two small lakes, similar in size, to the former one, but with marshy borders, and reddish water. These small lakes were filled with pond lilies, rushes, and wild rice. At the margin of the second lake, the path ceased, and the guides could not afterwards find it. The path terminated abruptly at the second lake. While searching about this, Chamees,[63] one of the Indian guides, found a large green tortoise, which he and his companion killed in a very ingenious and effectual way, by a blow from a hatchet on the neck, at the point where the shell or buckler terminates. After leaving this water, they appeared to be in doubt about the way; almost imperceptibly, we found ourselves in a great tamarak swamp. The bogs and moss served to cover up, almost completely, the fallen trees, and formed so elastic a carpet as to sink deep at every tread. Occasionally they broke through, letting the foot into the mire. This proved a very fatiguing tramp. To add to its toils, it rained at intervals all day. We were eleven hours in passing this swamp, and estimated, and probably over-estimated ourselves to have past twenty miles. We encamped at five o'clock near the shores of a third small lake, each one picking out for himself the most elevated spot possible, and the person who got a position most completely out of the water was the best man. It is fatigue, however, that makes sleep a welcome guest, and we awoke without any cause of complaint on that score.
[63] The pouncing hawk.
The next morning, as we were about to depart, we observed near the camp-fire of our guides a pole leaning in the direction we were to go, with a birch-bark inscription inserted in a slit in the top of the pole. This was too curious an object not to excite marked attention, and we took it down to examine the hieroglyphics, or symbols, which had been inscribed with charcoal on the birch scroll. We found the party minutely depicted by symbols. The figures of eight muskets denoted that there were eight soldiers in the party. The usual figure for a man, namely, a closed cross with a head, thus:-- and one hand holding a sword, told the tale that they were commanded by an officer. Mr. Doty was drawn with a book, they having understood that he was a lawyer. I was depicted with a hammer, to denote a mineralogist. Mr. Trowbridge and Mr. Chase, and the interpreter, were also depicted. Chamees and his companion were drawn by a camp-fire apart, and the figure of the tortoise and a prairie-hen denoted the day's hunt. There were three hacks on the pole, which leaned to the N. W., denoting our course of travel. Having examined this unique memorial, it was carefully replaced in its former position, when we again set forward. It appeared we had rested in a sort of oasis in the swamp, for we soon entered into a section of a decidedly worse character than that we had passed the day before. The windfalls and decaying timber were more frequent--the bogs, if possible, more elastic--the spots dry enough to halt on, more infrequent, and the water more highly colored with infusions of decaying vegetable matter. We urged our way across this tract of morass for nine hours, during which we estimated our progress at fourteen miles, and encamped about four o'clock P. M., in a complete state of exhaustion. Even our Indian guides demanded a halt; and what had, indeed, added to our discouragements, was the uncertainty of their way, which they had manifested.
Our second night's repose in this swampy tract, was on ground just elevated above the water; the mosquitos were so pertinacious at this spot as to leave us but little rest. From information given by our guides, this wide tract of morass constitutes the sources of the Akeek Seebi, or Kettle River, which is one of the remotest sources of the Mille Lac, and, through that body of water, of Rum River. It is visited only by the Indians, at the proper season for trapping the beaver, marten, and muskrat. During our transit through it, we came to open spaces where the cranberry was abundant. In the same locality, we found the ripe fruit, green berries, and blossoms of this fruit.
It was five o'clock A. M. when we resumed our march through this toilsome tract, and we passed out of it, after pressing forward with our best might, during twelve hours. We had been observant of the perplexity of our guides, who had unwittingly, we thought, plunged us into this dreary and seemingly endless morass, and were rejoiced, on a sudden, to hear them raise loud shouts. They had reached a part of the country known to them, and took this mode to express their joy, and we soon found ourselves on the banks of a small clear stream, called by them Bezhiki Seebi, or Buffalo Creek, a tributary to Sandy Lake. We had, at length, reached waters flowing into the Mississippi. On this stream we prepared to encamp, in high spirits, feeling, as those are apt to who have long labored at an object, a pleasure in some measure proportioned to the exertions made.
Any other people but the Indians would feel ill at ease in dreary regions like these. But these sons of the forest appear to carry all their socialities with them, even in the most forbidding solitudes. They are so familiarized with the notions of demons and spirits, that the wildest solitude is replete with objects of hope and fear. We had evidence of this, just before we encamped on the banks of the Bezhiki, when we came to a cleared spot, which had been occupied by what the Canadians, with much force, call a jonglery, or place of necromantic ceremonies of their priests or jossakeeds. There were left standing of this structure six or eight smooth posts of equal length, standing perpendicularly. These had been carefully peeled, and painted with a species of ochrey clay. The curtains of bark, extending between them, and isolating the powow, or operator, had been removed; but the precincts had the appearance of having been carefully cleared of brush, and the ground levelled, for the purposes of these sacred orgies, which exercise so much influence on Indian society.
We were awaked in our encampment, between four and five o'clock, the next morning, by a shower of rain. Jumping up, and taking our customary meal of jerked beef and biscuit, we now followed our guides, with alacrity, over a dry and uneven surface, towards Sandy Lake. We had now been three days in accomplishing the traverse over this broad and elevated, yet sphagnous summit, separating the valley of the St. Louis of Lake Superior from that of the Upper Mississippi. As we approached the basin of Sandy Lake, we passed over several sandy ridges, bearing the white and yellow pine; the surface and its depressions bearing the wild cherry, poplar, hazel, ledum latifolia, and other usual growth and shrubs of the latitude. On the dry sandy tracts the uva ursi, or kinnikinnik of the Indians, was noticed. In the mineral constitution of the ridges themselves, the geologist recognizes that wide-spreading drift-stratum, with boulders and pebbles of sienitic and hornblende, quartz, and sandstone rock, which is so prevalent in the region. As we approached the lake we ascended one of those sandy ridges which surround it, and dashing our way through the dense underbrush, were gratified on gaining its apex to behold the sylvan shores and islands of the lake, with the trading-post and flag, seen dimly in the distance. The view is preserved in the following outlines, taken on the spot.
I asked Chamees the Indian name of this lake. He replied, Ka-metong-aug-e-maug. This is one of those compound terms, in their languages, of which the particle ka is affirmative. Metongaug, is the plural form of sandy lake. Maug is the plural form of water, corresponding, by the usual grammatical duality of meaning, to the plural form of the noun. The word might, perhaps, be adopted in the form of Kametonga.
Having heard, on our passage through Lake Superior, that a gun fired in the basin of Sandy Lake, could be heard at the fort, that experiment was tried, while we sat down or sauntered about to await the result. Having waited in vain, the shots were repeated. After the lapse of a long time, a boat, with two men, was descried in the distance approaching. It proved to be occupied by two young clerks of the trading establishment, named Ashmun and Fairbanks. They managed to embark the elite of our party, in their small vessel, and, as we crossed the lake, amused us with an account of the excitement our shots had caused. Some Indian women affirmed to them that they had heard warwhoops, and to make sure that a Sioux war party were not upon them, they drove off their cattle to a place of safety. In the actual position of affairs, the hunt being over for the year, and the avails being sent to Michilimackinac (for this was the head-quarters of the factor whom we had met at Shelldrake River), the probabilities of its being a hunting party were less. We informed them that we were an advance party of an expedition sent out to explore the sources of the Mississippi River, under the personal order of his Excellency Governor Cass, who was urging his way up the St. Louis to the Savanna Portage, through which he intended to descend into Sandy Lake.
It was near sunset before we landed at the establishment. We found the trading fort a stockade of squared pine timber, thirteen feet high, and facing an area a hundred feet square, with bastions pierced for musketry at the southeast and northwest angles. There were three or four acres outside of one of the angles, picketed in, and devoted to the culture of potatoes. The stockade inclosed two ranges of buildings. This is the post visited by Lieut. Z. Pike, U. S. A., on snow-shoes, and with dog-trains, in the winter of 1806, when it was occupied by the British northwest trading company. As a deep mantle of snow covered the country, it did not permit minute observations on the topography or natural history; and there have been no explorations since. Pike's chief error was in placing the source of the Mississippi in Turtle Lake--a mistake which is due entirely, it is believed, to the imperfect or false maps furnished him by the chief traders of the time.
We were received with all the hospitality possible, in the actual state of things, and with every kindness; and for the first time, since leaving Detroit, we slept in a house. We were informed that we were now within two miles of the Mississippi River, into which the outlet of Sandy Lake emptied itself, and that we were five hundred miles above the Falls of St. Anthony. We had accomplished the transference of position from the head of the basin of Lake Superior, that is, from the foot of the falls of the St. Louis River, in seven days, by a route, too, certainly one of the worst imaginable, and there can be no temerity in supposing that it might be effected in light canoes in half that time.
Chapter IX
Reunion of the expedition on the Savanna Portage--Elevation of this summit--Descent to Sandy Lake--Council with the Chippewa tribe--Who are they?--Traits of their history, language, and customs--Enter the Mississippi, with a sub-exploring party, and proceed in search of its source--Physical characteristics of the stream at this place--Character of the Canadian voyageur!
On rising on the next morning (14th July), our minds were firmly set, at the earliest moment, to rejoin the main expedition, which had been toiling its way up the St. Louis River to the Savanna Portage. And as soon as we had dispatched our breakfast at the Post, we set out, accompanied by one of the trading clerks, for that noted carrying place between the waters of the St. Louis and Sandy Lake. We reached its northwestern terminus at about twelve o'clock, and were surprised to find Gov. Cass, with some of his party, and a part of the baggage, already there; and by five o'clock in the afternoon the last of the latter, together with the canoes, arrived. And it was then, in the exhausted state of the men, and at so late an hour, concluded to encamp, and await the morning to commence the descent of the west Savannè to the lake.
The expedition had, after we left them at the Portage aux Coteaux on the 10th, and being thus relieved of our weight, urged its way up the river, with labor, about fifty-six miles, to the inlet of the east Savannè, having surmounted, in this distance, rapids of the aggregate estimated height of two hundred and twelve feet, which occupied two days. They then ascended the Savannè twenty-four miles, rising eighteen feet. The portage, from water to water, is six miles. It commences in a tamarak swamp, from which the bog, in a dry season, has been burnt off, leaving the path a mass of mire. Trees and sticks have, from time to time, been laid in this to walk on, which it requires the skill of a balancing master to keep. For the distance of three pozes [pauses] this is the condition of the path; afterwards, the footing becomes dry, and there are ascending sand ridges, which are easily crossed.
Dr. Wolcott, to whom I had handed my geological note-book, made the following observations. "We left the vertical strata of slate, about two miles above the Portage aux Coteaux. They were succeeded by rocks of hornblende, which continued the whole distance to the head of the Grand Rapid. These rocks were only to be observed in the bed of the river, and appeared to be much water-worn, and manifestly out of place. Soon after we left the Portage aux Coteaux, the hills receded from the river, and its banks for the rest of the way were generally low, often alluvial, and always covered with a thick growth of birch, elm, sugar-tree (acer saccharinum), and the whole tribe of pines, with an almost impenetrable thicket of underbrush.
"The appearances of this day (11th) have been similar to those of yesterday, except that the country bordering the river became entirely alluvial, and the poplar became the predominating growth, while the evergreen almost entirely disappeared. The rocks were seldom visible, except upon the rapids, and then only in the bed of the river, and were entirely composed of hornblende, all out of place, and exhibiting no signs of stratification, but evidently thrown confusedly together by the force of the current.
"The Savannè River is about twenty yards broad at its junction with the St. Louis, but soon narrows to about half the breadth, which it retains until it forks at the distance of about twelve miles from its mouth. Its whole course runs through a low marshy meadow, the timbered land occasionally reaching to the banks of the river, but generally keeping a distance of about twenty rods on either side. The meadow is, for the most part, covered with tufts of willow and other shrubs, common to marshes. The woods, which skirt it, are of the same kinds observed on the preceding days, except that a species of small oak frequently appears among it. The river becomes so narrow towards its head, that it is with great difficulty canoes can make their way through its windings; and the portage commences a mile or two from its source, which is in a tamarak swamp."
The height of land between the east and west Savannè, Dr. Wolcott estimates at about thirty feet. Adding to this elevation the estimates of Capt. Douglass, before mentioned, the entire elevation between the foot of the falls of the St. Louis and the apex of this summit is three hundred and sixty-eight feet.[64]
[64] For heights and distances, vide Appendix.
Having exchanged congratulations, and recited to each other the little personal incidents which had marked our respective tracks of entry into the country, we passed the night on the sources of this little stream; and the next morning, at five o'clock, began its descent. It is a mere brook, only deep enough, at this spot, to embark the canoes, and two men to manage them. At the distances of four, and of twelve miles, there are rapids, where half the loads are carried over portages. At the foot of the latter rapid, there is a tributary called Ox Creek, and from this point to the lake, a distance of six miles, the navigation is practicable with full loads. We entered the lake with pleasurable feelings, at the accomplishment of our transit over this summit, and after a passage of three miles over the calm and sylvan surface of the lake, the expedition reached and landed at the company's fort. It was now four o'clock in the afternoon of a most serene day, and the Indians, who were gathered on the shores, received us with a salute a la mode de savage, that is, with balls fired over our heads. Quarters were provided in the fort for such as did not prefer to lodge in tents. Understanding that there was to be a day's rest at this post, to reorganize the party, and hold intercourse with the Indians, each one prepared to make such use of his time as best subserved his purposes. Finding my baggage had been wetted and damaged on the portages in the ascent of the St. Louis, I separated the moulded and ruined from things still worth saving, and drying the latter in the sun, prepared them for further use.
On the day after our arrival (16th) a council of the Indians--the Chippewas--was convened. The principal chiefs were Kadewabedas,[65] or Broken Teeth, and Babisekundeba,[66] or the Curly Head. This tribe, it appears, are conquerors in the country, having at an early, or ante-historical age, advanced from Lake Superior, driving back the Sioux. The war between these two tribes is known to have existed since the first entry of the French into the country--then a part of New France--early in the seventeenth century. Gov. Cass proposed to them to enter into a firm peace with the Sioux, and to send a delegation with him to St. Peter's, on his return from the sources of the Mississippi. To this they assented. Speeches were made by the Indians, which it is not my purpose to record, as they embraced nothing beyond the ordinary, every-day style of the native speakers.
[65] From ka, an affirmative particle; webeed, teeth; and eda, a transitive objective inflection.
[66] Ba, a repeating particle; besaw, fine, curly; and kundib, the human head.
It was determined to encamp the heavy part of the expedition at this place, and to organize a sub-expedition of two light canoes, well manned, to explore the sources of the Mississippi River. While these arrangements are in progress, it may be proper to state something more respecting the condition and history of the Chippewa nation. And first, they are Algonquins, having migrated, at ante-Cartierian[67] periods, from the vicinity of Lake Nippesing, on the Outawis summit. Anterior to this, their own traditions place them further eastward, and their language bears evidence that the stock from which they are sprung, occupied the Atlantic from the Chesapeake, extending through New England. The name Chippewa is derived from the term Ojibwa. The latter has been variously, but not satisfactorily derived. The particle bwa, in the language, signifies voice. They are a well-formed, active race of men, and have the reputation of being good hunters and warriors. They possess the ordinary black shining eyes, black straight hair, and general physiological traits of the Indian race; and do not differ, essentially, from the northern tribes in their manners and customs. Pike, who was the first American officer to visit them, in this region, estimates the whole number seated on the Upper Mississippi, and northwest of Lake Superior, in the year 1806, at eleven thousand one hundred and seventy-seven. This estimate includes the entire population, extending south to the St. Croix and Chippewa valleys, below St. Anthony's Falls. It is believed to be much too high, for which it can be plead in extenuation, that it was the rough estimate of foreign traders, who were interested in exalting their importance to the United States. Certain it is, there are not more than half the numbers, in this region, at present. The number which he assigns to the Sandy Lake band is three hundred and forty-five.
[67] Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence in 1534.
The Chippewas of the Upper Mississippi are, in fact, the advanced band of the widespread Algonquin family, who, after spreading along the Atlantic from Virginia, as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, have followed up the great chain of lakes, to this region, leaving tribes of more or less variation of language on the way. There may have been a thousand years, or more, expended on this ethnological track, and the names by which they were, at various ages and places, known, are only important as being derivatives from a generic stock of languages whose radicals are readily recognized. Furthest removed, in the line of migration, appear the Mohicans, Lenno Lenawpees, Susquehannocks, and Powatans, and their congeners. The tribes of this continent appear, indeed, to have been impelled in circles, resembling the whirlwinds which have swept over its surface; and, so far as relates to the mental power which set them in motion, the comparison also holds good, for the effects of their migrations appear, everywhere, to have been war and destruction. One age appears to produce no wiser men than another. Having no mode of recording knowledge, experience dies with the generation who felt it, all except the doubtful and imprecise data of tradition; and this is little to be trusted, after a century or two. For the matter of exact history, they might as well trace themselves to the moon, as some of their mythological stories do, as to any other planet, or part of a planet. Of their language, the only certainly reliable thing in their history, a vocabulary is given in the Appendix. To the ear, it appears flowing and agreeable, and not of difficult utterance; and there is abundant reason, on beholding how readily they express themselves, for the plaudits which the early French writers bestowed on the Algonquin language.
We observed the custom of these Indians of placing their dead on scaffolds. The corpse is carefully wrapped in bark, and then elevated on a platform made by placing transverse pieces in forks of trees, or on posts, firmly set in the ground. This custom is said to have been borrowed by the Chippewas, of this quarter, from the Dacotahs or Sioux. When they bury in the ground, which is the general custom, a roof of bark is put over the deceased. This inclosure has an aperture cut in it at the head, through which a dish of food is set for the dead. Oblations of liquor are also sometimes made. This ancient custom of offering food and oblations to the dead, reminds the reader of similar customs among some of the barbarous tribes of the oriental world. We noticed also symbolic devices similar to those seen at Huron River or Lake Superior, inscribed on posts set at the head of Indian graves. It seems to be the prime object of these inscriptions to reveal the family name, or totem, as it is called, of the deceased, together with devices denoting the number of times he has been in battle, and the number of scalps he has taken. As this test of bravery is the prime object of an Indian's life, the greatest efforts are made to attain it.
A word may be said as to the climate and soil of this region, and their adaptation to the purposes of agriculture. By the tables of temperature annexed (vide Appendix), the mean solar heat, in the shade, during the time of our being in the country, is shown to be 67°. It is evident that it is the idle habits of the Indians, and no adverse circumstances of climate or soil, that prevent their raising crops for their subsistence.
Arrangements for a light party to ascend the Mississippi, and seek for its sources, having been made, we left Sandy Lake, in two canoes, at nine o'clock in the morning on the 17th. This party, in addition to his Excellency Gov. Cass, consisted of Dr. Alex. Wolcott, Capt. Douglass, Lieut. Mackay, Maj. Forsyth, and myself, with nineteen voyageurs and Indians, provisioned for twelve days. A voyage of about a mile across the western prolongation of the lake, brought us to its outlet--a wide winding stream, with a very perceptible current, and rich alluvial banks, bearing a forest. After pursuing it some mile and a half, we descended a small rapid, where the average descent of water in a short distance may be perhaps three feet; it appeared, however, to give the men no concern, for they urged their way down it, with full strength of paddle and song, and we soon found ourselves in the Mississippi. The first sight of this stream reminded me of one of its striking characteristics, at far lower points, namely, its rapidity. Its waters are slightly turbid, with a reddish tint. Its width, at this point, as denoted by admeasurements subsequently made,[68] is three hundred and thirty-one feet. Its banks are alluvial and of a fertile aspect, bearing a forest of oaks, maples, elms, ash, and pines, with a dense undergrowth of shrubbery. I observed a species of polyganum in the water's edge, and wherever we attempted to land it was miry and the borders wet and damp. We were now, from our notes, a hundred and forty-seven miles due west of the head of Lake Superior, by the curved lines of travelling, and probably one hundred in an air line; and had struck the channel of the Mississippi, not less, by the estimates, than two thousand five hundred miles above its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico. It could not, from the very vague accounts we could obtain from the traders, originate, at the utmost, more than three hundred miles higher, and our Canadian voyageurs turned up the stream, with that Troubadour air, or gaite de cour, keeping time with song and paddle, with which New France had at first been traversed by its Champlains, Marquettes, and Frontenacs. To conquer distance and labor, at the same time, with a song, has occurred to no other people, and if these men are not happy, in these voyages, they, at least, have the semblance of it, and are merry. To keep up this flow of spirits, and bravery of capacity in demolishing distances, they always overrate the per diem travel, which, as I have before observed, is put about one-third too high--that is to say, their league is about two miles. On we went, at this rapid rate, stopping every half hour to rest five minutes. During this brief rest, their big kettle of boiled corn and pork was occasionally brought forward, and dipped in, with great fervency of spoon; but, whether eating or working, they were always gay, and most completely relieved from any care of what might happen to-morrow. For the mess kettle was ever most amply supplied, and not according to the scanty pattern which these couriers de bois often encounter in the Indian trade on these summits, when they are sometimes reduced to dine on tripe de Roche and sup on buton de rose; but they bore in mind that their employer, namely, Uncle Sam, was a full-handed man, and they kept up a most commendable mental balance, by at once eating strong and working strong.
[68] Expedition to Hasca Lake in 1832.
During the first twenty-seven miles, above the inlet of Sandy Lake, we passed six small rapids, at distances of three, four, three, one, five, and eleven miles, where the river sinks its level twenty-nine feet, in the estimated aggregate distance of seven hundred yards.[69] Above the latter, extending twenty miles, to the point of our encampment, there is no perceptible rapid. It was eight o'clock when we encamped, having been eleven hours in our canoes, without stretching our legs, and we had ascended forty-six miles.
