4. TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHY.

It is obvious that the adjustment of this line must precede a permanent peace on this part of the frontiers. The number of Chippewas particularly interested in it is, from my notes, 2,102; to which, 911 may be added for certain bands on Lake Superior. It embraces 27 villages, and the most influential civil and war chiefs of the region. The population is enterprising and warlike. They have the means of subsistence incomparativeabundance. They are increasing in numbers. They command a ready access to the Mississippi by water, and a ready return from it by land. Habits of association have taught them to look upon this stream as the theatre of war. Their young men are carried into it as the natural and almost only means of distinction. And it is in coincidence with all observation to say that they are now, as they were in the days of Captain Carver, the terror of the east bankof this river, between the St. Croix and Chippewa Rivers. No other tribe has now, or has had, within the memory of man, a village or permanent possession on this part of the shore. It is landed on in fear. It is often passed by other nations by stealth, and at night. Such is not an exaggerated picture. And with a knowledge of their geographical advantages, and numbers, and distribution, on the tributary streams, slight causes, it may be imagined, will often excite the young and thoughtless portion of them to raise the war-club, to chant the war-song, and follow the war-path.To remove these causes, to teach them the folly of such a contest, to remind them of the treaty stipulations and promises solemnly made to the Government, and to the Sioux, and to induce them to renew those promises, and to act on fixed principles of political faith, were the primary objects committed to me; and they were certainly objects of exalted attainment, according as well with the character of the Government as with the spirit and moral and intellectual tone of the age. To these objects I have faithfully, as I believe, devoted the means at my command. And the Chippewas cannot, hereafter, err on the subject of their hostilities with the Sioux, without knowing that the error is disapproved by the American government, and that a continuance in it will be visited upon them in measures of severity.Without indulging the expectation that my influence on the tour will have the effect to put an end to the spirit of predatory warfare, it may be asserted that this spirit has been checked and allayed; and that a state of feeling and reflection has been produced by it, which cannot fail to be beneficial to our relations with them, and to their relations with each other. The messages sent to the Sioux chiefs, may be anticipated to have resulted in restoring a perfect peace during the present fall and ensuing winter, and will thus leave to each party the undisturbed chase of their lands. The meditated blow of Steenaba was turned aside, and his war-party arrested and dispersed at the moment it was ready to proceed. Every argument was used to show them the folly and the insecurity of a continuance of the war. And the whole tenor and effect of my visit has been to inform and reform these remote bands. It has destroyed the charm of their seclusion.It has taught them that their conduct is under the super-vision of the American government; that they depend on its care and protection; that no other government has power to regulate trade and send traders among them; finally, that an adherence to foreign counsels, and to anti-pacific maxims, can be visited upon them in measures of coercion. That their country, hitherto deemed nearly inaccessible, can be penetrated and traversed by men and troops, with baggage and provisions, even in midsummer, when the waters are lowest; and that, in proportion as they comply with political maxims, as benevolent as they are just, will they live at peace with their enemies, and have the means of subsistence for an increased population among themselves. The conduct of the traders in this quarter, and the influence they have exerted, both moral and political, cannot here be entered upon, and must be left to some other occasion, together with statistical details and other branches of information not arising from particular instructions.It may be said that the Indians upon the St. Croix and Chippewa Rivers, and their numerous branches, have been drawn into a close intercourse with Government. But it will be obvious that a perseverance in the system of official advice and restraints, is essential to give permanence to the effects already produced, and to secure a firm and lasting peace between them and the Sioux. To this end, the settlement of the line upon the Red Cedar Fork is an object which claims the attention of the Department; and would justify, in my opinion, the calling together the parties interested, at some convenient spot near the junction of the Red Cedar River with the Chippewa. Indeed