[69] Vide Appendix--Elevations.
Chapter X
Proceed up the Mississippi River--Its velocity and character--Swan River--Trout River, and Mushkoda or Prairie River--Rapids ascended--Reach, and make a portage around Pakagama Falls--Enter a vast lacustrine region--Its character and productions, vegetable and animal--Tortuous channel--Vermilion and Deer Rivers--Leech Lake branch--Lake Winnipek--Ascent of the river to Upper Red Cedar, or Cass Lake--Physical character of the Mississippi River.
Our encampment was near the mouth of Swan River, a considerable stream, originating in Swan Lake, near the head of the St. Louis River of Lake Superior.
We had been pushing our way, daily, up to our arrival at Sandy Lake; but the word, from leaving that point, was, emphatically, push--and we can hardly be said to have taken proper time to eat or sleep. There was a shower of rain, during the night; it ceased at four o'clock, and we again embarked at five, in a cloudy and misty morning, and it continued cloudy all day. The current of the Mississippi continues to be strong; its velocity, during the ascent of this day, was computed by Capt. Douglass at two and a half miles per hour. We passed a rapid about six miles below Trout River, where there is a computed descent of three feet in a hundred and fifty yards. A few miles before reaching Trout River, we passed through a forest of dead pines, occupying ridges of sand, through which the river has cut its way. Four miles above the entrance of Trout River, we passed the mouth of a considerable stream, called by the Chippewas Mushkoda, or Prairie River, and encamped about five hundred yards above its mouth on a high sandy elevation. It was now eight o'clock P.M. We had ascended the river fifty-one miles, having been fifteen hours in our canoes, and we here first took our breakfast. This severity of fasting was, I think, quite unintentional, the mess-basket being in the other canoe, which kept ahead of us the entire day. We had this day observed specimens of the Unio and some other species of fresh-water shells along the shore. And of birds, besides the duck, plover, and loon, which frequent the water, we noticed the thrush, robin, blackbird, and crow. The comparative coolness of the day rendered the annoyance from mosquitos less severe than we had found them the preceding day. The night on this sandy and bleak elevation proved cool, with a heavy dew, which resulted in a dense fog in the morning. We found ice on the bottoms of the canoes, which are turned up at night, of the thickness of a knife-blade.
Our third day's ascent witnessed no diminution of the strength and alacrity with which our canoemen urged our way up the stream. We were off betimes, in a lowering and dense atmosphere, which obscured objects. After advancing some six miles, there are a series of small rapids, which are, taken together, called Ka-ka-bi-ka,[70] where I estimated the river to sink its level sixteen feet, in a short distance; at none of these is the navigation, however, impeded. The rock stratification appears too compact for sand-rock, and is obscured by contiguous boulders, which are indicative of the strong drift-formation, which has spread from the north and east over this region. Four miles after ascending the last of the Kakabika Rapids, we landed at the foot of the Pakagama Falls. Here the lading was immediately put ashore, the canoes landed, and the whole carried over an Indian portage path of two hundred and seventy-five yards. This delay afforded an opportunity to view the falls. The Mississippi, at this point, forces its way through a formation of quartzy rock, during which it sinks its level, as estimated, twenty feet, in a distance of about three hundred yards. There is no perceptible cascade or abrupt fall, but the river rushes with the utmost velocity down a highly inclined rocky bed towards the northeast. It forms a complete interruption to navigation, and must, hereafter, be the terminus of the navigation of that class of small steamboats which may be introduced above the Falls of St. Anthony. The general elevation of the geological stratum at the top of this fall must be but little under fourteen hundred feet above the Gulf of Mexico.[71] This summit bears a growth of the yellow pine. I observed, amongst the shrubs, the vaccinium dumosum. Immediately above the falls is a small rocky island, bearing a growth of spruce and cedars, being the first island noticed above Sandy Lake. This island parts the channel into two, at the precise point of its precipitation. On coming to the head of these falls, we appear to have reached a vast geological plateau, consisting of horizontal deposits of clay and drift on the nucleus of granitical and metamorphic rocks, which underlie the sources of the Mississippi River. The vast and irregular bodies of water called Leech Lake, Winnipek, and Cass Lakes, together with a thousand lesser lakes of a mile or two in circumference, lie on this great diluvial summit. These lakes spread east and west over a surface of not less than two hundred miles; most of them are connected with channels of communication forming a tortuous and intricate system of waters, only well known to the Indians; and there seems the less wonder that the absolute and most remote source of the Mississippi has so long remained a matter of doubt.
[70] From ka, a particle affirmative of an adverse quality, aubik, rock, and ons, a diminutive inflection.
[71] Mr. Nicollet places the summit of the falls at 1,340 feet above the Gulf.
By the time we had well seen the falls, and made some sketches and notes, the indefatigable canoemen announced our baggage all carried over the portage, and the canoes put into the water. Embarking, at this point, we found the river had lost its velocity; it was often difficult to determine that it had any current at all. We wound about, by a most tortuous channel, through savannas where coarse species of grass, flags, reeds, and wild rice struggled for the mastery. The whole country appeared to be one flat surface, where the sameness of the objects, the heat of the weather, and the excessively serpentine channel of the river, conspired to render the way tedious. The banks of the river were but just elevated above these illimitable fields of grass and aquatic plants. In these banks the gulls had their nests, and as they were disturbed they uttered deafening screams. Water-fowl were intruded upon at every turn, the blackbird and rail chattered over their clusters of reeds and cat-tails; the falcon screamed on high, as he quietly sailed above our heads, and the whole feathered creation appeared to be decidedly intruded on by our unwonted advance into the great watery plateau, to say nothing of the small and unimportant class of reptiles who inhabit the region.
Forty miles above the falls, the River Vermilion flows in through these savannas on the left hand; and three miles higher the Deer River is tributary on the right hand. We ascended six miles above the latter, and encamped in a dry prairie, on the same side, at a late hour. The men reported themselves to have travelled sixteen leagues, notwithstanding their detention on the Pakagama Portage. How far we had advanced, in a direct line, is very questionable. At one spot, we estimated ourselves to have passed, by the river's involutions, nine miles, but to have advanced directly but one mile. I noticed, on the meadow at this spot, a small and very delicious species of raspberry, the plant not rising higher than three or four inches. This species, of which I preserved both the roots and fruit, I referred to Dr. J. Torrey, of New York, who pronounced it the Rebus Nutkanus of Moçino--a species found by this observer in the Oregon regions. It is now known to occur eastwardly, to upper Michigan. As night approached on these elevated prairies, we observed for the first time the fire-fly.
The next morning (20th) we were again in motion at half-past five o'clock. It had rained during the night, and the morning was cloudy, with a dense fog. At the distance of ten miles, we passed the Leech Lake River. This is a very considerable river, bringing in, apparently, one-third as much water as the main branch. It is, however, but fifty miles in length, and is merely the outlet of the large lake bearing that name. It was thought the current of the Mississippi denoted greater velocity above this point, while the water exhibited greater clearness. We had still the same savanna regions, with a serpentine channel to encounter. Through this the men urged their way for a distance of thirty-five miles, when Winnipek Lake displayed itself before us. The waters of this lake have a whitish, slightly turbid aspect, after the prevalence of storms, which appears to reveal its shallowness, with a probably whitish clay bottom. The Chippewa name of Winnebeegogish[72] is, indeed, derivative from this circumstance. This lake is stated to be ten miles in its greatest length. We crossed it transversely in order to strike the inlet of the Mississippi, and encamped on the other side. In this transit we met a couple of Indian women in a canoe, who, being interrogated by the interpreter, stated that they came to observe whether the wild rice, which is quite an item of the Indian subsistence in this quarter, was matured enough to be tied into clusters for beating out. We estimated our advance this day, by the time denoted by the chronometer, at fifty-one miles.
[72] From weenud, dirty, beegog, waters, and ish, a derogative inflection of nouns.
We were again in our canoes the next morning at half-past four o'clock. In coasting along the north shores of Winnipek Lake, an object of limy whiteness attracted our attention, which turned out to be a small island composed of granitical and other boulders, which had served as the resting-place of birds, for which the region above the Pakagama Falls is so remarkable. On landing, a dead pelican was stretched on the surface. We had not before observed this species on the river, and named the island Shayta, from its Chippewa name. The buzzard, cormorant, brant, eagle, and raven had hitherto constituted the largest species. Along the shores of the river, the king-fisher and heron had been frequent objects. With respect to the cormorant, it was observed that the Indians classify it with the species of duck, their name for it, ka-ga-ge-sheeb, signifying, literally, crow-duck.
On again reaching the inlet of the Mississippi, its size and appearance corresponded so exactly to its character below the Winnipek, that it had evidently experienced but little or no change by passing through this lake. The same width and volume were observed which it had below this point; the same moderate velocity; the same borders of grassy savanna, and the same tendency to redouble its length, by its contortions, appeared. In some places, however, it approaches those extensive ridges of sandy formation, bearing pines, which traverse, or rather bound, these wide savannas. Through these channels the canoemen urged their course with their usual alacrity--now stopping a few moments to breathe, and then, striking their paddles again in the water with renewed vigor, and often starting off with one of their animated canoe-songs. From about eight o'clock in the morning till two in the afternoon we proceeded up the winding thread of this channel, when the appearance of a large body of water in the distance before us attracted attention. It was the first glimpse we had of the upper Red Cedar Lake. The Mississippi River here deploys itself in one of those large sheets of pellucid water which are so characteristic of its sources. On reaching the estuary at its entrance, a short halt was made. A large body of the most transparent water spread out before us. Its outlines, towards the south, were only bounded by the line of the horizon. In the distance appeared the traces of wooded islands. If Sandy Lake had, on emerging from the wilderness, impressed us with its rural beauty, this far transcended it in the variety and extent of outlines, and that oceanic amplitude of freshness, which so often inspires admiration in beholding the interior American lakes. It was determined to cross a part of the lake towards the north-east, in order to strike the site of an ancient Indian village at the mouth of Turtle River; and under the influences of a serene day, and one of their liveliest chants, the men pushed for that point, which was reached at three o'clock in the afternoon of the 21st July. The spot at which we landed was the verge of a green lawn, rising in a short distance to a handsome eminence, crowned with oaks and maples. One or two small log tenements stood on this slope occupied by two Canadians in the service of the American Fur Company. Several wigwams of bark and poles lifted their fragile conical forms on either side.
In one of these tenements, consisting of a small cabin of poles, sheathed with bark, we found an object of human misery which excited our sympathies. It was in the person of one of the Canadians, to whom reference has been made, of the name of Montruille. He had, in the often severe peregrinations of the fur trade in this quarter, been caught in a snow-storm during the last winter, and frozen both his feet in so severe a manner that they eventually sloughed off, and he could no longer stand upright or walk. He lay on the ground in a most pitiable state of dejection, with the stumps of his legs bound up with deer skins, with a gray, long-neglected beard, and an aspect of extreme despair. English he could not speak; and the French he uttered was but an abuse of the noble gift of language to call down denunciations on those who had deserted him, or left him thus to his fate. A rush mat lay under him. He had no covering. He was emaciated to the last degree, every bone in his body seemed visible through the skin. His cheeks were fallen in, and his eyes sunk in their sockets, but darting a look of despair. His Indian wife had deserted him. Food, of an inadequate quality, was occasionally thrown in to him. Such were the accounts we received. Governor Cass directed groceries, ammunition, and presents of clothing to be made to him, to the latter of which, every member of the party added. He also engaged a person to convey him to Sandy Lake.
We examined the environs of the place with interest; the village occupies the north banks of Turtle River Valley. Turtle River, which cuts its way through this slope and plain, constitutes the direct line of intercourse for the Indian trade, through Turtle and Red Lakes, to the Red River Valley of Hudson's Bay. On inquiry, we learned that this river had constituted the ancient Indian line of communication by canoes and portages, from time immemorial, with that valley, the distance to the extreme plateau, or summit, being about sixty miles. On this summit, within a couple of miles of each other, lie Turtle and Red Lakes, the one having its discharge into the Gulf of Mexico and the other into Hudson's Bay. When Canada was settled by the French, this aboriginal route was adopted. The fur companies of Great Britain, on coming into possession of the country, after the fall of Quebec, 1759, followed the same route. The factors of these companies told Lieutenant Pike, in 1806, at Sandy Lake and Leech Lake, that the Turtle portage was the only practicable route of communication to the Red River, and that it was the true source of the Mississippi; and they furnished him manuscript maps of the country conformable to these views. The region has actually been in possession of the Americans only since 1806, adopting the era of Pike's visit.
By inquiry from the Chippewa Indians at this village, sanctioned by the Canadian authorities, we are informed that the Mississippi falls into the south end of Cass Lake, at the distance of eight or ten miles; that it reaches that point from the west, by a series of sharp rapids stretching over an extent of about forty miles from a large lake;[73] and that this celebrated stream originates in Lac la Biche, about six days' journey from our present position, and has many small lakes, rapids, and falls. It is further asserted by the Indians, that the water in these remote streams, and upon these rapids, is at all times shallow, but it is particularly so this season; and that it is not practicable to reach these remote sources of the river with boats, or large canoes of the size we have.
[73] Called Andrúsia. Expedition to Starca Lake in 1837.
On submitting these facts to the gentlemen composing his party, Governor Cass asked each one to give his views, beginning with the youngest, and to express his opinion on the feasibility of further explorations. They concurred in opinion that, in the present low state of the water on these summits, considering the impossibility of ascending them with our present craft, and in the actual state of our provisions, such an attempt was impracticable. Thereon, he announced his decision to rejoin our party at Sandy Lake, and to pursue the exploration of the river down its channel to the Falls of St. Anthony, to the inlet of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, and to return into the great lake basins, and complete their circumnavigation.
Having reached the ultimate geographical point visited by the expedition, I thought it due to the energy and enlightened zeal of the gentleman who had led us, to mark the event by naming this body of water in my journal Cassina, or Cass Lake. There was the more reason for this in the nomenclature of the geography of the upper Mississippi, by observing that it embraces another Red Cedar Lake. The latitude of upper Red Cedar, or Cass Lake, is placed by Pike at 47° 42´40´´.[74] Its distance above Sandy Lake, by the involutions of the river, is two hundred and seventy miles, and from Fond du Lac, at the head of Lake Superior, by the travelled route, four hundred and thirty miles. It is situated seventeen degrees north of the Gulf of Mexico, from which it is computed to be distant two thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight geographical miles. Estimating the distance to the actual origin of the river, as determined at a subsequent period, at one hundred and eighty-two miles above Cass Lake, the length of the Mississippi River is shown to be three thousand one hundred and sixty miles,[75] making a direct line over the earth's surface of more than half the distance from the arctic circle to the equator. It may also be observed of the Mississippi, that its sources lie in a region of snows and long-continued winter, while it enters the ocean under the latitude of perpetual verdure; and at last, as if disdaining to terminate its career at the ordinary point of embouchure of other large rivers, has protruded its banks into the Gulf of Mexico, more than a hundred miles beyond any other part of the main. To have visited both the source and the mouth of the stream has fallen to the lot of but few, and I believe there is no person living beside myself of whom the remark can be made. On the tenth of July, 1819, I passed out of the mouth of the Mississippi in a brig bound for New York, after descending it in a steamboat from St. Louis, but little thinking I should soon visit its waters, yet, on the twenty-first of July of the following year, I reached its sources in this lake.
[74] Nicollet, in the report of his exploration of 1836, places it in 47° 25´ 23´´.
[75] Vide Expedition to Stasca Lake in 1832.
In deciding upon the physical character of the Mississippi River, it may be advantageously considered under four natural divisions, as indicated by permanent differences in its geological and physical character--its vegetable productions, and its velocity and general hydrographical character. Originating in a region of lakes upon the table-lands which throw their waters north into Hudson's Bay, south into the Gulf of Mexico, and east into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it pursues its course south to the Falls of Pakagama, a distance of two hundred and thirty miles, through natural meadows or savannas covered with wild rice, rushes, reeds and coarse grasses, and aquatic plants. During the distance, it is extremely devious in its course and width, often expanding into lakes which connect themselves through a vast system of reticulated channels. Leech Lake, Cass Lake, and Lake Andrúsia would themselves be regarded as small interior seas, were they on any other part of the continent but that which develops Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Its velocity through the upper plateau is but little, and it affords every facility for the breeding of water fowl and the small furred quadrupeds, the favorite reliance of a nomadic population.
At the Falls of Pakagama, the first rock stratum and the first wooded island is seen. Here the river has an aggregate fall of twenty feet, and from this point to St. Anthony's Falls, a distance of six hundred miles, it exhibits its second characteristic division. The granitical and metamorphic rocks, which support the vast plateaux and beds of draft of its sources, are only apparent above this point, in boulders. The permanent strata are but barely concealed at several rapids below the Pakagama, but appear plainly below the influx of the De Corbeau, at Elk River, Little Falls, and near Sac River. And this system of rock is succeeded, before reaching the Falls of St. Anthony, by the horizonal white sand rock and its superior limestone series of the carboniferous formation.
Vegetation is developed as the river descends towards the south. A forest of maples, elm, oak, ash, and birch, is interspersed with spruce, birch, poplar, and pine above the Pakagama, and continues, in favorable positions, throughout this division. The black walnut is first seen below Sandy Lake, and the sycamore below the River De Corbeau. The river in this division has numerous well-wooded islands; its velocity is a striking feature; it abounds with rapids, none of which, however, oppose serious obstacles to its navigation. Agreeably to memoranda kept,[76] it has fifty-six distinct rapids, including the Little and Big Falls, in all of which the river has an aggregate estimated descent of two hundred and twenty-four feet, within a distance of fourteen thousand six hundred and forty yards, or about eight miles. The mean fall of the current, exclusive of these rapids, may be computed at nearly six inches per mile.
[76] Vide Appendix.
The course of the river, below the Falls of Pakagama, is still serpentine, but strikingly less so than above, and its bends are not so short and abrupt. The general course of this river, till it reaches the rock formation of Pakagama, is from the west. Thence, to Sandy Lake inlet, it flows generally southeast; from this point to the inlet of the De Corbeau or Crow Wing, it is deflected to the southwest; thence almost due south, to the mouth of the Watab River; and thence again southeast to the Falls of St. Anthony. A geographical line dropped from the inlet of Sandy Lake, where the channel is first deflected to the southwest, to St. Anthony's Falls, or the mouth of the St. Peter's,[77] forms a vast bow-shaped area of prairie and forest lands of high agricultural capabilities, whose future products must be carried to a market through the Fond du Lac of Lake Superior. These prairies and grove lands, which cannot square less than two by four hundred miles, constitute the ancient area of the Issati,[78] and are now the resort of great herds of the buffalo, elk, and deer; and it is a region known as the predatory border, or battle-ground of the Chippewas and Dacotas.
[77] Now called Minnesota River.
[78] Vide Hennepin.
Chapter XI
Physical traits of the Mississippi--The elevation of its sources--Its velocity and mean descent--Etymology of the name Mississippi--Descent of the river to Sandy Lake, and thence to the Falls of St. Anthony--Recross the great Bitobi Savanna--Pakagama formation--Description of the voyage from Sandy Lake to Pine River--Brief notices of the natural history.
The third geographical division in which it is proposed to consider the Mississippi, begins at the Falls of St. Anthony. Within half a day's march, before reaching this point from its sources, the primitive and crystallized, and the altered and basaltic rocks are succeeded by the great limestone and sandstone horizontal series of the carboniferous, magnesian, and metalliferous rocks, which constitute by themselves so extraordinary a body of geological phenomena. Entering on the level of the white sandstone stratum, which is fundamental in this column, about the inlet of Rum River, the Mississippi urges its way over a gently inclining bed of this rock, to the brink of this cataract, where it drops perpendicularly about sixteen feet; but the whole descent of its level from the head to the foot of the portage path, cannot be less than double that height.
The river, at this point, enters a valley which is defined by rocky cliffs, which attain various elevations from one to three hundred feet, presenting a succession of picturesque or sublime views. In some places these cliffs present a precipitous and abrupt façade, washed by the current. In far the greatest number of cases, the eminence has lost its sharp angles through the effects of frosts, rains, and elemental action, leaving a slope of debris at the foot. As the river descends, it increases in volume and in the extent of its alluvions. These form, in an especial manner, its characteristic features from St. Anthony's Falls to the junction of the Missouri, a distance of not less than eight hundred miles. The principal tributaries which it receives in this distance, are, on the right, the St. Peter's, Upper and Lower Iowa, Turkey River, Desmoines, and Salt Rivers; and, on the left, the St. Croix, Chippewa, Wisconsin, Rock River, and the Illinois. One hundred miles below St. Anthony, it expands for a distance of twenty-four miles into the sylvan sheet of Lake Pepin, at the foot of which it receives the large volume of the Chippewa River, which originates on the sandy tracts at the sources of the Wisconsin, Montreal, and Ontonagon; and it is from this point that its continually widening channel exhibits those innumerable and changing sand-bars, which so embarrass the navigation. But in all this distance, it is only at the Desmoines and Rock River rapids that any permanent serious impediment is found in its navigation, with the larger craft.
The fourth change in the physical aspect of this river, is at the junction of the Missouri, and this is an almost total and complete one; for this river brings down such a vast and turbid flood of commingled earths and floating matter, that it characterizes this stream to its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico. If its length of channel, velocity, and other leading phenomena had been accurately known at an early day, it should also have carried its name from this point to the ocean. Down to this point, the Mississippi, at its summer phases, carries the character of a comparatively clear stream. But the Missouri, which, from its great length and remote latitude, has a summer freshet, flows in with a flood so turbid and opaque, that it immediately communicates its qualities and hue to the milder Mississippi. At certain seasons, the struggle between the clear and turbid waters of the two streams can be seen, at opposite sides of the river, at the distance of twenty or thirty miles. Entire trees, sometimes ninety feet long, with their giant arms, are swept down the current; and it is not unusual, at its highest flood, to observe large, spongy masses of a species of pseudo pumice carried into its channel, from some of its higher western tributaries.
To such a moving, overpowering liquid mass, there are still, below the Missouri, rocky banks, and occasionally isolated cliffs, to stand up and resist its sweep; but its alluvions become wider and deeper opposite to these rocky barriers. Its bends stretch over greater distances, and its channel grows deeper at every accession of a tributary. The chief of these, after passing the Missouri, are from the Rocky Mountains and Ozark slopes, the St. Francis, White, Arkansas, and Red Rivers; and from the other bank the Kaskaskia, the Ohio, Wolf, and Yazoo. It is estimated to flow twelve hundred miles below the Missouri. Its width is about one mile opposite St. Louis. It is narrower but more than twice the depth at New Orleans, and yet narrower, because more divided, at its embouchure at the Balize, where a bar prevents ships drawing over eighteen feet of water from entering.
No attempt has heretofore been made to determine the elevation of that part of the American continent which gives rise to the Mississippi River. From the observations made on the expedition, the elevation is confessedly less than would à priori be supposed. If it is not, like the Nile, cradled among mountains, whose very altitude and position are unknown, there is enough of the unknown about its origin to wish for more information. Originating on a vast continental plateau, or watershed, the superabundance of its waters are drained off by the three greatest rivers of North America, namely, the St. Lawrence, the Nelson's rivers of Hudson's Bay, and the Mississippi. Yet the apex of this height of land is moderate, although its distance from the sea at either point is immense. From the best data at command, I have endeavored to come at the probable altitude of this plateau, availing myself at the same time of the judgment of the several members of the expedition. Taking the elevation of Lake Erie above tide-water, as instrumentally determined, in the New York surveys, as a basis, we find Lake Superior lying at an altitude of six hundred and forty-one feet above the Atlantic. From thence, through the valley of the St. Louis, and across the Savanna summit, to the Mississippi, at the confluence of the Sandy Lake River, estimates noted on the route, indicate an aggregate rise of four hundred and ninety feet. The ascent of the river, from this point to Cass Lake, is estimated to be one hundred and sixty-two feet; giving this lake an aggregate elevation of thirteen hundred and ninety-three feet above the Atlantic. Barometrical admeasurements made in 1836, by Mr. Nicollet, in the service of the United States Topographical Bureau, place the elevation of this lake at fourteen hundred and two feet above the Gulf of Mexico,[79] being just twelve feet above these early estimates. The same authority estimates its length from the Balize, at twenty-seven hundred and fifty miles. Its velocity below Cass Lake may be estimated to result from a mean descent of a fraction over five inches per mile.
[79] Senate Document No. 237, 26 Con. 2d Session, A. D. 1843.
The name of the Mississippi River is derived from the Algonquin language, through the medium of the French. The term appears first in the early missionary letters from the west end of Lake Superior about 1660. Sippi, agreeably to the early French annotation of the word, signifies a river. The prefixed word Missi is an adjective denoting all, and, when applied to various waters, means the collected or assembled mass of them. The compound term is then, properly speaking, an adverb. Thus, Missi-gago, means all things; Missi-gago-gidjetod, He who has made all things--the Creator. It is a superlative expression, of which great river simply would be a most lean, impracticable, and inadequate expression. It is only symbolically that it can be called the father of American rivers, unless such sense occurs in the other Indian tongues.
Finding it impracticable to proceed higher in the search of the remote sources of the river at this time, a return from this point was determined on. The vicinity had been carefully scanned for its drift specimens, and fresh-water conchology. Wishing to carry along some further memorial of the visit, members of the party cut walking-canes in the adjoining thickets, and tied them carefully together; and at five o'clock in the afternoon (21st July) we embarked on our descent. An hour's voyage over the surface of this wide lake, with its refreshing views of northern scenery, brought us to the point where the Mississippi issues from it. Never did men ply their paddles with greater animation; and having the descent now in their favor, they proceeded eighteen miles before they sought for a spot to encamp. Twilight still served, with almost the clearness of daylight, while we spread our tents on a handsome eminence on the right-hand shore. Daylight had not yet dawned the next morning, when we resumed the descent. It was eight o'clock A. M. when we reached the border of Lake Winnipek. This name, by the way, is derived from a term heretofore given, which, having the Chippewa inflection of nouns in ish, graphically describes that peculiarity of its waters created by the disturbance of a clay bottom.
The winds were high and adverse, which caused the canoemen to toil two hours in crossing. After reaching the river again, we passed its sedgy borders, to, and through Rush Lake, or the Little Winnipek; then by the inlet of Leech Lake River, and through the contortions of its channel, to within a few miles of the spot of our encampment at Deer River, on the 20th.
The great savannas, through which the Mississippi winds itself above the Pakagama, are called collectively, the Gatchi Betobeeg, Great Morasses, or bog meadows.
While descending the river, we encountered nine canoes filled with Chippewa Indians and their families. They were freighted with heavy rolls of birch-bark, such as their canoes are made from; together with bundles of rushes designed for mats. The annoyance suffered from mosquitos on this great plateau, was almost past endurance. We embarked again at a quarter past four, and reached the Falls of Pakagama at five o'clock. Just forty minutes were spent in making the portage. The rock at this spot is quartzite. The day was cloudy, with some rain. As night approached an animal, judged to be the wolverine, was seen swimming across the stream. The efforts of the men to overtake it were unavailing; it nimbly eluded pursuit, and dashed away into the thickets. In some queries sent to me by the New York Lyceum, this animal is alluded to as a species of the glutton. The Indians said there was no animal in their country deserving this name; the only animal they knew deserving of it, was the horse; which was eating all the time. We encamped on an abrupt sandy bank, where, however, sleep was impossible. Between the humidity of the atmosphere and the denseness of the foliage around us, the insect world seemed to have been wakened into unusual activity. Besides, we encamped so late, and were so jaded by a long day's travel, that the mosquito-nets were neglected. To get up and stand before a camp-fire at midnight and switch off the mosquitos, requires as much philosophy as to write a book; and at any rate, ours completely failed. We were again in our canoes (24th), at an early hour. Daylight apprised us of the clearing up of the atmosphere, and brought us one of the most delightful days. Animated by these circumstances, we descended the stream with rapidity. Soon after midday, we entered and ascended the short channel of the Sandy Lake River, and, by two o'clock in the afternoon, we rejoined our camp at the Fur Company's Fort, having been three days in descending a distance which had consumed four and a half in the ascent.
We were received with joy and acclamation by the Sandy Lake party, and felicitated ourselves on the accomplishment of what had all along appeared as the most arduous part of our route. Nor had we indeed, overrated its difficulties; the incessant motion of travelling depriving us of mature opportunities of observation, and also rest at night, the stings of the mosquitos whenever we attempted to land, and the cravings of an often unsatisfied appetite, had made this visit one of peculiar privation and fatigue. Without such an effort, however, it is doubtful whether the principal objects of the expedition could have been accomplished. Nothing untoward had happened at the camp, no difficulty had occurred with the Indians, and all the party were in good health. Having left my thermometer with Mr. Doty, during my absence, the observations made by him are denoted in the appendix.
The following day was fixed on for our departure for the Falls of St. Anthony. The distance to these falls is generally put by the traders at from five to six hundred miles. These estimates denote, however, rather the difficulties and time employed by days' journeys in the trade than any other measurements.[80] Pike states the latitude some thirteen minutes too far north. It is found to be 46° 47´ 10´´. It appears from Lieut. Pike (Expt. p. 60), that the stockade at this place was erected in 1794. Its elevation above the Gulf of Mexico is 1,253 feet. The soil of the environs yields excellent potatoes, and such culinary vegetables as have been tried. The mean temperature of July is denoted to be 73°. The post is one of importance in the fur trade. It yields the deer, moose, bear, beaver, otter, martin, muskrat, and some other species, whose skins or pelts are valuable.
[80] Nicollet, in his report to the Top. Bureau, in 1836, states the direct distance from St. Peter's to Sandy Lake, at but 334 miles.
It was twelve o'clock on the morning of the 25th, before we were ready to embark. Our flotilla now consisted of three canoes, of the kind called Canoe-allege in the trade, and a barge occupied by the military. To this array, the chief Babesakundiba, or the Curly Head, added a canoe filled with Chippewa delegates, who accompanied him on a mission of peace to the Sioux. This chief is the same individual who met Lieut. Pike in this quarter, in 1806, and he appears to be a man of much energy and decision of character. His reputation also gives him the character of great skill, policy, and bravery in conducting the war against the Sioux. Indian wars are not conducted as with us, by opposing armies. It is altogether a guerilla affair. War parties are raised, marched, fight, and disperse in a few days. The war is carried on altogether by stealth and stratagem. Each one furnishes himself with food and weapons. In such a warfare, there is great scope for individual exploits and daring. In these wars the Curly Head had greatly distinguished himself, and he was, therefore, an ambassador of no mean power. In every view, the mission assumed an interesting character; and we kept an eye on the chief's movements, on our journey down the river, chiefly that we might notice the caution which is observed by the Indians in entering an enemy's country.
After entering the Mississippi, below Sandy Lake, the stream presents very much the character it has above. It was below this point that we first observed the juglans nigra in the forest. Its banks are diluvial or alluvial formations, elevated from six to ten feet. The elm, maple, and pine are common. There are some small grassy islands, with tufts of willows, and driftwood lodged. No rock strata appear. The river winds its way through vast diluvial beds, exhibiting at its rapids granitical, quartz, and trappose boulders. It appears to glide wholly over the primitive or crystalline rocks, which rise in some places through the soil, or show themselves at rapids. The expedition descended the stream twenty-eight miles, and encamped on a sandy elevation on the west shore, near Alder River, which seemed to promise an exemption from the annoyance of insects; but in this we were mistaken. In the hurry of a late encampment, it had been omitted to pitch the tents. The first ill effect of this was felt on being awakened at night by rain. A humid atmosphere is ever the signal for awakening hordes of insects, and the mosquitos became so troublesome that it was impossible to sleep at all after the shower. We got up and whiled away the time as best we could around the camp-fire.
We embarked a few minutes before 5 A. M., the morning being lowering and overcast, which eventuated in rain within an hour. The atmosphere resumed its serenity, and the sun shone out at noon. The river, as on the preceding day, has its course between alluvial and diluvial banks, sweeping its way over the smooth orbicular beds of the granitical age. The influx of rivers, the occurrence of islands, which bear witness of their entire submersion during the freshets, and the succession of bends, points, and rapids--these changes, with notices of the wild fowl, forest birds, and sometimes a quadruped, or a mass of boulders, absorbed my notices, which it seems unimportant, at this time, to refer to. No fixed stratification of rocks was encountered this day.
We encamped at about eight o'clock, on the east bank, on an open eminence, just below the rapids which mark the confluence of Pine River, having been in our canoes, with very brief and infrequent landings, fifteen hours. At the points of landing, I observed the rosa parviflora, and ipomea nil. As night approached, we heard the monotonous notes of the caprimulgus virginianus. We had also observed during the day, the bald eagle, king-fisher, turdus polyglottis, teal, plover, robin, and pigeon. The nimble sciuris vulgaris was also observed on shore. Boulders of sienite, hornblende rock, silicious slate, sandstone, and quartz, served as so many monuments to testify that heavy oceanic currents had heretofore disrupted the northern stratification, and poured down over these long and gradual geological slopes.
High and open as our position was on this eminence, our old friends the mosquitos did not forget us. Even the Indians could not endure their continued attacks. A fine fellow of our original auxiliaries, called Iaba Waddik, or the Buck, took this occasion to give us a specimen of his English, exclaiming, as he came to the camp-fire, "Tia![81] no sneep!" putting the usual interchangeable n of the tribe for the l in the noun.
[81] An exclamation.
Chapter XII
Description of the descent from Pine River--Pine tracts--Confluence of the Crow-wing River--Enter a sylvan region--prairies and groves, occupied by deer, elk, and buffalo--Sport of buffalo hunting--Reach elevations of sienitic and metamorphic rocks--Discover a pictographic inscription of the Sioux, by which they denote a desire for peace--Pass the Osaukes, St. Francis's, Corneille, and Rum Rivers--St. Anthony's Falls--Etymology of the name--Geographical considerations.
The night dew was heavy on this elevation, and a dense fog prevailed at the hour of our embarkation (5 o'clock A. M., on the 27th). The pine lands come in with the valley of Pine River, a large and important stream tributary from the west, which has a connection with Leech Lake. These lands characterize both banks of the Mississippi to the entrance of the River De Corbeau. We were seven hours, with a strong current, in passing through this tract. It is to be observed that ancient fires have been permitted to run through these forests, destroying immense quantities of the timber. It was twelve o'clock, A. M., when we came opposite to the entrance of the great Crow-wing River.[82] This stream, which has a large island in its mouth, is a prime tributary with a large, full-flowing current, and must bring in one-third of the entire volume of water to this point.[83] Such is the effect of this current on the opposite shore, that, at the distance of a couple of leagues below, at a spot called Prairie Perciê by the French, it appears to have forced its way headlong, till, meeting obstructions from the primary rocks, it was again deflected south. At this point, the whole face of the country has an exceedingly sylvan aspect. It is made up of far-stretching plains, covered with grass and wild flowers, interspersed with groves of oak, maple, and other species. The elevation of these beautiful plains, above the river, is not less than twenty to thirty feet, placing them above the reach of high waters. We were now passing below the latitude of 46°. Everything indicated a climate favorable to the vegetable kingdom. While passing in the valley, through the fine bends which the river makes, through these plains, we came to a hunting-camp of probably one hundred and fifty Indians. They were Chippewas, who, on landing at their camp, saluted us in the Indian fashion, and were happy to exchange some dried buffalo meat and pemmican, for corn and flour. Some miles below we observed several buffalo, on the eastern shore, on the sub-plains below the open bluffs. Alarmed by our approach, these animals set out, with a clumsy, shambling trot, for the upper plains. Clumsy as their gait seemed, they got over the ground with speed. Our whole force was immediately landed, a little below, and we eagerly climbed the banks, to engage in the sport of hunting them. Quite a large drove of this animal was seen on the prairie. Our best marksmen, and the Indians, immediately divided themselves, to approach on different sides the herd. Cautiously approaching, they fired; the effect was to alarm and divide them. Most of the herd pushed directly to the spot on the banks of the river, where the non-combatants of the party stood; and there arose a general firing, and mêlée of men and buffaloes, which made it quite doubtful, for awhile, who stood in greatest danger of being hit by the bullets, the men or animals. I am certain the bullets whizzed about the position I occupied on the top of the alluvial cliffs. None of the herd were, however, slain at that time; but at our encampment, a short distance below, the flesh of both the buffalo and elk was profusely brought in by the Indians. It is stated that this animal lifts both the feet on one side, at the same time; but this remark, I presume, arises from a mode of throwing its feet forward, which is decidedly different from other quadrupeds.
[82] CROW-WING RIVER.--In returning from Itasca Lake, in 1832, I passed from Leech Lake by a series of old Indian portages into Lake Ka-ge-no-ge-maug, or Long Water Lake, which is its source; and from thence descended it to its entrance into the Mississippi.--Vide Exp. to Itasca Lake. N. Y., Harpers, 1834: vol. i. 8vo. with maps.
[83] The Indian name of this river is Kagiwegwon, or Raven's-wing, or Quill, which is accurately translated by the term Aile de Corbeau, but it is improperly called Crow-Wing. The Chippewa term for crow is andaig, and the French, corneille--terms which are appropriately applied to another stream, nearer St. Anthony's Falls.
On descending the river two miles, the next morning, we found ourselves opposite the mouth of Elk River, a stream coming in from the west. This point has been determined to be but four minutes north of latitude 46° [Sen. Doc. 237]. A short distance below the river, we passed, on the west shore, the Painted Rock, an isolated or boulder mass, having Indian devices, which we had no opportunity of examining. We were now passing down a channel of manifestly increased velocity, and at the distance of a couple of miles more, found ourselves hurried through the west channel of the Little Falls. At this point the primitive or basis stratification over which we had been so long gliding, crosses the river, rising up and dividing it, by an abrupt rocky island, into two channels. The breadth of the stream is much compressed, and the velocity of its current increased. By what propriety of language it is called "falls" did not, however, appear; perhaps there are seasons when the descent assumes a greater degree of disturbance and velocity. To us, it appeared to be about ten feet in a hundred and fifty yards. Here, then, in N. lat. 46°, the Mississippi is first visibly crossed by the primary series of rocks.
Being now in the region of buffalo, it was decided to land in the course of the day, for the purpose of entering into the chase. An occasion for this was presented soon after passing the Little Falls, by observing one of these animals on shore. On landing, and reaching the elevation of the prairies, two herds of them were discovered at a distance. An attack on them was immediately planned, for which the tall grass and gentle inequalities of surface, appeared favorable. The fire proved unsuccessful, but served to distract the herds, giving scope for individual marksmanship and hunter activity, during which, innumerable shots were fired, and three animals killed. While this scene was passing, I had a good stand for witnessing the sport, some of the herd passing by very near, as with the blindness of fury. The bison is certainly an animal as clumsy as the ox, or domestic cow; but, unlike these, it is of a uniform dun color, and ever without being spotted, or mottled. Its horns are nearly straight, short, very black, and set wide apart. The male is formidable in look, and ferocious when wounded. Its ordinary weight is eight hundred to a thousand pounds.
It may be said, in reference to this animal being found in this region, that it is a kind of neutral ground, between the Chippewas and Sioux, neither of which tribes permanently occupy the country between the mouth of the Raven's-wing and Rum Rivers.[84]
[84] The Chippewas affirm that this was the last time the buffalo crossed the Mississippi eastwardly. It did not appear, in the same region, in 1821.
Having spent several hours in the chase, we again embarked, and proceeded down the river until three o'clock in the afternoon. On the left bank of the river two prominent elevations of the granitical series, rising through the prairie soil, attracted my attention. Immediately below this locality, a high and level prairie stretches on the west shore, which had a striking appearance from its being crowned with the poles and fixtures of a large, recently abandoned Sioux encampment. At this spot the expedition landed and encamped. The quick glances of Babasikundiba and his party of delegates immediately discovered a pole, at the site of the chief's lodge, bearing a birch bark scroll, or letter, inscribed with Indian hieroglyphics, or devices. It turned out that this spot was the northern terminus of a Sioux peace embassage, dispatched from St. Peter's shortly previous, under the direction of Col. H. Leavenworth, U. S. A., the newly-arrived commanding officer at that post. The message was eagerly received and read by the Chippewa delegates. By it they were informed that the Sioux also desired a termination of hostilities. The scroll was executed by tracing lines, with the point of a knife, or some sharp instrument. The pictographic devices thus drawn denoted the exact number of the party, their chiefs, and the authority under which these crude negotiations were commenced.
Of this mode of communicating ideas among the Algonquin tribes, we have before given details in crossing the boggy plateau of Akik Sepi, between the St. Louis River and Sandy Lake. The present instance of it is commented on in an interesting communication of the era, in the appendix, from the pen of Gov. Cass. It was now no longer doubtful that the Chippewa mission would be successful, and the satisfaction it produced was evident in the countenances and expressions of Babasikundiba and his colleagues.
I took a canoe and crossed the Mississippi, to inspect the geology of the opposite shore. On reaching the summit of the rock formations rising through the prairies, which had attracted my notice from the river, I found them to consist of sienite, which was almost exclusively made up of a trinary compound of white quartz, hornblende, and feldspar--the two former species predominating. The feldspar exhibited its splendent black crystals in fine relief in the massy quartz. This formation extended a mile or more. What excited marked attention, in surveying these rocks, was their smoothly rubbed surfaces, which seemed as if they must have been produced by equally hard and heavy masses of rock, driven over them from the north. I registered this locality, in my Geological Journal, as the Peace Rock, in allusion to the purport of the Indian mission, evidences of which were found at the opposite encampment.[85]
[85] In the treaty of Indian boundaries of Prairie du Chien, of 1825, this mission of the Sioux became a point of reference by the Sioux chiefs Wabishaw, Petite Corbeau, and Wanita, as denoting the limit of their excursions north. The Chippewas, on the contrary, by the mouths of Babasikundiba, Kadawabeda, and the Broken Arm of Sandy Lake, contended for Sac River as the line. I discussed this subject, having Indian maps, at length, with the chiefs and Mr. Taliaferro, the Sioux agent, of St. Peter's. An intermediate stream, the Watab River, was eventually fixed on, as the separating boundary between these two warlike tribes.--Indian Treaties; Washington, D. C. 1837. Vol. i. 8vo. p. 370.
During our night's encampment at this spot we heard the howling of a pack of wolves, on the opposite bank--a sure indication, hunters say, that there are deer, or objects of prey in the vicinity. There are two species of wolves on the plains of the Mississippi--the canis lupus, and the animal called coyote by the Spanish. The latter is smaller, of a dingy yellow color, and bears the generic name of prairie wolf. I have also seen a black wolf on the prairies of Missouri and Arkansas, three feet nine inches long, with coarse, bristly, bear-like hair. As daylight approached, our ears were saluted with the hollow cry of the strix nictea, a species which is asserted to be found, sometimes, as far south as the Falls of St. Anthony.
On embarking, at an early hour, we found the humidity of the night atmosphere to be such, that articles left exposed to it were completely saturated. Yet, the temperature stood at 50° at half-past four o'clock, the moment of our embarkation. On descending six miles we passed the mouth of the Osakis, or Sac River, a considerable tributary from the west, which opens a line of communication with the Red River valley.
About ten o'clock we encountered a series of rapids extending some eight hundred or a thousand yards, in the course of which the river has a probable aggregate fall of sixteen feet. These rapids bear the malappropriate title of the Big Falls. Following these, were a series called Prairie Rapids. At half-past four we passed the entrance of the River St. Francis, a considerable stream on the left bank. At this spot, Hennepin terminated his voyage in 1681, and Carver in 1766. There is an island at the point of confluence. At six o'clock we passed the entrance on the west shore of the stream called Corneille, by the French, which is the true interpretation of the Sioux name Karishon, and the Chippewa term Andaig, which mean the crow, and not the raven. We encamped five miles below, on the east bank, having been thirteen hours in our canoes, with a generally strong current. My mineralogical gleanings, during the day, had given some specimens of the interesting varieties of the quartz family, for which the geological drift is noted, and a single piece of agatized wood. The geological floor on which the river runs, has been indicated.
At five o'clock the following morning (30th) we resumed the descent, and at the distance of two leagues reached the entrance of the Missisagiegon, or Rum River. It is Carver, I believe, who first gives us this name, for a stream which the Indians describe as a river flowing from a lake of lakes--a term, by the way, which the French, with their usual adherence to Indian etymology, have called Mille Lacs. The term missi, in this word, does not signify great, but a collected mass, or all kinds, and sometimes everywhere--the allusion being to water. Sa-gi-e-gon is a lake, and when the prefixed term missi, is put to it, nothing could more graphically describe the large body of water, interspersed with islands, which give a confused aspect, from which the river issues. The Dacotas call this lake Mini Wakan, meaning Spirit-water, which is probably the origin of the name of Rum River.
About thirteen miles below Rum River, and when within half a mile of the Falls,[86] I observed calcareous rocks in horizontal beds, on the left bank of the river. It was now evident we had passed out of the primitive range of deposits, and had entered that of the great sedimentary horizontal and semi-crystalline or silurian system of the Mississippi Valley; and descending with a strong current, we came, rather suddenly, it appeared, to the Falls of St. Anthony, where the river drops, by a cascade, into a rock-bordered valley. Surprise and admiration were the first emotions on getting out of our canoes and gazing on this superlative scene; and we were not a little struck with the idea that the Sioux had named the Falls from manifestly similar impressions, calling it Rara, from the Dacota verb irara, to laugh. By another authority, the word is written Ha Ha, or Dhaha, the letters h in the word representing a strong guttural sound resembling the old Arabic r.[87] (S. R. Riggs's Dakota Dict. and Gram.) Nothing can exceed the sylvan beauty of the country which is here thrown before the eye; and we should not feel surprised that the Aboriginal mind has fallen on very nearly identical sounds with the English, to express its impressions. A not very dissimilar principle has been observed by the Chippewas, who have a uniform termination of their names in ish, which signifies the very same quality which we express by ish in whitish, blackish, saltish--meaning a lesser, or defective quality of the noun.
[86] It is recently asserted that this change in the stratification occurs about a mile above the Falls. [Sen. Doc. p. 237.] By the same authority it is shown that the aggregate fall of the Mississippi from the mouth of Sandy Lake River to the Falls of St. Anthony is 397 feet.
[87] Both words are derived from the verb to laugh.
The popular name of these Falls, it is known, is due to Father Louis Hennepin, a missionary who accompanied La Salle to the Illinois, in 1679, and was carried captive into the country of the Issati, a Dacota tribe, in 1680. Lt. Pike states the portage to be two hundred and sixty poles. By the time we had taken a good view of the position, and made a few sketches, the men had completed carrying over our baggage and canoes. It was now one o'clock, when we embarked to proceed to the newly-established military encampment, a few miles below. It was a noticeable feature, in our descent of the river above the Falls, that Babasikundiba had always kept behind the flotilla of canoes; but the moment we advanced below the Falls, he shot ahead with his delegates, each one being dressed out in his best manner. His canoe had its little flag displayed--the Indian drum was soon heard sending its measured thumps and murmurs of vocal accompaniment over the water, and ever and anon guns were fired. All this was done that the enemy might be apprised of the approach of the delegation in the boldest and most open manner. It was eight or nine miles to the post, near the influx of the St. Peter's, and long before we reached Col. Leavenworth's camp, which occupied a high bluff, the attention of the Sioux was arrested by their advance, and it was inferable from the friendly answering shouts which they gave, that the mission was received with joy. Although we had known nothing of the movement which produced the pictographic letter found on a pole at the Petite Roche, above Sac River, it was, in fact, regarded by the Dacotas as an answer to that letter. And the Chippewa chief, and his followers, were received with a salute by the Sioux, by whom they were taken by the hand, individually, as they landed.
Col. Leavenworth, the commanding officer, received the expedition in the most cordial manner, and assigned quarters for the members. Gov. Cass was received with a salute due to his rank. We learn that the post was established last fall. Orders for this purpose were issued, as will be seen by reference to the Preliminary Documents, p. 35, early in the spring. The troops destined for this purpose, were placed under the orders of Col. Leavenworth, who had distinguished himself as the commander of the ninth and twenty-second regiments, in the war of 1812. They left Detroit in the spring (1819), and proceeding by the way of Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, where garrisons were left, they ascended to the mouth of the St. Peter's, in season to erect cantonments before winter. The site chosen, being on the alluvial grounds, proved unhealthy, in consequence of which the cantonment was removed, in the spring of 1820, to an eminence and spring on the west bank of the Mississippi, about a mile from the former position.
Chapter XIII
Position of the military post established at the mouth of the St. Peter's--Beauty, salubrity, and fertility of the country--Pictographic letter--Indian treaty--The appearance of the offer of frankincense in the burning of tobacco--Opwagonite--native pigments--Salt; native copper--The pouched or prairie rat--Minnesota squirrel--Etymology of the Indian name of St. Peter's River--Antiquities--Sketch of the Dacota--Descent of the Mississippi to Little Crow's village--Feast of green corn.
In favor of the soil and climate, and of the salubrity of the position, the officers speak in terms of the highest admiration. The garrison has directed its attention to both horticulture and agriculture. About ninety acres of the choicest bottom land along the St. Peter's Valley, and the adjacent prairies, have been planted with Indian corn and potatoes, cereal grains, and esculents, inclusive of a hospital, a regimental, and private gardens. At the mess-table of Col. Leavenworth, and in our camp, we were presented with green corn in the ear, peas, beans, cucumbers, beets, radishes, and lettuce. The earliest garden peas were eaten here on the 15th of June, and the first green corn on the 20th July. Much of the corn is already too hard for the table, and some of the ears can be selected which are ripe enough for seed corn. Wheat, on the prairie lands, is found to be entirely ripe, and melons in the military gardens nearly so. These are the best practical commentaries on the soil and climate.[88]
[88] This is now (1854) the central area of Minnesota Territory--a territory in a rapid process of the development of the population and resources of a State.
The distance of the St. Peter's from the Gulf of Mexico is estimated to be about two thousand two hundred miles. Its position above St. Louis is estimated at nine hundred miles. Its elevation above the Gulf is but 744 feet. The precise latitude of this point is 44° 52´ 46´´.[89] The atmosphere is represented as serene and transparent during the summer and spring seasons, and free from the humidity which is so objectionable a trait of our eastern latitudes. The mean temperature is 45°.[90] Its geology and mineralogy will be noticed in my official reports. It will be sufficient here to say that the stratification, at and below St. Anthony's Falls, consists wholly of formations of sandstones and limestones, horizontally deposited, whose relative positions and ages are chiefly inferable from the evidences of organic life, in the shape of petrifactions, which they embrace. The lowest of this series of rocks is a white sandstone, consisting of transparent, loosely cohering grains, special allusion to which is made by Carver, in his travels in 1766, and which may be received as testimony, were there no other, that this too much discredited author had actually visited this region.
[89] Ex. Doc., No. 237.
[90] Army Register.
I have mentioned the interest excited by our Chippewas finding the bark letter, or pictographic memorial at the deserted Sioux encampment above Sac River. It turned out, as we were informed, that this Aboriginal missive was a reply to a similar proposition transmitted from Sandy Lake, by the Chippewas. The very person, indeed, who inscribed the Chippewa bark message, was one of the ten persons who had accompanied us from that lake. Gov. Cass, on learning this fact, requested him to draw a duplicate of it on a roll of bark. He executed this task immediately. We thus had before us the proposition in this symbolic character, which is called ke ke win by the Chippewas, and its answer. By this mode of communication two nations of the most diverse language found no difficulty in understanding each other.[91]
[91] Vide Appendix, for a letter from Gen. Cass to the Secretary of War on this curious topic.
On the second day after our arrival, the Indians consummated their intentions, as signified by the bark letter, and the Sandy-Lake delegation assembled with the Sioux at the old quarters of the military, now occupied as an Indian agency, and smoked the pipe of peace. There were present at this pacification, besides the chiefs Shacopee and Babasikundiba, and minor chieftains, His Excellency Gov. Cass, Col. Leavenworth, and sundry officers of the garrison and the expedition. The ceremonies were conducted under the auspices of the U. S. Indian Agent, Mr. Taliaferro. Every attention was given to make these ceremonies impressive, by a compliance with the Aboriginal customs on these occasions, and it is hoped not without leaving permanent effects on their minds.
The pipe employed by the native diplomatists, in these negotiations, is invested with a symbolic and sacred character, as if the fumes of the weed were offered, in the nature of frankincense, to the Deity. The genuflections with which it is presented, more than the words expressed, countenance this idea. The bowl of the pipe used on this occasion consisted of the well-known red pipe-stone, called opwagonite,[92] so long known in Indian history as being brought from the Coteau des Prairies. It is furnished with a wooden stem two or three feet long, and two and a half inches broad, shaved down thin so as to resemble a spatula. It is then painted with certain blue or green clays, and ornamented with braids of richly dyed porcupine quills, or the holcus fragrans, and the tuft feathers of the male duck or red-headed woodpecker. These state pipes are usually presented by the speakers as memorials of the speeches, and laid aside by the officials having charge of Indian affairs. Col. Leavenworth presented us with some of these carefully ornamented diplomatic testimonials.
[92] Schoolcraft's View of the Lead Mines of Missouri. Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mountains, the Catlinite of Dr. Jackson.
I obtained from the Sioux some very carefully moulded pyramidal-shaped pieces of the blue and green clays from the valley of the St. Peter's, which they employ in painting their pipe-stems and persons. The coloring matter of these appears to be carbonate of copper. It is brought from the Blue Earth River. I also obtained from the Indians very small and carefully tied leathern bags of the red oxide of iron, which they obtain in the state of a dry, powdery mass, on the prairies near the Big Stone. The Indians brought me, from the same region, crystals of salt, scraped up from the margin of certain waters on the prairies, of a dark cast, mixed with impurities. The tendency of these crystals to assume a cubic form was quite distinct. The most interesting development, in the mineralogical way, consisted of small lumps of native copper, which I obtained on an eminence on the banks of the Mississippi, directly opposite the influx of the St. Peter's. They occupy, geologically, a diluvial position, being at the bottom of the prairie-drift stratum, and immediately above the superior limestone.
In the luxurious kitchen gardens of Camp Leavenworth, great depredations have been made by a small quadruped of a burrowing character, called gopher. By patient watching, gun in hand, one of these was killed, and its skin preserved and prepared. The animal is ten inches long to the termination of the tail, with a body very much the size and color of a large wharf-rat. It has five prominent claws, and two broad cutting teeth, but its most striking peculiarity is a duplicature of the cheek, which permits it to carry earth to the mouth of its burrow. It has been called the pouched rat. Sir Francis Drake found a similar animal in his visit to the Gulf of California, in 1587. The distribution of this species, of which this seems to be the northern limit, is very wide through Atlantic America, and it is known to be destructive to vegetation throughout Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. I had, two years ago, been led to notice its ravages in Missouri and Arkansas. But the animal called gopher, in the southern country, is a burrowing tortoise, and the name is improperly applied to this species, which is the Pseudostoma pinetorum.
A peculiar species of squirrel was observed in this vicinity, which is also found to be a destructive visitor to the military gardens. In appearance, this species resembles the common striped squirrel, but it has a more elongated body, and shorter legs. The body has six black stripes, with the same number of intervening lines of spots, on a reddish-brown skin. This Minnesota squirrel has, since the return of the Expedition, been named, by the late Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, sciurus tredeceum.
The River St. Peter's is called, by the Dacotas, Watepa Minnesota. The prefixed term watepa, is their word for river; minni is the name for water. The term sota has been variously explained. The Canadian French, who have proved themselves most apt translators of Indian phrases, render it by the word brouille, or blear; or, if we regard this as derivative from the verb brouiller, mixed, or mottled--a condition of the waters of this river, whenever the Mississippi is in flood, and consequently at a higher elevation when it rushes into the mouth of the St. Peter's, producing that addled aspect of the water, to which the Dacotas, it is believed, apply the term sota.
The scenery around St. Peter's is of the most sylvan and delightful character. About six miles west of the cantonment there are several beautiful lakes, in the prairies. The largest of these is about four miles in circumference, and is called Calhoun Lake, in compliment to the Secretary of War. Its waters are stored with bass and other varieties of fish. There are several pure springs of sparkling water, issuing from the picturesque cliffs which face the Mississippi at this place. I visited one about a mile from the cantonment, which deposits a yellow sulphurous flocculent mass along its course. On the prairies is found the holcus fragrans, which is braided by the Indian females, and employed in some instances to decorate their deer-skin clothing. This aromatic grass retains its scent in the dried state. Along the waters of the St. Peter's is found the acer negundo, the inner bark of which, mixed with the common nettle, is employed by the natives in the state of a strong decoction, as a cure for the lues venerea.
Mr. Carver having described certain antiquities near the foot of Lake Pepin, in 1766, inquiries were made after objects of this kind in the vicinity. I was informed that traces of such remains existed in the valley of the St. Peter's, but can say nothing concerning them from actual inspection.[93]
[93] The last known platform mound in the spread of the mound-builders north, is at Prairie du Chien. The monuments, supposed to be mounds, in the St. Peter's region, are found by Mr. Owen to be geological elevations. The remains on Blue Earth River are attributed to a fort or inclosure built by Le Seur, in his search for copper on that stream, in 1700. Other remains, in the St. Peter's valley, appear to be old trading-houses, fallen in.
Of the Dacotas, or Sioux, for which St. Peter's forms the central point, some anecdotes have been related which denote that they are, on certain occasions, actuated by exalted motives. It is related that the chief Little Crow, going out to the confines of the Chippewa Territory, to examine his beaver-traps, discovered an individual of that tribe in the act of taking a beaver from the trap. As he was himself unperceived, the tribes being at war, and the offence an extreme one, a summary punishment would have been justified by Indian law. But the Sioux chief decided differently: "Take no alarm," said he, approaching the offender: "I come to present you the trap, of which I see you stand in need. Take my gun, also, as I see you have none of your own, and return to the land of your countrymen; and linger not here, lest some of my young men should discover your footsteps."
A still more striking and characteristic incident is related of a chief called the Red Thunder. Col. Wm. Dixon, a Scotchman of family, who made his influence felt in the late war of 1812 as a leader of the Sioux and a merchant among them, married the sister of this notable chief. So daring were the acts of Red Thunder, that he had put the Chippewa nation in awe of him. At length, however, after a long series of the bravest acts, he was taken prisoner, with a favorite dog, and condemned to expiate his offences at the stake. It was a time of want by his captors. One day he said to them: "Why do you not feed my dog?" They replied, "feed him yourself." "Then," he said, "give me a knife." This being thrown to him, he cut a piece of flesh from one of his large and fleshy thighs, and threw it to the dog. Admiration of this act ran through the Indian camp. They immediately released him, and bestowed on him the highest attentions and honors.
The Dacota or Sioux nation constitute one of the families of America who speak a peculiar language. Lieut. Pike, who visited them in 1806, estimated their numerical strength at twenty-one thousand six hundred and seventy-five; of which number he computed three thousand eight hundred to be warriors. They consist of six or seven independent tribes, or sub-tribes, bearing different names, who occupy most of the country between the Mississippi and Missouri, between N. latitude 43° and 46°. The Mendawekantoñs are located on the Mississippi, below the Falls of St. Anthony and the mouth of the St. Peter's. The Sessitoñs and Yanktoñs occupy the upper waters of the St. Peter's. The Titoñs only extend west of the Missouri. The several tribes regard themselves as a confederacy, which is the signification of the term Dacota. They do not acknowledge the name of Sioux as an Indian word. We first hear of them from the early French missionaries, who visited the head of Lake Superior about the middle of the 17th century, under the name of Nadowasie.[94] They speak a language which prevails over an immense area, which is now occupied by the prairie tribes towards the west and southwest, from whence, it is inferred, they came. They appear, at a former time, to have reached and dwelt at the sources of the Mississippi, and to have approached, if not reached, the west end of Lake Superior; for it is from these positions that the oldest traditions represent them to have been driven by the Chippewas. Lieut. Pike thinks they are, undeniably, descendants of Tartars. If so, I feel inclined to think that they must have made the circuit of the Mexican provinces before reaching the Mississippi Valley, for the track of their migration is traced towards the south certainly as far as the country of the Kansas and Osages; while they preserve some striking traits and characteristics which appear to be referable to those intertropical regions.
[94] This is an Algonquin expression, signifying enemy. It is derived from Nodowa, an Iroquois, or a Dacota; the word was originally applied to a serpent. The termination in sie is from awasie, an animal or creature. This term is the root, it is apprehended, of the French sobriquet Sioux.
Having passed the better part of three days in the vicinity of St. Peter's, adding to our collections and portfolios, we left it on the second of August, and proceeded down the river to the village of La Petite Corbeau, or the Little Raven, situated on the east bank not far above the mouth of the St. Croix. The river, in this distance flows between lofty cliffs of the white sandstone and neutral-colored limestones, which are first conspicuously displayed at the Falls of St. Anthony. Springs of water, not infrequently, issue from these cliffs. We landed at one of these, flowing in through a gorge at the distance of four miles below St. Peter's, on the east bank, for the purpose of visiting a remarkable cave, from the mouth of which a small stream issues. The cave is seated wholly within the beautiful white crumbling sandstone rock. It is, in fact, the loose character of the rock which permits the superincumbent waters of the plains above to permeate through it, that has originated the cave. The stream consisted of the purest filtrated water, which is daily carrying away the loosened grains of sand into the Mississippi, and thus enlarging the boundaries of the cavern.[95] We had been erroneously informed that this was Carver's Cave, and looked in vain for this traveller's name on its walls.[96] The atmosphere in this cave was found to be seven degrees higher than the water. We noticed nothing in the form of bones or antiquities.
[95] St. Paul's, the present capital of Minnesota (1854), is situated on the high grounds, a few miles below this cave.
[96] Carver's Cave is four miles lower down, on the same side of the river, agreeably to subsequent observation. It is now obstructed by fallen rock and debris.
The village of Petite Corbeau consists of twelve large lodges, which are said to give shelter to two hundred souls. They plant corn, and cultivate vines and pumpkins. They sallied from their lodges on seeing us approach, and, gathering along the margin of the river, fired a feu de joie on our landing. The chief was among the first to greet us. He is a man below the common size, but brawny and well proportioned, and, although above fifty years of age, retains the look and vigor of forty. He invited us to his lodge--a spacious building about sixty feet by thirty, substantially constructed of logs and bark. Being seated, he addressed himself to His Excellency Gov. Cass. He said that he was glad to see him in his village. That, in his extensive journey, he must have suffered many hardships. He must also have noticed much of the Indian mode of life, and of the face of the country, which would enable him to see things in their proper light. He was glad that he had not, like others who had lately visited the country, passed by his village without calling. He referred, particularly, to the military force sent to establish a garrison at St. Peter's, the year before, who had passed up on the other side of the river. He acquiesced in the treaty that had been recently concluded with the Chippewas. He referred to a recent attack of a party of Fox Indians on their people, on the head waters of the St. Peter's. He said it was dastardly, and that, if that little tribe should continue their attacks, they would at length drive him into anger, and compel him to do a thing he did not wish.
While this speech was being interpreted, the Indian women were employed in bringing basketsful of ears of Indian corn from the fields, which they emptied in a pile. This pile, when it had reached a formidable height, was offered as a present to the Expedition. It was, indeed, the beginning of the season of green corn, with them, and we were soon apprised, by the sound of music from another lodge, that the festival of the green-corn dance was going forward. Being admitted to see the ceremonies, the first thing which attracted notice was two large iron kettles suspended over a fire, filled with green-corn cut from the cob. The Indians, both men and women, were seated in a large circle around them; they were engaged in singing a measured chant in the Indian manner, accompanied by the Sioux cancega or drum and rattles; the utmost solemnity was depicted on every countenance. When the music paused, there were certain gesticulations made, as if a mysterious power were invoked. In the course of these ceremonies, a young man and his sister, joining hands, came forward to be received into the green corn society, of whom questions were asked by the presiding official. At the conclusion of these, the voice of each member was taken as to their admission, which was unanimous. At the termination of the ceremonies, an elderly man came forward and ladled out the contents of the kettles into separate wooden dishes for each head of a family present. As these dishes were received, the persons retired from the lodge by a backward movement, still keeping their faces directed to the kettles, till they had passed out.
Chapter XIV
Descent of the river from the site of Little Crow's Village to Prairie du Chien--Incidents of the voyage, and notices of the scenery and natural history.
The next morning we embarked at 5 o'clock. On descending the river six miles, we passed the mouth of the St. Croix.[97] This stream heads on high lands, which form a rim of hills around the southern and western shores of Lake Superior, where it is connected with the River Misacoda, or Broulè of Fond du Lac. The Namakagon, its southern branch of it, is connected with the Maskigo,[98] or Mauvais River of La Pointe, Lake Superior. Immediately above its point of entrance into the Mississippi the St. Croix expands into a beautiful lake, which is some twelve miles long, and about two in width. The borders of the Mississippi about this point assume an increased height, and more imposing aspect. In many places, as the voyager descends from this spot to Lake Pepin, he observes the calcareous cliffs to terminate in pyramids; the crest of the hills frequently resemble the crumbling ruins of antique towers. At 12 o'clock we came to the vicinity of an isolated calcareous cliff, called La Grange, which may be regarded as one of those monuments resulting from geological denudation, which constitute a striking feature in the St. Peter's region. The top of this cliff affords a fine view of the scenery of the Mississippi for a long distance above and below it. It has been found to be three hundred and twenty-two feet above the river.[99]
[97] This river was explored by me in 1832. Vide Schoolcraft's Expedition to Itasca Lake. 1 vol. 8vo. p. 307--1834: N. Y., Harp.
[98] In 1831, this river was ascended by me with a public expedition, dispatched into the Indian country to quell the disturbances which eventuated the next year in the Sauk war. Vide Schoolcraft's Thirty Years in the Indian Country. Lippincott, Grambo, & Co., Philad.: 1 vol. p. 703, 1851.
[99] Doc. 237.
This spot is noted as being near the site of Tarangamani, or the Red Wing's Village. This chief is one of the notable men of his tribe. He has been long celebrated as a man skilled as a native magician. The village consists of four large, elongated, and of several small lodges. Tarangamani is now considered the first chief of his nation. He is noted for his wisdom and sagacity. He bears the marks of being sixty years of age. His grand-daughter married Col. Crawford, a man of commercial activity about Prairie du Chien and Michilimackinac, during the late war of 1812, who has left descendants in the lake country. We observed, at this village, several buffalo skins undergoing the Indian process of dressing. The hair having been removed, they were stretched on the ground, where they were subjected to a process analogous to tanning by being covered with a decoction of oak bark.
In ascending the hill of La Grange, we first encountered the rattlesnake, two of which we killed. This is the highest northern point at which we have observed this species on the Mississippi. I observed on this elevation small detached masses of radiated quartz, cinnamon-colored and white, together with an ore of iron crystallized in cubes. Having cursorily examined the environs, the expedition again embarked. It was 1 o'clock when we entered Lake Pepin. This admired lake is a mere expansion of the Mississippi, having a length of twenty-four miles by a varying width of from two to four miles. During this distance there is not the least current during calm weather. The prospects, in passing through this expanse of water, are of the most picturesque kind. Its immediate shores are circumscribed with a broad beach of gravel, in which may be found rolled pieces of the chalcedonies, agates, and other species of the quartz family, which are characteristic of the drift-stratum of the upper borders of the Mississippi. On the eastern shore, at a short distance from the margin, there is a lofty range of limestone cliffs. On the west, the eye rests on an elevated formation of prairie, nearly destitute of trees. From this plain several conical hills ascend, which have the appearance, but only the appearance, of artificial construction. The lake is quite transparent, and yields several species of fish. The most remarkable of these is the acipenser spatularia, of which we obtained a specimen. It is also remarkable for its numerous varieties, and the large size of its fresh-water shells. I procured several species of unio, which, from their size and character, attracted my attention, particularly to the subject of this branch of American conchology. Several of these, from the duplicates of my cabinet, have attracted the attention of conchologists.[100] Lake Pepin receives a river from the west called the Ocano, or more properly Au Canot; its mouth having been, in former times, a noted place for concealing canoes during the winter season.[101] At a point, on the east shore, about half way down the lake, where a small stream enters, we were informed there existed the remains of an old French fort, or factory; but we did not land to examine them.
[100] Silliman's Journal of Science, 1823; also, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc.
[101] Travellers who are disposed to regard La Hontan's fiction of his purported discoveries on Rivier la Longue, as entitled to notice, have suggested this river as the locality intended. Nicollet, otherwise reliable, has gone so far as to call it La Hontan River.
In passing through this lake the interpreters pointed to a high precipice in the cliffs on the east shore, which Indian tradition assigns as the locality of a tragical love tale, of which a Dacota girl was the heroine. To avoid the dilemma of being compelled to accept a husband of repulsive character, and to sacrifice her affections for another person, she precipitated herself down this precipice. The tale has been so differently told to travellers visiting the region, that nothing but the simple tradition appears worth recording. Olaita and Winona, have been mentioned as the name of the Dacota Sappho.
At 6 o'clock in the evening we encamped on a gravelly beach on the east shore of the lake, the weather threatening a storm. Rain commenced at 8 o'clock, and continued at intervals, with severe thunder and most vivid flashes of lightning during the night. At 5 o'clock the next morning (4th), the expedition was again in motion. The rain had ceased, but the morning remained cloudy. The scenery on the borders of the lake continued to be impressive. The precipices on the east shore shot up into spiral points; yet the orbicular elevations are covered with grass and shrubbery. These high grass-crowned elevations, without forest, terminate near the influx of the Chippewa River in a remarkable isolated elevation, called Mont La Garde, from the fact that it is, and long has been, a noted look-out station for Chippewa war parties, who descend this stream, against the Sioux. It commands an extensive view of Lake Pepin. This lake was thought to be two miles wide opposite our last night's encampment; it narrows to probably less than half a mile at its mouth. The west shore along this portion of the lake consists of singularly striking, picturesque, level, and elevated prairie lands.
Carver, in 1768, places his remains of ancient circumvallations in this vicinity, but "some miles below Lake Pepin."[102] This was a period when no attention had been directed to the subject of antiquities in the United States, and his mind appears to have been impressed strongly by what he saw. As opportunities did not allow me to land, nor was the precise spot, indeed, known to any of our guides or men, reference can only be made to the observations of a man who is known to have been the first American traveller that has called attention to our western antiquities. Mr. H. V. Hart, long a resident of this region, verbally assures me that he has visited these works.[103]
[102] Carver's Travels, p. 30.
[103] Mr. G. W. Featherstonehaugh, in his Geological Reconnoissance, in 1834, landed at the location of these antiquarian remains, and is disposed to recognize their authenticity.
Chippewa River, just referred to, comes into the Mississippi on its left bank, within half a mile of the foot of Lake Pepin. It is a tributary of prime volume, draining the Chippewa territories lying around the south and west shores of Lake Superior. Originating on the sandy tracts extending over the elevated central plains of the Wisconsin, it brings a large deposit of sand into the Mississippi, the navigation of which is visibly more embarrassed below this point with sand-bars, willow, and cotton-wood islands.
At four o'clock in the afternoon we reached and landed at Wabashaw's village. It is eligibly seated on the west shore, and consists of four of the large elongated Sioux lodges before mentioned, containing a population of about sixty souls. The usual intercourse and speeches of congratulation by the Indians, and acknowledgment of the American authorities were made, and we again embarked, after a detention of forty minutes. A few miles below Wabashaw's village, we came to a high rocky or mountain island, called La montaigne qui trompe dans l'eau, a term which is shortened by western phraseology into TROMPLEDO mountain. This is a very remarkable feature in the geography of the Upper Mississippi. The rock is calcareous; it is, in fact, the only fast or rocky island we have encountered below the little islet at the head of the Packagama Falls. It is not only striking from its lofty elevation, but is several miles in circumference; standing in the bed of the river and parting its channel into two, it appears to be the first bold geological monument which has effectually resisted its course.
We had passed this island but a short distance, and the approaches of evening began to be manifest, when a large gray wolf sprang into the river to cross it. The greatest animation at once arose in our flotilla; the canoemen bending themselves to their paddles, the auxiliary Indians of our party shouting, and the whole party assuming an unwonted excitement. A shot was soon fired from one of our rifles, but either the distance was too great, or the aim incorrect. The wolf was fully apprised of his peril, put forth all his strength, outstripped his pursuers, reached the shore, and nimbly leaped into the woods.
We encamped on the west shore, a few miles below the island at seven o'clock, having been twelve hours in our canoes. The confinement of the position nobody can appreciate who has not tried it, and I hastened to stretch my legs, by ascending the river cliffs in our rear, to have a glimpse of its geology and scenery. The view westwardly was one of groves and prairies of most inviting agricultural promise. In front, the island mountain rises to an elevation which appears to have been the original geological level of the stratification before the Mississippi cut its way through it.
At the rapids of Black River, which enters opposite our encampment, a saw-mill, we were informed, had been erected by an inhabitant of Prairie du Chien. Thus the empire of the arts has begun to make its way into these regions, and proclaims the advance of a heavy civilization into a valley which has heretofore only resounded to the savage war-whoop. Or, if a higher grade of society and arts has ever before existed in it, as some of our tumuli and antiquities would lead us to infer, the light of history has failed to reach us on the subject.[104]
[104] American Antiquities. As the tumuli and earthworks of the Mississippi Valley are more closely scrutinized, they do not appear to denote a higher degree of civilization than may be assigned to the ancestors of the present races of Indians, prior to the epoch of the introduction of European arts into America. Certainly there is nothing in our earthworks and mounds, to compare with the Toltec and Aztec type of arts at the opening of the 16th century; while the possession by our tribes of the zea maize, a tropical plant, and other facts indicative of a southern migration, appear to denote a residence in warmer latitudes. The distribution of the Mexican teocalli and pyramid is also plainly traceable from the south. Neither the platform nor the solid conical mound has been traced higher north than Prairie du Chien; nor have the earthworks (adopting Carver's notices) reached higher than Lake Pepin. There are no mounds or earthworks at the sources of the Mississippi nor in all British America to the shores of the Arctic Seas. We cannot bring arts or civilization from that quarter.
At the spot of our encampment, as soon as the shades of night closed in, we were visited by hordes of ephemera. The candles lighted in our tents became the points of attraction for these evanescent creations. They soon, however, began to feel the influence of the sinking of the thermometer, and the air was imperceptibly cleared of them in an hour or two. By the hour of three o'clock the next morning (5th) the expedition was again in motion descending the river. It halted for breakfast at Painted Rock, on the west shore. While this matter was being accomplished, I found an abundant locality of unios in a curve of the shore which produced an eddy. Fine specimens of U. purpureus, elongatus, and orbiculatus were obtained. With the increased spirit and animation which the whole party felt on the prospect of our arrival at Prairie du Chien, we proceeded unremittingly on our descent, and reached that place at six o'clock in the evening.
Prairie du Chien does not derive its name from the dog, but from a noted family of Fox Indians bearing this name, who anciently dwelt here. The old town is said to have been about a mile below the present settlement, which was commenced by Mr. Dubuque and his associates, in 1783. The prairie is most eligibly situated along the margin of the stream, above whose floods it is elevated. It consists of a heavy stratum of diluvial pebbles and boulders, which is picturesquely bounded by lofty cliffs of the silurian[105] limestones, and their accompanying column of stratification. The village has the old and shabby look of all the antique French towns on the Mississippi, and in the great lake basins; the dwellings being constructed of logs and barks, and the courtyards picketed in, as if they were intended for defence. It is called Kipisagee by the Chippewas and Algonquin tribes generally, meaning the place of the jet or outflow of the (Wisconsin) River. It is, in popular parlance, estimated to be 300 miles below St. Peter's, and 600 above St. Louis.[106] Its latitude is 43° 3´ 6´´. It is the seat of justice for Crawford County, having been so named in, honor of W. H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury of the U. S. It is, together with all the region west of Lake Michigan, attached to the territory of Michigan. There is a large and fertile island in the Mississippi, opposite the place.
[105] This term, unknown to geology at the period, has been subsequently introduced by Sir Roderic Murchison.
[106] These distances are reduced by Ex. Doc. 237, respectively to 260 and 542 miles.
We found the garrison to consist of a single company of infantry, under the command of Capt. J. Fowle, Jun.,[107] who received us courteously, and offered the salute due to the rank of His Excellency, Gov. Cass. The fort is a square stockade, with bastions at two angles. There was found on this part of the prairie, when it came to be occupied with a garrison by the Americans, in 1819, an ancient platform-mound, in an exactly square form, the shape and outlines of which were preserved with exactitude by the prairie sod. This earthwork, the probable evidence of a condition of ancient society, arts, and events of a race who are now reduced so low, was, with good taste, preserved by the military, when they erected this stockade. One of the officers built a dwelling-house upon it, thus converting it, to the use, and probably the only use, to which it was originally devoted. No measurements have been preserved of its original condition; but judging from present appearances, it must have squared seventy-five feet, and have had an elevation of eight feet.
[107] This officer entered the army in 1812, serving with reputation. He rose, through various grades of the service, to the rank of Lieut. Col. of the 6th infantry. He lost his life on the 25th April, 1838, by the explosion of the steamer Moselle, on the Ohio River.
Chapter XV
Mr. Schoolcraft makes a visit to the lead mines of Dubuque--Incidents of the trip--Description of the mines--The title of occupancy, and the mode of the mines being worked by the Fox tribe of Indians--Who are the Foxes?
I solicited permission of Gov. Cass to visit the lead mines of Dubuque, which are situated on the west bank of the Mississippi, at the computed distance of twenty-five leagues below Prairie du Chien. Furnished with a light canoe, manned by eight voyageurs, including a guide, I left the prairie at half past eleven A. M. (6th). Passed the entrance of the Wisconsin, on the left bank, at the distance of a league.[108] Opposite this point is the high elevation which Pike, in 1806, recommended to be occupied with a military work. The suggestion has not, however, been adopted; military men, probably, thinking that, however eligible the site might be for a work where civilized nations were likely to come into contact, a simpler style of defensive works would serve the purpose of keeping the Indian tribes in check. I proceeded nine leagues below, and encamped at the site of a Fox village,[109] located on the east bank, a mile below the entrance of Turkey River from the west. The village, consisting of twelve lodges, was now temporarily deserted, the Indians being probably absent on a hunt; but, if so, it was remarkable that not a soul or living thing was left behind, not even a dog. My guide, indeed, informed me that the cause of the desertion was the fears entertained of an attack from the Sioux, in retaliation for the massacre lately perpetrated by them on the heads of the St. Peter's, which was alluded to in the speech of the Little Crow, while we were at his village (ante, p. 160).
[108] It was at this spot, one hundred and thirty-seven years ago, that Marquette and M. Joliet, coming from the lakes, discovered the Mississippi.
[109] Now the site of Cassville, Grant County, Wisconsin. It is a post town, pleasantly situated, with a population of 200.
It was seven o'clock P. M. when I landed here, and having some hours of daylight, I walked back from the river to look at the village, and its fields, and to examine the geological structure of the adjacent cliffs. In their gardens I observed squashes, beans, and pumpkins, but the fields of corn, the principal article of cultivation, had been nearly all destroyed, probably by wild animals. I found an extensive field of water and musk melons, situated in an opening in a grove, detached from the other fields and gardens. None of the fruit was perfectly ripe, although it had been found so at Prairie du Chien; some of it had been bitten by wild animals.[110] The cliffs consisted of the same horizontal strata of sandstones and neutral colored limestone, prevailing at higher positions in this valley. Returning to the river beach, I perceived the same pebble drift which characterizes higher latitudes. This seems the only difference in its structure or form, namely, that the pieces of quartz pebble, limestone, and other fragments brought down, become smaller and smaller, as they are carried down.
[110] Fondness for melons, and annual vine fruits of the garden, is a striking trait of the Indians. Some curious facts on this head are published in the statistics.--Indian Information, vol. iii. p. 624, 1853, Philadelphia, Lippincott & Co.
There were frequent thunders, and a rain-storm, during the night, which, with a slight intermission, characterized the morning until noon. I embarked at half past three A. M. (7th), and landed at the Fox village of the Kettle chief, at the site of Dubuque's house,[111] at ten o'clock; a moderate rain having continued all the way. It ceased an hour after my arrival.
[111] This is now (1854) the site of the city of Dubuque, State of Iowa, which is reputed to be the oldest settlement in that State. This city is eligibly situated on a broad plateau, between limestone cliffs. The soil rests on a rock foundation, which renders it incapable of being undermined by the Mississippi. Its streets are broad and laid out at right angles. It has several Protestant churches, a Catholic cathedral, a public land office, two banks, four printing offices, and by the last census contains a population of 7,500, the county of which it is the seat of justice, has 10,840. Two railroads have their terminal points at this place. At the time of my visit, in 1820, the house which had been built by Mr. Dubuque, had been burnt down; and there was not a dwelling superior to the Indian wigwam within the present limits of Iowa. The State of Iowa was admitted into the Union in 1837. By the 7th U. S. census, the population of this State, in 1850, is shown to be 192,214. The number of square miles is 50,914. No Western State is believed to contain a less proportionate quantity of land unsuited to the plough, and its population and resources must have a rapid development.
The Kettle chief's village is situated fifteen miles below the entrance of the Little Makokety River, consisting of nineteen lodges, built in two rows, pretty compact, and having a population of two hundred and fifty souls. There is a large island in the Mississippi, directly opposite this village, which is occupied by traders. I first landed there to get an interpreter of the Fox language, and obtain some necessary information respecting the location of the mines, and the best means of accomplishing my object. Meantime the rain had ceased. I then proceeded across the Mississippi to the Kettle chief's lodge, to solicit his permission to visit the mines, and obtain Indian guides. I succeeded in getting Mr. Gates, as interpreter; and was accompanied by Dr. S. Muir, a trader, who politely offered to go with me. On entering the lodge of Aquoqua, the chief, I found him suffering under a severe attack of bilious fever. As I approached him, he sat upon his pallet, being unable to stand, and bid me welcome; but soon became exhausted by the labor of conversation, and was obliged to resume his former position. He appeared to be a man of eighty years of age, had a venerable look, but was reduced to the last stage of physical debility. Yet he retained his faculties of sight and hearing unimpaired, together with his mental powers. He spoke to me of his death with calm resignation, as a thing to be desired. On stating the object of my visit, some objections were made by the chiefs who surrounded him, and they required further time to consider the proposition. In the mean time, I learned from another source, that since the death of Dubuque, to whom the Indians had formerly granted the privilege of working the mines, they had manifested great jealousy of the whites, were afraid they would encroach on their rights, denied all former grants, and did not make it a practice even to allow strangers to view their diggings. Apprehending some difficulties of this kind, I had provided myself with some presents, and concluding this to be the time, because of the reluctance manifested, directed one of my voyageurs to bring in a present of tobacco and whiskey; and in a few moments I received their assent, and two guides were furnished. One of these was a minor chief, called Scabass, or the Yelling Wolf; the other, Wa-ba-say-ah, or the White Foxskin. They led me up the cliff, where I understood the Indian woman, Peosta, first found lead ore; after reaching the level of the river bluffs, we pursued a path over undulating hills, exhibiting a half prairie, and quite picturesque rural aspect. On reaching the diggings, the most striking part of them, but not all of them, exhibited excavations such as the Indians only do not seem persevering enough in labor to have made.
The district of country called Dubuque's Mines, embraces an area of about twenty-one square leagues, commencing at the mouth of the Little Maquaquity River, sixty miles below Prairie du Chien, and extending along the west bank of the Mississippi River, seven leagues in front by three in depth. The principal mines are situated on a tract of one square league, beginning immediately at the Fox village of Aquoqua, or the Kettle chief, and extending westwardly. This is the seat of the mining operations carried on by Dubuque, as well as of what are called the Indian Diggings.
Geologically it is the same formation that characterizes the mines of Missouri; but there are some peculiarities. The ore found is the common sulphuret of lead, with a broad foliated, or lamellated structure, and high metallic lustre. It occurs massive and disseminated, in a red loam, resting on a horizontal limestone rock. Sometimes small veins of the ore are seen in the rock, but it has been generally explored in the soil. It generally occurs in narrow beds, which have a fixed direction; these beds extend three or four hundred feet, when they cease, or are traced into crevices in the rock. At this stage, the pursuit of ore, at most of the diggings, has been abandoned, frequently with small veins of the metal in view. No matrix, so far as I observed, is found with the ore which is dug out of the soil, unless we may consider such an ochery oxide of iron, with which it is slightly incrusted. Occasionally, pieces of calcareous spar are thrown out with the earth in digging after ore. I picked up from one of these heaps of earth a specimen of transparent crystallized sulphate of barytes; but this mineral appears to be rare. There appears to be none of the radiated quartz, or white opaque heavy spar, which are so abundantly found at the Missouri mines.[112]
[112] Vide my View of the Lead Mines of Missouri, &c., New York, 1819.
The ore at these mines is now exclusively dug by the Indian women. Old and superannuated men also partake in the mining labor, but the warriors and men hold themselves above it. In this labor, the persons who engage in it employ the hoe, shovel, pick-axe, and crow-bar. These implements are supplied by the traders at the island, who are the purchasers of the crude ore. With these implements they dig trenches, till they are arrested by the solid rock. There are no shafts, even of the simplest kind, and the windlass and bucket are unknown to them--far more so the use of gunpowder in the mining operations. Their mode of going down into the deepest pits, and coming up from them, is by digging an inclined way, which permits the women to keep an erect position in walking.[113] I descended into one of these inclined excavations, which had probably been carried down forty feet, at the perpendicular angle.
[113] This is believed to be an oriental mode of excavation, which appears to have been practised in digging wells.
When a quantity of ore has been got out, it is carried in baskets to the banks of the Mississippi, by the females, who are ferried over to the island. They receive at the rate of two dollars for a hundred and twenty pounds, payable in goods. At the profit at which these are usually sold, it may be presumed to cost the traders at the rate of seventy-five cents or a dollar, cash value, per hundred weight. The traders smelt the ore on the island, in furnaces of the same construction which I have described, and given plates of, in my treatise on the mines.[114] They observe that it yields the same per centum of metallic lead. Formerly, the Indians were in the habit of smelting the ore themselves on log heaps, by which an unusual proportion of it was converted into lead-ashes and lost. They are now induced to search about the sites of these old fires to collect these lead-ashes, which consist, for the most part, of desulphuretted ore, for which they receive a dollar per bushel.
[114] New York, 1819.
There are three mines in addition to those above mentioned, situated upon the Upper Mississippi, which are worked by the Indians. They are located at Sinsinaway, at Rivière au Fevre, and at the Little Makokety. 1. Sinsinaway mines. They are situated fifteen miles below Aquoqua's Village, on the east shore of the Mississippi, at the junction of the Sinsinaway River. 2. Mine au Fevre. Situated on the River au Fevre, which enters the Mississippi on its east banks, twenty-one miles below Dubuque's mines. The lead ore is found ten miles from its mouth. At this locality, the ore is accompanied by the sulphate of barytes, and is sometimes crystallized in cubes or octohedrons.[115] 3. Mine of the Makokety, or Maquoqueti. This small river enters the Mississippi fifteen miles above Dubuque's mines. The mineral character and value of the country has been but little explored.
[115] The city of Galena has subsequently been built on this river, at the distance of six miles from the Mississippi. The river is, indeed, thus far, an arm of the Mississippi, which permits steamboats freely to enter, converting the place into a commercial depot for a vast surrounding country. Not less than 40,000,000 pounds of lead were shipped from this place in 1852, valued at one million six hundred thousand dollars. It is the terminus of the Chicago and Galena Railroad, connecting it by a line of 180 miles with the lakes. It contains a bank, three newspaper offices, and several churches of various denominations, and has, by the census of 1850, a population of 6,004.
The history of the mines of Dubuque is brief and simple. In 1780, a discovery of lead ore was made by the wife of Peosta, a Fox Indian of Aquoqua's Village. This gave the hint for explorations, which resulted in extensive discoveries. The lands were formally granted by the Indians to Julien Dubuque, at a council held at Prairie du Chien in 1788, by virtue of which he permanently settled on them, erected buildings and furnaces, and continued to work them until 1810. In 1796, he received a confirmation of his grant from Carondelet, the governor of Louisiana, in which they are called "the mines of Spain." By a stone monument which stands on a hill near the mines, Dubuque died on the 24th March, 1810, aged forty-five years and six months. After his death, the Indians burnt down his house and fences--he leaving, I believe, no family[116]--and erased every vestige of civilized life; and they have since revoked, or at least denied the grant, and appear to set a very high value on the mines. Dubuque's claim was assigned to his creditors, by whom it was presented to the commissioners for deciding on land titles, in 1806. By a majority of the board it was determined to be valid, in which condition it was reported to Washington for final action. At this stage of the investigation, Mr. Gallatin, who was then Secretary of the Treasury, made a report on the subject, clearly stating the facts, and coming to the conclusion that it was not a perfect title, stating that no patent had ever been issued for it, at New Orleans, the seat of the Spanish authority, from which transcripts of the records of all grants had been transmitted to the Treasury.[117]
[116] There is believed to be no instance, in America, where the Indians have disannulled grants or privileges to persons settling among them, and leaving families founded on the Indian element.
[117] For the facts in this case, see Collection of Land Laws of the United States, printed at Washington, 1817.
On the arrival of Lieut. Pike at Mr. Dubuque's on the 1st of September, 1805, he endeavored to obtain information necessary to judge of the value and extent and the nature of the grant of the mines; but he was not able to visit them. To the inquiries which he addressed to Mr. Dubuque on the subject, the latter replied in writing that a copy of the grant was filed at the proper office in St. Louis, which would show its date, together with the date of its confirmation by the Spanish authority, and the extent of the grant to him. He states the mine to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight leagues long, and from one to three leagues broad. He represents the per centum of metal to be yielded from the ore to be seventy-five, and the quantity smelted per annum at from 20,000 to 40,000 pounds. He stated that the whole product was cast into pig lead, and that there were no other metals at the mines but copper, of the value of which he could not judge.
Having examined the mines with as much minuteness as the time allowed me would permit, and obtained specimens of its ores and minerals, I returned to the banks of the Mississippi, before the daylight departed, and, immediately embarking, went up the river two leagues and encamped on an island.
It may be proper to add to this narrative of my mineralogical visit to these mines, a few words respecting the Fox Indians, by whom the country is owned. The first we hear of these people is from early missionaries of New France, who call them, in a list drawn up for the government in 1736, "Gens du Sang," and Miskaukis. The latter I found to be the name they apply to themselves. We get nothing, however, by it. It means Red-earths, being a compound from misk-wau, red, and auki, earth. They are a branch of the great Algonquin family. The French, who formed a bad opinion of them, as their history opened, bestowed on them the name of Renouard, from which we derive their long-standing popular name. Their traditions attribute their origin to eastern portions of America. Mr. Gates, who acted as my interpreter, and is well acquainted with their language and customs, informs me that their traditions refer to their residence on the north banks of the St. Lawrence, near the ancient Cataraqui. They appear to have been a very erratic, spirited, warlike, and treacherous tribe; dwelling but a short time at a spot, and pushing westward, as their affairs led them, till they finally reached the Mississippi, which they must have crossed after 1766, for Carver found them living in villages on the Wisconsin. At Saginaw, they appear to have formed a fast alliance with the Saucs, a tribe to whom they are closely allied by language and history. They figure in the history of Indian events about old Michilimackinac, where they played pranks under the not very definite title of Muscodainsug, but are first conspicuously noted while they dwelt on the river bearing their name, which falls into Green Bay, Wisconsin.[118] The Chippewas, with whom they have strong affinity of language, call them Otagami, and ever deemed them a sanguinary and unreliable tribe. The French defeated them in a sanguinary battle at Butte de Mort, and by this defeat drove them from Fox River.
[118] This name was first applied to a territory in 1836.
Their present numbers cannot be accurately given. I was informed that the village I visited contained two hundred and fifty souls. They have a large village at Rock Island, where the Foxes and Saucs live together, which consists of sixty lodges, and numbers three hundred souls. One-half of these may be Saucs. They have another village at the mouth of Turkey River; altogether, they may muster from 460 to 500 souls. Yet, they are at war with most of the tribes around them, except the Iowas, Saucs, and Kickapoos. They are engaged in a deadly, and apparently successful war against the Sioux tribes. They recently killed nine men of that nation, on the Terre Blue River; and a party of twenty men are now absent, in the same direction, under a half-breed named Morgan. They are on bad terms with the Osages and Pawnees of the Missouri, and not on the best terms with their neighbors the Winnebagoes.
I again embarked at four o'clock A. M. (8th). My men were stout fellows, and worked with hearty will, and it was thought possible to reach the Prairie during the day, by hard and late pushing. We passed Turkey River at two o'clock, and they boldly plied their paddles, sometimes animating their labors with a song; but the Mississippi proved too stout for us; and some time after nightfall we put ashore on an island, before reaching the Wisconsin. In ascending the river this day, observed the pelican, which exhibited itself in a flock, standing on a low sandy spot of an island. This bird has a clumsy and unwieldy look, from the duplicate membrane attached to its lower mandible, which is constructed so as when inflated to give it a bag-like appearance. A short sleep served to restore the men, and we were again in our canoes the next morning (9th) before I could certainly tell the time by my watch. Daylight had not yet broke when we passed the influx of the Wisconsin, and we reached the Prairie under a full chorus, and landed at six o'clock.
Chapter XVI
The expedition proceeds from Prairie du Chein up the Wisconsin Valley--Incidents of the ascent--Etymology of the name--The low state of its waters favorable to the observation of its fresh-water conchology--Cross the Wisconsin summit, and descend the Fox River to Winnebago Lake.
We were now at the foot of the Wisconsin Valley--at the point, in fact, where Marquette and Joliet, coming from the forests and lakes of New France, had discovered the great River of the West, in 1673. Marquette, led by his rubrics, named it the River "Conception," but, in his journal, he freely employs the aboriginal term of Mississippi, which was in use by the whole body of the Algonquin tribes. While awaiting, at Prairie du Chein, the preparations for ascending the Wisconsin, the locality was found a very remarkable one for its large unios, and some other species of fresh-water shells. Some specimens of the unio crassus, found on the shores of the island in the Mississippi, opposite the village, were of thrice the size of any noticed in America or Europe, and put conchologists in doubt whether the species should not be named giganteus.[119] I had, in coming down the Mississippi, procured some fine and large specimens of the unio purpureus of Mr. Say, at the Painted Rock, with some other species; and the discovery of such large species of the crassus served to direct new attention to the subject.
[119] American Journal of Science, vol. vi. p. 119.
Our sympathies were excited, at this place, by observing an object of human deformity in the person of an Indian, who, to remedy the want of the power of locomotion, had adjusted his legs in a large wooden bowl. By rocking this on the ground, he supplied, in a manner, the lost locomotive power. This man of the bowl possessed his faculties of mind unimpaired, spoke several Indian languages, besides the Canadian French, and appeared cheerful and intelligent. An excursion into the adjacent country, to view some caves, and a reported mineral locality made by Mr. Trowbridge, during my descent to the mines of Dubuque, brought me some concretions of carbonate of lime, but the Indian guides either faltered to make the promised discoveries, through their superstitions, or really failed in the effort to find the object. By tracing the shores of the Mississippi, I found the rolled and hard agates and other quartz species, which characterize the pebble-drift of its sources, still present in the down-flowing shore-drift.
The aboriginal name of this place is Kipesági, an Algonquin word, which is applied to the mouth or outflow of the Wisconsin River. It appears to be based on the verb kipa, to be thick or turbid, and sauge, outflow--the river at its floods, being but little else than a moving mass of sand and water.
It was the 9th (Aug.) at half-past ten in the morning before the expedition left the Prairie to ascend the Wisconsin, the mouth of which we reached after descending the Mississippi three miles. This is an impressive scene--the bold cliffs of the west bank of the Mississippi, with Pike's-hill rising in front on the west, while those of the Wisconsin Valley stand at but little less elevation on the north and south. At this season of the year the water is clear and placid, and mingles itself in its mighty recipient without disturbance. But it is easy to conceive, what the Indians affirm, that in its floods it is a strong and turbid mass of moving waters, against which nothing can stand. This character of the stream is believed, indeed, to be the origin of the Indian name of Wisconsin. Miskawägumi, means a strong or mixed water, or liquid. By adding to this word totoshabo (milk), the meaning is coagulated or turning milk; it is often used to mean brandy, which is then called strong water; by adding iscodawabo, the meaning is fire-water. Marquette, in 1673, spells the name of the river indifferently Meshkousing, and Mishkousing. Of this term, the inflection ing, is simply a local form, the letter s being thrown in for euphony. This word appears to be a derivation from the term mushkowa, strong water. By admitting the transmutation of m to w, the initial syllable mis is changed to wis, and the interpretation is then river (or place) of strong waters. The term of kipesagi, applied to its mouth, is but another characteristic feature of it--the one laying stress on its turbidity in flood, and the other on its strength of current. These are certainly the two leading traits of the Wisconsin, which rushes with a great average velocity over an inclined plane, without falls, for a great distance. It originates in a remarkable summit of sandy plains, which send out to the west the Chippewa River of Lake Pepin, to the north the Montreal and Ontonagon of Lake Superior, and to the east the Menomonee of Green Bay, while the Wisconsin becomes its southern off-drain, till it finally turns west at the Portage, and flows into the Mississippi.
We ascended, the first day, eighteen miles; the next, thirty-six; the third day, thirty-four miles; the fourth, forty; the fifth, thirty-eight, and the sixth, sixteen, which brought us to the Fox and Wisconsin Portage, a spot renowned from the earliest French days of western discovery. For here, on the waters separating the Mississippi from the great lakes, there had, at successive intervals, been pitched the tents of Marquette, La Hontan, Carver, and other explorers, who have, in their published journals, left traces of their footsteps. La Salle, who excelled them all in energy of character, proceeded to the Mississippi from Lake Michigan, down the Illinois.
Our estimates made the distance from the Mississippi to this point one hundred and eighty-two miles. It is a wide, and (at this season) shallow stream, with transparent waters, running over a bed of yellow sand, checkered with numerous small islands, and long spits of sand-bars. There is not a fall in this distance, and it must be navigable with large craft during the periodical freshets. It receives the Blue, Pine, and other tributaries in this distance. Its valley presents a geological section, on a large scale, of the series of lead-bearing rocks extending in regular succession from the fundamental sandstone to the topmost limestones. The water being shallow and warm, we often waded from bar to bar, and found the scene a fruitful one for its fresh-water conchology. The Indians frequently amused me by accounts of the lead mines and mineral productions of its borders; but I followed them in this search only to be convinced that they were without sincerity in these representations, and had no higher objects on this head, than, by assuming a conciliatory manner, to secure temporary advantages while the expedition was passing through their country. The valley belongs to the Winnebagoes, whom we frequently met, and received a friendly reception from. We also encountered Menomonies, who occupy the lower part of the adjacent Fox River Valley, but rove widely west and north over the countries of the tribes they are at peace with.
The Wisconsin Valley was formerly inhabited by the Sacs and Foxes, who raised large quantities of corn and beans on its fertile shores. They were driven by the French, in alliance with the Chippewas and Menomonies. It is now possessed exclusively by the Winnebagoes, a savage and bloodthirsty tribe, who came, according to tradition, many years ago from the south, and are thought to be related to some of the Mexican tribes. Their language is cognate with the great Sioux or Dakota stock west of the Mississippi, who likewise date their origin south. To those accustomed to hear the softer tones of the Chippewa and Algonquin, it sounds harsh and guttural. Their name for themselves is Hochungara; the French call them Puants.
In passing up this valley, an almost never-failing object of interest was furnished by the univalve shells found along its banks, and by the variety in size, shape, and color which they exhibited. Of these, the late Mr. Barnes has described, from my duplicates, the U. plicatus, U. verrucosus, U. ventricosus, U. planus, U. obliqua, and U. gracilis.[120] We frequently observed the scolipax minor, the plover, the A. alcyon, a small yellow bird, and C. vociferus, along its sandy shores; and, in other positions, the brant, the grouse, the A. sponsa, and the summer duck, and F. melodia. A range of hills extends from the Mississippi, on each shore, to within twenty miles of the Portage, where it ceases, on the south side, but continues on the north--receding, however, a considerable distance. This section is called the Highlands of the Wisconsin. The stratification is exclusively sandstone and limestone, in the usual order of the metalliferous series of the West, and lying in horizontal positions.
[120] American Journal of Science, vol. vi. p. 120, &c.
There are two kinds of rattlesnake in the Valley of the Wisconsin. The larger, or barred crotalis, is confined to the hills, and attains a large size. I killed one of this species at the mouth of a small cave on the summit of a cliff to which I ascended, which measured four feet in length, and had nine rattles. Its great thickness attracted notice. Attaching a twig to its neck, I drew it down into the valley as a present to our Indians, knowing that they regard the reptile in a peculiar manner. They found it a female, having eleven young, who had taken shelter in their maternal abdominal-covering. The Ottowas carefully took off the skin, and brought it with them. The second kind of this reptile is called prairie rattlesnake, is confined to the plains, and does not exceed fifteen or twenty inches in length.
The Indians had reported localities of lead, copper, and silver at various places, but always failed, as we ascended, to reveal anything of more value than detached pieces of sulphuret of iron, or brown iron-stone. When we reached the portage, a Winnebago, who had been the chief person in making these reports, came with great ceremony to present a specimen of his reported silver. On taking off the envelop it turned out to be a small mass of light-colored glistening folia of mica. We had found the horizontal rocks along the stream thus far, but the primitive shows itself, within a mile north of the portage, in orbicular masses in situ, coming through the prairies.
Having reached the summit, we proceeded across it to the banks of Fox River, where we encamped. It consists of a level plain. The distance is a mile and a half. It required, however, some time to have our baggage and canoes transported, which was done by a Frenchman residing at this summit. Such is the slight difference in the level of the two rivers, that Indian canoes are pushed through the marshy ridges when the rivers are swelled by freshets. It was half-past three o'clock of the 15th, the day following our arrival, before the transportation and loading of our canoes was completed. It was then necessary to push our canoes through fields of rushes and other aquatic plants, through which the river winds. This was a slow mode of progress, and we spent the remainder of the day in passing fifteen miles, which brought us to the FORKS, so called, where the northern unites with the southern branch of the river. At this spot we encamped. Next day we estimated our descent at sixty-three miles, having found the navigation less intricate and obstructed from the aquatic growth. In this distance we passed, at thirty miles below the fork, a piece of clear water of nine miles extent, called Buffalo Lake; and at the distance of twelve miles lower, another lake of some twelve miles in extent, called Puckaway Lake. Down to this point, the Fox River has scarcely a perceptible current. We found we had not only, in parting from the Wisconsin to the Fox, exchanged an open, swift, and strong flowing current, for a very quiet and still one, winding through areas of wild rice and the whole family of water plants; but had intruded into a region of water-fowl and birds of every plumage, who, as they rioted upon their cherished zizania aquatica, made the air resound with their screams. The blackbird appeared to be lord of these fields. We had also intruded upon a favorite region of the water-snake, who, coiled up on his bed of plants at every bend of the stream, slid off with spiteful glance into the stream. In passing these places of habitation, which the Chippewas call wauzh, we perceptibly smelt an unpleasant odor arising from it.
The next day we descended the river seventy miles. There is a perceptible current below Puckaway Lake. The river increases in width and depth, and offers no impediment whatever to its navigation. Fox River runs, indeed, from the portage to Winnebago Lake on a summit, over which it winds among sylvan hills, covered with grass and prairie-flowers, interspersed with groves of oak, elm, ash, and hickory, and dotted at intervals with lakes of refreshing transparent water. The height of this summit, above the Mississippi and the lakes, must be several hundred feet (stated at 234), which permits the stream to flow with liveliness, insuring, when it comes to be settled,[121] the erection of hydraulic works; and it would be difficult to point to a region possessing in its soil, climate, and natural resources, a more favorable character for an agricultural population. It has a diversified surface, without mountains; a fine dry atmosphere; an admirable drainage east, west, north, and south, and a ready access to the great oceanic marts through the Great Lake and the Mississippi.
[121] WISCONSIN. This region was separated from Michigan, and formed into a separate territory in 1836; and admitted as a State in 1848. By the census of 1850, it has a population of 305,391, divided into 33,517 families, occupying 32,962 dwellings, and cultivating 1,045,499 acres of land. There are 43 organized counties, and 334 churches of all denominations, giving one church to every 1,250 inhabitants. It has three representatives in the popular branch of Congress. It was 16 years after my visit, before it had a distinct legal existence--it increased to become a State in twelve years; and, according to our ordinary rate of increase, will contain one million of inhabitants in 1890.
We passed, this day, several encampments and villages of Winnebagoes and Menomonies--tribes, who, with the erratic habits of the Tartars, or Bedouins, once spread their tents in the Fox and Wisconsin valleys, but have now (1853) relinquished them to the European race; and it does not, at this distance of time, seem important to denote the particular spots where they once boiled their kettles of corn, or thumped their magic drums. God have mercy on them in their wild wanderings! We also passed the entrance of Wolf River, a fine bold stream on the left; and soon below it the handsome elevation of La Butte de Morts, or the Hillock of the Dead. This eminence was covered by the frail lodges of the Winnebagoes. The spot is memorable in Indian history, for a signal defeat of the Foxes, by the French and their Indian allies in the seventeenth century, after which, this tribe was finally expelled from the Fox valley. Our night's encampment (17th) was below this spot. The night air was remarkably cold, and put an end to our further annoyance from mosquitos. We embarked at five o'clock the next morning during a dense fog, which was in due time dissipated by the rising sun. We had been five hours in our canoes, under the full force of paddles, when we entered Winnebago Lake. This is a most beautiful and sylvan expanse of water some twenty-four miles long by ten in width, surrounded by picturesque prairie and sloping plains. It has a stream at Fond du Lac, its southern extremity,[122] which is connected by a short portage with the principal source of Rock River of the Mississippi.
[122] This spot is now the site of the flourishing town of Fond du Lac, which was laid out in 1845. It had a population of 2,014 in 1850, including two newspaper offices, two banking houses, one iron foundry, a car factory, twelve drygoods stores, and sixty other stores. It is situated 72 miles N. N. W. from Milwaukie, and 90 N. E. from Madison, the capital of the State of Wisconsin. It is the shire town of a county containing a population of 14,510, with 17 churches, and 2,844 pupils attending public schools, and 85 attending academies. It has a plank road to Lake Michigan, and will soon be connected by a railroad with Chicago. It is by such means that the American wilderness is conquered.
The Fox River, after having displayed itself in the lake, leaves it, at its northern extremity, flowing by a succession of rapids and falls over horizontal limestones to the head of Green Bay. There is a Winnebago village, under Hoo Tshoop, or Four Legs, at the point of outlet, where we landed, and as the first rapid begins at that point, creating a delay, I took the occasion to examine its geology more closely, by procuring fresh fractures of the masses of rock in the vicinity. This process, it appeared, was narrowly watched by the Indians, who wondered what such a scrutiny should mean. The French, said the chief to one of our interpreters, formerly held possession of this country; and, afterwards, came the British. They contented themselves with common things, and never disturbed these rocks, which have been laying here forever. But the moment the Americans get possession of the country, they must come and knock off pieces of the rock, and look at them. It is marvellous!
A brilliant mass of native copper, weighing ten or twelve pounds, was found by an Indian, some years ago, on the shores of this lake. The moment he espied it, his imagination was fired, and he fancied he beheld the form of a beautiful female, standing in the water. Glittering in radiancy, she held out in her hand a lump of gold. He paddled his canoe towards her, furtively and slow, but, as he advanced, a transformation gradually ensued. Her eyes lost their brilliancy, her face the glow of life and health, her arms disappeared; and when he reached the spot, the object had changed into a stone monument of the human form, with the tail of a fish. Amazed, he sat awhile in silence; then, lighting his pipe, he offered it the incense of tobacco, and addressed it, as the guardian angel of his country. Lifting the miraculous image gently into his canoe, he took his seat, with his face in an opposite direction, and paddled towards shore, on reaching which, and turning round to the object of his regard, he discovered, in its place, nothing but a lump of shining virgin copper.
Such are the imaginative efforts of this race, who look to the eyes of civilization as if they had themselves faces of stone, and hearts of adamant.
Chapter XVII
Descent of the Fox River from Winnebago Lake to Green Bay--Incidents--Etymology, conchology, mineralogy--Falls of the Konomic and Kakala--Population and antiquity of the settlement of Green Bay--Appearances of a tide, not sustained.
A rapid commences at the precise point where Fox River issues from Winnebago Lake. This rapid, down which canoes descend with half loads, extends a mile and a half, when the river assumes its usual navigable form, presenting a noble volume. Nine miles below this, a ledge of the semi-crystalline limestone rock crosses the entire channel, lifting itself five feet above the bed of the stream. Over this the Fox River throws itself by an abrupt cascade. Down this shelf of rock, the canoes, previously lightened of their burden, are lifted by the men. It was sometime after dark when we reached and encamped on the north shore, at the foot of this cascade, which bears the name of Konamik. The syllable kon, in this word, appears to me to be the same as con in Wisconsin, and is, apparently, a derivative from a term for strong water, which has, in this case, the meaning of cascade or fall. The word amik, its terminal, means a beaver. We thus have the probable original meaning in beaver-water, or, by implication, beaver cascade. There is a rapid below this fall. I judged the water must sink its level, in this vicinity, about fifteen feet. On examining the character of the limestone, I discovered crystals of calcareous spar occupying small cavities. At other localities, at lower points, there were found crystals of black sulphuret of zinc, and yellow sulphuret of iron. The rock appears to be of the same age as the lead-bearing limestone of the West; it is also overlaid by the red marly clay, and I should judge it to contain deposits of sulphuret of lead.
The next morning, we resumed our descent of the Fox River with difficulty. It was now the 19th of August, and the waters had reached their lowest summer stage. The entire distance of twelve miles from the Konamik to the Kákala fall may be deemed to be, at this season, a continuous rapid. Our barge was abandoned on the rapids. While the men toiled in these rapids to get down their canoes, it was found rather a privilege to walk, for it gave a more ample opportunity to examine the mineral structure and productions of the country.
It was high noon when we reached the rapids of the Kákala. This is a formidable rapid, at which the river rushes with furious velocity down a rocky bed, which it seems impossible boats or canoes should ever safely descend. It demands a portage to be made, under all circumstances, the water sweeping round a curve or bow, of which the portage path is the string. This is the apparent meaning of the term, in the Indian tongue; but it is disguised by early orthography, in which the letter l has taken the place of n, and the syllable in of au. The term kakina is the ancient French form of the Indian transitive-adjective all, inclusive, entirely. There is another root for the term in kakiwa, which is the ordinary term for a portage, or walk across a point of land, which is rendered local by the usual inflection, o-nong.
We found the portage path to be a well-beaten wagon road across a level fertile plain, which appeared to have been in cultivation from the earliest Indian period. Probably it had been a locality for the tribes, where they raised their favorite maize, long before the French first reached the waters of Green Bay. Evidence of such antiquity in the plain of Kákala appeared in an ancient cemetery of a circular shape, situated on one side of the road, on a comparatively large surface, which had reached the height of some eight or ten feet, by the mere accumulation of graves. This has all the appearance of a sepulchral mound, in the slow process of construction; for, on viewing it, I found a recent grave. We passed, on this plain, a Winnebago village of ten or twelve lodges, embracing two hundred souls. The portage is continued just one mile. Embarking again, at this point, we proceeded down the river, and encamped eight miles below this point, having, with every exertion, made but twenty miles this day.
The interest which had been excited by the conchology of the Mississippi and Wisconsin valleys, was renewed in the descent of the Fox River, particularly in the section of it below Winnebago Lake. Shrunk to its lowest summer level, its shores disclosed almost innumerable species of unios, many of which had been manifestly dragged to the shores and opened by the muskrat, thus serving to give hints for finding the living species. Among these, the U. obliqua, U. cornutus, U. ellipticus, U. carinatus, U. Alatus, U. prælongus, and U. parvus, were conspicuous; the latter of which, it is remarked by Mr. Barnes, is the smallest and most beautiful of all the genus yet discovered in America.[123] In the duplicates, from this part of the Fox River, transmitted to Mr. Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia, he found a species with green-rayed beaks, on a yellow surface and iridescent nacre, having a peculiar structure, which he did me the honor to name after me.[124] The description of Mr. Lea is as follows: "Unio Schoolcraftensis. Shell subrotund, somewhat angular at posterior dorsal margin, nearly equilateral, compressed, slightly tuberculate posteriorly to umbonical slope. Substance of the shell rather thick; beaks elevated; ligament short; epidermis smooth yellow, with several broad green rays; teeth elevated, and cleft in the left valve, single, and rising from a pit in the right; lateral teeth elevated, straight, and lamellar; anterior cicatrices distinct, posterior cicatrices confluent; dorsal cicatrices within the cavity of the shell on the base of the cardinal tooth; cavity of the beaks angular and deep; nacre pearly white and iridescent. Diameter ·7, length 1·1, breadth 1·3 inches."
[123] Amer. Journ. Science, vol. vi. pp. 120, 259, &c.
[124] Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. v. p. 37; plate 3, fig. 9.
The next morning (20th), a heavy fog in the Fox Valley detained us in our encampment till 7 o'clock. Six miles brought us to another rapid, called the Little Kakala, which, however, opposes no obstacle to the descent of canoes. At this spot, which is the apparent western terminus of the Bay settlement, we found a party of U. S. soldiers, from Fort Howard, engaged in digging the foundations for a saw-mill. Our appearance must have been somewhat rusty at this time, from our deficiences in the tonsorial and sempstrescal way, for these sons of Mars did not recognize their superior officers in Capt. Douglass and Lt. Mackay; glibly saying, in a jolly way, as they handed them a drink of water: "After me, sir, is manners;" and drinking off the first cup. At this rapid I got out of my canoe, wishing to see the geological formation more fully, and walked quite to the Rapide du Pere, where Fox River finds its level in the broad, elongated, and lake-like tongue of water, extending up from the head of Green Bay. On reaching this point, the scene of the settlement first burst on our view, with its farm-houses and cultivated fields stretching, for five miles, along both banks of the river; disclosing the flagstaff of the distant fort, and the bannered masts of vessels, all of which brought vividly to mind our approach to the civilized world. If the Canadian boat-song was ever exhilarating and appropriate, it was peculiarly so on the present occasion; and when our voyageurs burst out, in full chorus, with the ancient ditty, beginning,
"_La fille du Roi son vout chassau, Avec son grande fusee d'largent_,"
they waked up a responsive feeling, not alone in the breasts of the French habitans, lining the shores of the river, but in our own breasts. On reaching the fort, the salute due to the governor of a territory was paid, in honor of our leader, Governor Cass; and in exchanging congratulations with the officers and citizens, we began first to feel, in reality, that, after passing among many savage tribes, our scalps were still safely on our heads. I found, at the fort, letters from my friends, and was thus reminded that warm sympathies had been alive for our fate. Weary regions had now been past, and privations endured, of which we thought little, at the time; the flag of the Union had been carried among barbarous tribes, who hardly knew there was such a power as the United States, or, if they knew, despised it; and some information had been gathered, which it was hoped would enlarge the boundaries of science, and would at the same time send a thrill of satisfaction, and impart a feeling of security, along the whole line of the advanced and extended western settlements. If Berkeley, in the dark days of the Commonwealth of England, could turn to the West, with exultation, as the hope of the nation, it must be admitted that it is by some out-door means, like this, that the way for the car of "empire" must be prepared.
We found the fort, which bears the name of Howard, in charge of Capt. W. Wistler, during the absence of Col. Joseph L. Smith. Its strength consists of three hundred men, together with about the same number of infantry at Camp Smith, at Rock or Dupere Rapid, a few miles above, who are engaged in quarrying stone for a permanent fortification at that point. On visiting this quarry, I found it to consist of a bluish-gray limestone, semi-crystalline in its structure, containing small disseminated masses of sulphuret of zinc, calcspar, and iron pyrites, and corresponding, in every respect, with the beds of this rock observed along the upper parts of the Fox and Wisconsin valleys.
Fort Howard is seated on a handsome fertile plain, on the north banks of the Fox, near its mouth. It consists of a stockade of timber, thirty feet high, inclosing barracks, which face three sides of a quadrangle. This forms a fine parade. There are blockhouses, mounting guns, at the angles, and quarters for the surgeon and quartermaster, separately constructed. The whole is whitewashed, and presents a neat military appearance. The gardens of the military denote the most fruitful soil and genial climate. Data observed by the surgeon, indicate the site to be unexcelled for its salubrity, such a disease as fever, of any kind, never having visited it, in either an endemic or epidemic form.
The name of Green Bay is associated with our earliest ideas of French history in America. When La Salle visited the country in the 17th century, it had been many years known to the French, and was esteemed one of the prime posts for trading with the Indians. The chief tribes who were located here, and in the vicinity, making this their central point of trade, were the Puants, i. e. Winnebagoes, Malomonies, or Folle Avoins, known to us as Menomonies, Sacs, and Foxes, called also Sakis, Outagami, and Renouards, and it was also the seat of trade for the equivocal tribe of the Mascoutins. The present inhabitants are, with few exceptions, descendants of the original French, who intermarried with Indian women, and who still speak the French and Indian languages. They are indolent, gay, and illiterate. I was told there were five hundred inhabitants, and about sixty principal dwellings, beside temporary structures. There are seventy inhabitants enrolled as militia-men, and the settlement has civil courts, being the seat of justice from Brown County, Michigan, so called in honor of Major-General Jacob Brown, U. S. A. The place is surrounded by the woodlands and forests, and seems destined to be an important lake-port.[125] The Algonquin name for this place is Boatchweekwaid, a term which describes an eccentric or abrupt bay, or inlet. Nothing could more truly depict its singular position; it is, in fact, a kind of cul-de-sac--a duplicature of Lake Michigan, with the coast-shore of which it lies parallel for about ninety miles.
[125] GREEN BAY. This town has just (1854) been incorporated as a city, the anticipations respecting it having been slow in being realized. It has now an estimated population of 3,000, with several churches in a healthy and flourishing state, two printing presses, a post-office, collectorship, and thriving agricultural and commercial advantages, which will be fully realized when the internal improvements in process of construction through the Fox and Wisconsin valleys are finished. Its extreme salubrity has, it seems, been disregarded by emigrants.
The singular configuration of this bay appears to be the chief cause of the appearances of a tide at the point where it is entered by Fox River. This phenomenon was early noticed by the French. La Hontan mentions it in 1689. Charlevoix remarks on it in 1721, and suggests its probable cause, which is, in his opinion, explained by the fact that Lakes Michigan and Huron, alternately empty themselves into each other through the Straits of Michilimackinac. The effects of such a flux and reflux, under the power of the winds, would appear to place Green Bay in the position of a siphon, on the west of Lake Michigan, and go far to account for the singular fluctuations of the current at the mouth of the Fox River. On reaching this spot of the rising and falling of the lake waters, Governor Cass caused observations to be made, which he greatly extended at a subsequent period.[126] These give no countenance to the theory of regular tides, but denote the changes in the level of the waters to be eccentrically irregular, and dependent, so far as the observations extend, altogether on the condition of the winds and currents of the lakes.
[126] American Journal of Science, vol. xvii.
Something analogous to this is perceived in the Baltic, which has no regular tides, and therefore experiences no difference of height, except when the wind blows violently. "At such times," says Pennant,[127] "there is a current in and out of the Baltic, according to the points they blow from, which forces the water through the sound, with the velocity of two or three Danish miles in the hour. When the wind blows violently from the German Sea, the water rises in several Baltic harbors, and gives those in the western tract a temporary saltness; otherwise, the Baltic loses that other property of a sea, by reason of the want of tide, and the quantity of vast rivers it receives, which sweeten it so much as to render it, in many places, fit for domestic use."
[127] Arctic Geology.
Chapter XVIII
The expedition traces the west shores of Lake Michigan southerly to Chicago--Outline of the journey along this coast--Sites of Manitoowoc, Sheboigan, Milwaukie, Racine, and Chicago, being the present chief towns and cities of Wisconsin and Illinois on the west shores of that Lake--Final reorganization of the party and departure from Chicago.
Two days spent in preparations to reorganize the expedition, enabled it to continue its explorations. For the purpose of tracing the western and northern shores of Green Bay, and the northern shores of Lake Michigan, a sub-expedition was fitted out, under Mr. Trowbridge, our sub-topographer, who was accompanied by Mr. J. D. Doty, Mr. Alex. R. Chase, and James Riley, the Chippewa interpreter. The auxiliary Indians, who had, thus far, attended us in a separate canoe, were rewarded for their services, furnished with provisions to reach their homes, and dismissed. The escort of soldiers under Lieut. Mackay, U. S. A., were returned to their respective companies at Fort Howard and Camp Smith. The Chippewa chief, Iaba Wawashkash, or the Buck, who belonged to Michilimackinac, went with Mr. Trowbridge, together with Jo Parks, the intelligent Shawnee captive, and assimilated Shawnee of Waughpekennota,[128] Ohio. The Ottowa chief, Kewaygooshkum, of Grand-River, took the rest of the party in a separate canoe to their destination. Our collections in natural history were shipped in the schooner Decatur, Capt. Burnham (Perry's boatswain in the memorable naval battle of Lake Erie, Sept. 11, 1813), to Michilimackinac, together with the extra baggage.
[128] WAUGHPEKENNOTA. This place was then the residence of the Shawnee tribe, under the Prophet Elksattawa, of war memory, the celebrated brother of Tecumseh, who, seeing the intrusive tread of the Americans, headed, in 1827, the first exploring party of the tribe to the west of the Mississippi, where they finally settled. After living twenty-seven years at this spot, they found themselves within the newly-erected territory of Kansas, and sold their surplus lands to the U. States by a treaty concluded at Washington in May, 1854, the said Parks being at this time first chief of the Shawnee tribe.
Thus relieved in numbers and canoe-hamper, we were reduced to two canoes; the travelling family of Gov. Cass now consisted of Capt. Douglass, Dr. Wolcott, Maj. Forsyth, Lieut. Mackay, and myself. Leaving Fort Howard at two o'clock P. M., we parted with Mr. Trowbridge and his party at the mouth of Fox River, at half past two, and taking the other, or east side of the bay, proceeded along its shores about twenty-five miles, and encamped on the coast called Red Banks. This is a term translated from the Winnebago name, which is renowned in their traditions as the earliest spot which they can recollect. They dwelt here when the French first reached Green Bay in their discoveries in the seventeenth century. Here, then, is a test of the value and continuity of Indian tradition, so far as this tribe is concerned, for admitting, what is doubtful, that the French reached this point so early as 1650, the period of recognized Winnebago history, as proved by geography, reaches but 170 years prior to the above date.
In a short time after entering the bay, we were overtaken by Kewaygooshkum and his party, who travelled and encamped with us. In the course of the evening he pointed out a rocky island, at three or four miles distance, containing a large cavern, which has been used by the Indians from early times as a repository for the dead. The chief, as he pointed to it, as if absorbed in a spirit of ancestral reverence, seemed to say:--
"It hath a charm the stranger knoweth not, It is the [sepulchre] of mine ancestry; There is an inspiration in its shade, The echoes of its walls are eloquent, The words they speak are of the glorious dead; Its tenants are not human--they are more! The stones have voices, and the walls do live; It is the home of memories dearly honored By many a trace of long departed glory."
The appearance of ancient cultivation of this coast is such as to give semblance to the Winnebago tradition of its having been their former residence. The lands are fertile, alluvion, bearing a secondary growth of trees, mingled with older species of the acer saccharinum, elm, and oak.
The next day, after traversing this coast twenty miles further, we reached and passed up Sturgeon Bay, to a portage path leading to Lake Michigan. This path begins in low grounds, where several of the swamp species of plants occur. On reaching the open shores of Lake Michigan, the wind was found strongly ahead, and we were compelled to encamp. At this spot we found several species of madreperes, and some other organic forms, among the shore debris. The next day the wind abated, and, agreeably to the estimate of Capt. Douglass, we advanced along the shore, southwardly, forty-six miles. The day following, we made forty miles, and reached the River Manitowakie,[129] and encamped on the lake shore, five miles south of it.
[129] From Manito, a spirit, auk, a standing or hollow tree that is under a mysterious influence, and the generic inflection ie, which is applied to vital or animate nouns. A town, at present, exists at the spot called Manitoowoc. It is the shire town of a county of the same name in Wisconsin; it has a good harbor, and by the census of 1850 contains four churches, twelve stores, two steam mills, two ship-yards, a newspaper, post-office, and 2,500 inhabitants. We found the site inhabited by a village Monomonees of six lodges.
In passing along the lake shore this day (25th), we observed it to be strewed abundantly with the carcasses of dead pigeons. This bird, we were told, is often overcome by the fatigue of long flights, or storms, in crossing the lake, and entire flocks drowned. This causes the shores to be visited by great numbers of hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey. The Indians only make use of those carcasses of pigeons, as food, when they are first cast on shore.
The next day the expedition passed the mouth of the Sheboigan River, a stream originating not remotely from the banks of Winnebago Lake, with which, as the name indicates, there is a portage or passage through.[130] Pushing forward with every force during the day, we reached the mouth of the Milwaukie River, and encamped on the beach some time after dark. This is a large and important river, and is connected by an Indian portage with the Rock River of the Mississippi. The next morning adverse winds confined us to this spot, where we remained a considerable part of the day, which enabled us to explore the locality. We found it to be the site of a Pottawattomie village. There were two American families located at that place, engaged in the Indian trade.
[130] Shebiau, is to look critically; shebiabunjegun, a spy-glass or instrument to look through. Sheboigan appears to have its termination from the word gan, a lake, and the combination denotes a river, or water pass from lake to lake. This place is now (1854) a town and county site of Wisconsin. The county was organized in 1839, and by the last census has seven churches, two newspapers, 624 pupils at schools, and a population of 8,379. The town of this name contains 2,000 inhabitants. It is 62 miles N. from Milwaukie, and 110 N. E. from Madison, the State capital. It has a plank road of 40 miles to Fond du Lac, and is noted for its lumber trade.
The name of Milwaukie,[131] exhibits an instance of which there are many others, in which the French have substituted the sound of the letter l in place of n, in Indian words. Min, in the Algonquin languages signifies good. Waukie, is a derivative from auki, earth or land, the fertility of the soil, along the banks of that stream, being the characteristic trait which is described in the Indian compound.
[131] Milwaukie is the principal city of the State of Wisconsin. It lies in latitude 43° 3´ 45´´ North. It is ninety miles north of Chicago and seventy-five east from Madison. It contains thirty churches, five public high schools, two academies, five orphan asylums, and other benevolent institutions, seven daily and seven weekly newspapers, four banks, and, by the census of 1850, 20,161 inhabitants.
When the wind lulled so as to permit embarkation, we proceeded on our course. At the computed distance of five miles, we observed a bed of light-colored tertiary clay, possessing a compactness, tenacity, and feel, which denote its utility in the arts. This bed, after a break of many miles in the shores, reappears in thicker and more massive layers, at eight or ten miles distance. The waves dashing against this elevated bank of clay,[132] have liberated balls and crystallized-masses of sulphuret of iron.
[132] An admired kind of cream-colored bricks are manufactured from portions of the clay found near Milwaukie.
Some of the more recently exposed masses of this mineral are of a bright brass color. The tendency of their crystallization is to restore octahedral and cubical forms. We advanced along this shore about thirty-five miles, encamping on an eligible part of the beach before dark. I found, in examining the mineralogy of the coast, masses of detached limestone, containing fissures filled with asphaltum. On breaking these masses, and laying open the fissures, the substance assumed the form of naphtha. We observed among the plants along this portion of coast, the tradescantia virginica, and T. liatris, and squarrosa scariosa.[133] By scrutinizing the wave-moved pebble-drift along shore, it is evident that inferior positions, in the geological basin of Lake Michigan, contain slaty, or bituminous coal, masses of which were developed.
[133] Dr. J. Torrey, Am. Journ. Science, vol. 4, p. 56.
The next day's journey, 28th, carried us forty miles, in which distance, the most noticeable fact in the topography of the coast, was the entrance of the Racine, or Root River;[134] its eligible shores being occupied by some Pottawattomie lodges. Having reached within ten or twelve miles of Chicago, and being anxious to make that point, we were in motion at a very early hour on the morning of the 29th, and reached the village at five o'clock A. M. We found four or five families living here, the principal of which were those of Mr. John Kinzie, Dr. A. Wolcott, J. B. Bobian, and Mr. J. Crafts, the latter living a short distance up the river. The Pottawattomies, to whom this site is the capital of their trade, appeared to be lords of the soil, and truly are entitled to the epithet, if laziness, and an utter inappreciation of the value of time, be a test of lordliness. Dr. Wolcott, being the U. S. Agent for this tribe, found himself at home here, and constitutes no further, a member of the expedition. Gov. Cass determined to return to Detroit from this point, on horseback, across the peninsula of Michigan, accompanied by Lt. Mackay, U. S. A., Maj. Forsyth, his private secretary, and the necessary number of men and pack horses to prepare their night encampments. This left Capt. Douglass and myself to continue the survey of the Lakes, and after reaching Michilimackinac and rejoining the party of Mr. Trowbridge, to return to Detroit from that point.
[134] RACINE.--This is now the second city in size in the State of Wisconsin. By the census of 1850, its population is 5,110. It has a harbor which admits vessels drawing twelve feet water; it has fourteen churches, a high school, college, bank, several newspapers, three ship-yards, and exhibits more than two millions of imports and exports. The settlement was commenced in 1835.
The preparation for these ends occupied a couple of days, which gave us an opportunity to scan the vicinity. We found the post (Fort Dearborn) under the command of Capt. Bradley, with a force of one hundred and sixty men. The river is ample and deep for a few miles, but is utterly choked up by the lake sands, through which, behind a masked margin, it oozes its way for a mile or two, till it percolates through the sands into the lake. Its banks consist of a black arenaceous fertile soil, which is stated to produce abundantly, in its season, the wild species of cepa, or leek. This circumstance has led the natives to name it the place of the wild leek. Such is the origin of the term Chicago,[135] which is a derivative, by elision and French annotation, from the word Chi-kaug-ong. Kaug, is the Algonquin name for the hystrix, or porcupine. It takes the prefix Chi, when applied to the mustela putorius. The particle Chi, is the common prefix of nouns to denote greatness in any natural object, but it is also employed, as here, to mean increase, or excess, as acridness, or pungency, in quality. The penultimate ong, denotes locality. The putorius is so named from this plant, and not, as has been thought, the plant from it. I took the sketch, which is reproduced in the fourth vol. of my Ethnological Researches, Plate xxvii., from a standpoint on the flat of sand which stretched in front of the place. This view embraces every house in the village, with the fort; and if the reproduction of the artist in vol. iv. may be subjected to any criticism, it is, perhaps, that the stockade bears too great a proportion to the scene, while the precipice observed in the shore line of sand, is wholly wanting in the original.
[135] CHICAGO is the largest city of the State of Illinois, excelling all others in its commercial and business capacities, and public and moral influences. Standing on the borders of the great western prairies, it is the great city of the plains, and its growth cannot be limited, or can scarcely be estimated. It began to be built about 1831, eleven years after this visit. It was incorporated as a city in 1836, with 4,853 inhabitants. In 1850, it had 29,963, and it is now estimated to exceed 60,000. This city lies in lat. 41° 52´ 20´´. It is connected by lakes, canals, and railroads, with the most distant regions. Its imports and exports the last year, were twenty millions. Like all the cities and towns of America, its political and moral influence, are seen to keep an exact pace with its sound religious influences; the number of churches and newspapers, having a certain fixed relation. More than any other city of the West, its position destines it to be another Nineveh.
The country around Chicago is the most fertile and beautiful that can be imagined. It consists of an intermixture of woods and prairies, diversified with gentle slopes, sometimes attaining the elevation of hills, and it is irrigated with a number of clear streams and rivers, which throw their waters partly into Lake Michigan, and partly into the Mississippi River. As a farming country, it presents the greatest facilities for raising stock and grains, and it is one of the most favored parts of the Mississippi Valley; the climate has a delightful serenity, and it must, as soon as the Indian title is extinguished,[136] become one of the most attractive fields for the emigrant. To the ordinary advantages of an agricultural market town, it must add that of being a depot for the commerce between the northern and southern sections of the Union, and a great thoroughfare for strangers, merchants, and travellers.
[136] This was done in 1821; having been, myself, secretary to the Commissioners, Gov. Cass and Hon. Sol. Sibley, who were appointed to treat with the Indians. Vide Indian Treaties, p. 297.
The Milwaukie clays to which I have adverted, do not extend thus far, although the argillaceous deposits found, appear to be destitute of the oxide of iron, for the bricks produced from them burn white. There is a locality of bituminous coal on Fox River, about forty miles south. Near, the junction of the Desplaines River with the Kankakee, there exists in the semi-crystalline or sedimentary limestone, a remarkable fossil-tree.[137]
[137] FOSSIL FLORA OF THE WEST.--Of this gigantic specimen of the geological flora of the newer rocks of the Mississippi Valley, I published a memoir in 1822, founded on a personal examination of the phenomena. Albany, E. and E. Hosford, 24 pp. 8vo. This paper (Vide Appendix) was prepared for the American Geological Society, at New Haven. See American Journ. Science, vol. 4, p. 285; See also, vol. 5, p. 23, for appreciating testimony of the value of geological science (then coming into notice), from Ex-Presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, to whom copies of it were transmitted.
Chapter XIX
South and Eastern borders of Lake Michigan--Their Flora and Fauna--Incidents of the journey--Topography--Geology, Botany, and Mineralogy--Indian Tribes--Burial-place of Marquette--Ruins of the post of old Mackinac--Reach Michilimackinac after a canoe journey north of four hundred miles.
It was now the last day of August. Having partaken of the hospitalities of Mr. Kinzie, and of Captains Bradley and Green, of Fort Dearborn, during our stay at Chicago, and completed the reorganization of our parties, we separated on the last day of the month, at two o'clock P. M.; Gov. Cass and his party, on horseback, taking the old Indian trail to Detroit, and Capt. Douglass and myself being left, with two canoes, to complete the circumnavigation of the lakes. We did not delay our departure over thirty minutes, but bidding adieu to Dr. Wolcott, whose manners, judgment, and intelligence had commanded our respect during the journey, embarked with two canoes; our steersmen immediately hoisted their square sails, and, favored by a good breeze, we proceeded twenty miles along the southern curve, at the head of Lake Michigan, and encamped.
Within two miles of Chicago, we passed, on the open shores of the lake, the scene of the massacre of Chicago, of the 15th of August, 1812, being the day after the surrender of Detroit by Gen. Hull. Gloom hung, at that eventful period, over every part of our western borders. Michilimackinac had already been carried by surprise; and the ill-advised order to evacuate Chicago, was deemed by the Indians an admission that the Americans were to be driven from the country. The Pottawattomies determined to show the power of their hostility on this occasion. Capt. Heald, the commanding officer, having received Gen. Hull's order to abandon the post, and having an escort of thirty friendly Miamis, from Fort Wayne, under Captain Wells, had quitted the fort at nine o'clock in the morning, with fifty-four regulars, a subaltern, physician, twelve militia, and the necessary baggage wagons for the provisions and ammunition, which contained eighteen soldiers, women and children. They had not proceeded more than a mile and a half along the shore of the lake, when an ambuscade of Indians was discovered behind the sand-hills which encompass the flat sandy shore. The horrid yell, which rose on the discovery being made, was accompanied by a general and deadly fire from them. Several men fell at the first fire, but Capt. Heald formed his men, and effected a charge up the bank, which dispersed his assailants. It was only, however, to find the enemy return by a flank movement, in which their numbers gave them the victory. In a few moments, out of his effective force of sixty-six men, but sixteen survived. With these, he succeeded in drawing off to a position in the prairie, where he was not followed by the Indians. On a negotiation, opened by a chief called Mukudapenais, he surrendered, under promise of security for their lives. This promise was afterwards violated, with the exception of himself and three or four men. Among the slain was Ensign Ronan, Dr. Voorhis, and Capt. Wells. The latter had his heart cut out, and his body received other shocking indignities. The saddest part of the tragedy was the attack on the women and children who occupied the baggage wagons, and were all slain. Several of the women fought with swords. During the action, a sergeant of infantry ran his bayonet through the heart of an Indian who had lifted his tomahawk to strike him; not being able to withdraw the instrument, it served to hold up the Indian, who actually tomahawked him in this position, and both fell dead together.[138] The Miamis remained neuter in this massacre. Mr. Kinzie, of Chicago, of whose hospitalities we had partaken, was a witness of this transaction, and furnished the principal facts of this narrative.
[138] Gouverneur Morris recites a similar incident at the battle of Oriskany, in 1777.--Coll. New York Hist. Soc.
The morning (Sept. 1) opened with a perfect gale, and we were degradè, to use a Canadian term, all day; the waves dashed against the shore with a violence that made it impossible to take the lake with canoes, and would have rendered it perilous even to a large vessel. This violence continued, with no perceptible diminution, during the day. As a mode of relief from the tedium of delay, a short excursion was made into the prairie. I found a few species of the unio, in a partially choked up branch of the Konamek. Capt. Douglass improved the time by taking observations for the latitude, and we footed around ten miles of the extreme southern head of the lake. It is edged with sand-hills, bearing pines. A few dead valves of the fresh-water muscle were found on the shore.
On the following day the wind lulled, when we proceeded fifty-four miles, passing in the distance the remains of the schooner Hercules, which went ashore in a gale, in November, 1816, and all on board perished; her mast, pump, spars, and the graves of the passengers, among which, was that of Lieut. W. S. Eveleth, U. S. A., were pointed out to us. We landed a few moments at the entrance of the River du Chemin,[139] where the trail to Detroit leaves the lake shore. The distance to that city is estimated at three hundred miles. Ten miles beyond this spot we passed the little River Galien, where, at this time, the town and harbor of New Buffalo, of Michigan, is situated, and we encamped on the shore twelve miles beyond it.
[139] Michigan City, of the State of Indiana, is located near this spot. This city has its harbor communicating with Lake Michigan through this creek. It has a newspaper, branch bank, railroad, and (in 1853) 2,353 inhabitants.
We had been travelling on a slightly curved line from Chicago to the spot, in the latitude of 41° 52´ 20´´, and had now reached a point where the course tends more directly to the northeast and north. By the best accounts, the length of Lake Michigan, lying directly from south to north, is four hundred miles. There is no other lake in America, north or south, which traverses so many degrees of latitude, and we had reason to expect its flora and fauna to denote some striking changes. We had passed down its west, or Wisconsin shore, from Sturgeon Bay, finding it to present a clear margin of forest, with many good harbors, and a fertile, gently undulating surface. But we were now to encounter another cast of scenery. It is manifest, from a survey of the eastern shore of this lake, that the prevalent winds are from the west and northwest, for they have cast up vast sand dunes along the coast, which give it an arid appearance. These dunes are, however, but a hem on the fertile prairie lands, not extending more than half a mile or more, and thus masking the fertile lands. Water, in the shape of lagoons, is often accumulated behind these sand-banks, and the force of the winds is such as to choke and sometimes entirely shut up the mouth of its rivers. We had found this hem of sand-hills extending around the southern shore of the lake from the vicinity of Chicago, and soon found that it gave an appearance of sterility to the country that it by no means merited. On reaching the mouth of St. Joseph's River (3d), a full exemplification of this striking effect of the lake action was exhibited. This is one of the largest rivers of the peninsula, running for more than a hundred and twenty miles through a succession of rich plains and prairies; yet its mouth, which carries a large volume of water into the lake, is rendered difficult of entrance to vessels, and its lake-borders are loaded with drifts of shifting sand.
The next day's journey carried us fifty miles; and, on proceeding ten miles further on the 4th, we reached the mouth of the Kalamazoo.[140] Before reaching this river, I discovered on the beach a body of detached orbicular masses of the calcareous marl called septaria--the ludus helmontii of the old mineralogists. On breaking some of these masses, they disclosed small crystalline seams of sulphuret of zinc. The Kalamazoo irrigates a fine tract of the most fertile and beautiful prairies of Michigan, which, at the date of the revision of this journal, is studded with flourishing towns and villages.
[140] KALAMAZOO. This word is the contraction of an Indian phrase descriptive of the stones seen through the water in its bed, which, from a refractive power in the current, resembles an otter swimming under water. Hence the original term, Negikanamazoo. This term has its root forms in negik, an otter, the verb kana, to hide, and ozoo, a quadruped's tail. The letter l is the mere transposition of l in native words passing from the Indian to the Indo-French language.
Fifteen miles further progress towards the north, brought us to the mouth of Grand River--the Washtenong of the Indians--which is, I believe the largest and longest stream of the Michigan peninsula. It is the boundary between the hunting-grounds of the Pottowattomies (who have thus far claimed jurisdiction from Chicago) and the Ottowas. The latter live in large numbers at its rapids and on its various tributaries.[141] The next stream of note we encountered was the Maskigon, twelve miles north of Grand River, where we encamped, having travelled, during the day, fifty-four miles. The view of this scene was impressive from its bleakness, the dunes of sand being more at the mercy of the winds. I found here a large, branching specimen of the club-fungus, attached to a dead specimen of the populus tremuloides, which had been completely penetrated by these drifting sands, so as to present quite the appearance, and no little part of the hardness and consistency, of a fossil. The following figure of this transformation from a fungus to a semi-stony body, presents a perfect outline of it as sketched in its original position.
[141] OTTOWAS. So late as 1841, the number of the tribe, reported to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Michigan, was 1,391, which was divided into 13 villages, scattered over its whole valley.--Schoolcraft's Report on Indian Affairs, Detroit, A. S. Bagg, 1840.
On the day of our departure from the Maskigon, we enjoyed fine weather and favorable winds, and proceeded, from the data of Captain Douglass, seventy miles, and encamped a few miles beyond the Sandy River. In this line of coast, we passed, successively, the White, Pentwater, and Marquette. Of these, the latter, both from its size and its historical associations, is by far the most important; for it was at this spot, after having spent years of devotion in the cause of missions in New France--in the course of which he discovered the Mississippi River--that this zealous servant of God laid down in his tent, after a hard day's travel, and surrendered up his life. The event occurred on the 8th of May, 1675, but two years after his grand discovery. Marquette was a native of Laon, in Picardy, where his family was of distinguished rank. The precise moment of his death was not witnessed, his men having retired to leave him to his devotions, but returning, in a short time, found him lifeless. They carried his body to the mission of old Michilimackinac, of which he was the founder, where it was interred.[142]
[142] PLACE OF INTERMENT OF MARQUETTE. It is known that the mission of Michilimackinac fell on the downfall of the Jesuits. When the post of Michilimackinac was removed from the peninsula to the island, about 1780, the bones of the missionary were transferred to the old Catholic burial-ground, in the village on the island. There they remained till a land or property question arose to agitate the church, and, when the crisis happened, the whole graveyard was disturbed, and his bones, with others, were transferred to the Indian village of La Crosse, which is in the vicinity of L'Arbre Croche, Michigan.
It rained the next morning (6th), by which we lost two hours, and we had some unfavorable winds, but, by dint of hard pushing, we made forty-five miles, and slept at Gravelly Point. In this line we passed successively, at distances of seventeen and thirty miles, the rivers Manistic and Becsie, which is the Canadian phrase for the anas canadensis. Clouds and murky weather still hovered around us on the next morning, but we left our encampment at an early hour. Thirteen miles brought us to the Omicomico, or Plate River, nine miles beyond which found us in front of a remarkable and very elevated sand June, called the Sleeping Bear--a fanciful term, derived from the Indian, through the French l'ours qui dormis. Opposite this feature in the coast geology, lie the two large wooded islands called the Minitos--well-known objects to all mariners who venture into the vast unsheltered basin of the southern body of Lake Michigan. Thirty miles beyond this sandy elevation, brought us to the southern cape of Grand Traverse Bay, where we encamped, having advanced fifty-two miles. This was the first place where we had noticed rocks in situ, since passing the little Konamic River, near Chicago. It proved to be limestone, of the same apparent era of the calcareous rock which we had observed at Sturgeon Bay and the contiguous west shore of Lake Michigan. The line of lake coast included in this remark is three hundred and twenty miles; during all which distance the coast seems, but only seems, to be the sport of the fierce gales and storms, for there is reason to believe that the formations of drift clay, sand, and gravel rest, at various depths, on a stratification of solid, permanent rock. To us, however, it proved a barren field for the collection of both geological and mineralogical specimens. There were gleaned some rolled specimens of organic remains, of no further use than to denote the occurrence of these in some part of a vast basin. There was a specimen of gypsum from Grand River. The few patches of iron sand I had noticed, were hardly worthy of record after the heavy beds of this mineral which we had passed in Lake Superior. The same remark may be made of the few rolled fragments of calcedonies, and other varieties of the quartz family, gleaned up along its shores, for neither of these constitute a reliable locality.
Of the floræ and fauna we had been observant, but the sandy character of the mere coast line greatly narrowed the former, in which Captain Douglass found but little to preserve, beyond the parnassia caroliniana and seottia cerna.[143] The fury of the waves renders it a region wholly unfitted to the whole tribe of fresh-water shells. A petrifaction of the fagus ferruginia, brought from a spring on the banks of the St. Joseph's River by Gov. Cass, on his home route, on horseback, presented the petrifying process in one of its most perfect forms (vide p. 206). Surfeited with a species of scenery in which the naked sand dunes were often painful to the eye, from their ophthalmic influence, and of geological prostrations which seemed to lay the coast in ruins, we were glad to reach the solid rock formations, supporting, as they did, a soil favorable to green forests.
[143] Dr. John Torrey, Am. Journ. Science, vol. iv.
A partial eclipse of the sun had been calculated for the 5th of September (1820), to commence at seven o'clock, twenty minutes; but, though we were on the lake, and anxious to note it, the weather proved to be too much overcast, and no effects of it were observed. This eclipse was observed, according to the predictions, at Philadelphia.
The morning of the 8th proved calm, which permitted us to cross the mouth of Grand Traverse Bay. This piece of water is nine miles across, with an unexplored depth, and has some 300 Chippewas living on its borders. Six miles north of this point, we reached and crossed Little Traverse Bay, which is occupied by Ottawas. These two tribes are close confederates, speak dialects of the same language which is readily understood by both, and live on the most friendly terms. The Ottowas on the head of Little Traverse Bay, and on the adjoining coast of Lake Michigan--which, from its principal village, bears the names of Village of the Cross, and of Waganukizzie,[144] or L'Arbre Croche--are, to a great extent, cultivators of the soil, and have adopted the use of hats, and the French capot, having laid aside paints and feathers. They raise large quantities of Indian corn for the Mackinac market, and manufacture, in the season, from the sap of the acer saccharinum, considerable quantities of maple sugar, which is put up, in somewhat elongated bark boxes, called muckucks, in which it is carried to the same market. We found them, wherever they were encountered, a people of friendly manners and comity.
[144] From Waganuk, a crooked or croched tree, and izzie, an animate termination, denoting existence or being, carrying the idea of its being charmed or enchanted.
We were now drawing toward the foot of Lake Michigan, at the point where this inland sea is connected, through the Straits of Michilimackinac, with Lake Huron. A cluster of islands, called the Beaver Islands, had been in sight on our left hand, since passing the coast of the Sleeping Bear, which are noted as affording good anchorage ground to vessels navigating the lake. It is twenty-five miles from the site of the old French mission, near L'Arbre Croche, to the end of point Wagoshance,[145] which is the southeast cape of the Straits of Michilimackinac, and nine miles from thence to the Island. Along the bleak coast of this storm-beaten, horizontal limestone rock, with a thin covering of drift, we diligently passed. Night overtook us as we came through the straits, hugging their eastern shore, and we encamped on a little circular open bay, long after it became pitchy dark. We had traversed a coast line of fifty-seven miles, and were glad, after a refreshing cup of tea and our usual meal, to retire to our pallets.
[145] Little Fox Point. This word comes from Wagoush, a fox, and the denominative inflection a ainc or aiñs.
The next morning revealed our position. We were at the ancient site of old Michilimackinac--a spot celebrated in the early missionary annals and history of New France. This was, indeed, one of the first points settled by the French after Cadaracqui, being a missionary and trading station before the foundation of Fort Niagara, in 1678; for La Salle, after determining on the latter, proceeded, the same fall, up the lakes to this point, which he installed with a military element. The mission of St. Ignace had before been attempted on the north shore of the straits, but it was finally removed here by the advice of Marquette. On gazing at the straits, they were found to be agitated by a perfect gale. This gave time for examining the vicinity. It was found a deserted plain, overspread with sand, in many parts, with the ruins of former occupancy piercing through these sandy drifts, which gave it an air of perfect desolation. By far the most conspicuous among these ruins, was the stone foundation of the ancient fort, and the excavations of the exterior buildings, which had evidently composed a part of the military or missionary plan. Not a house, not a cultivated field, not a fence was to be seen. The remains of broken pottery, and pieces of black bottles, irridescent from age, served impressively to show that men had once eaten and drank here. It was in 1763, in the outbreak of the Pontiac war, that this fort, then recently surrendered to the English, was captured, by a coup-de-main, by the Indians. The English, probably doubting its safety, during the American Revolution, removed the garrison to the island, which had, indeed, furnished the name of Michilimackinac before; for the Indians had, ab initio, called the old post Peekwutinong, or Headland-place, applying the other name exclusively, as at this day, to the Gibraltar-like island which rises up, with its picturesque cliffs, from the very depths of Lake Huron. The sketch of this scene of desolation, with the Island in view, is given in the second volume of my Ethnological Researches, Plate LIII.
After pacing the plain of this ancient point of French settlement in every point, we returned to our tent about eleven o'clock A. M., and deemed it practicable to attempt the crossing to the island in a light canoe, for, although the gale was little if any abated, the wind blew fair. I concurred in the opinion of Captain Douglass that this might be done, and very readily assented to try it, leaving the men in the baggage canoe to effect the passage when the wind fell. It cannot be asserted that this passage was without hazard; for my own part, I had too much trust in my nature to fear it, and, if we were ever wafted on "the wings of the wind," it was on this occasion; our boatmen, volunteers for the occasion, reefing the sails to two feet, and we owed our success mainly to their good management. On rounding the Ottowa point, which is the south cape of the little harbor of 'Mackinac, our friends who had parted from us at Green Bay were among the first to greet us. By the union of these two parties, the circumnavigation of Lake Michigan had been completely made. The rate of travel along the line traversed by them was computed at forty-five miles per day. They had been eight days on the route. The coast line traversed by Captain Douglass and myself, since quitting Chicago, is four hundred and thirty-nine miles, giving a mean of forty-three miles per diem, of which one entire day was lost by head winds.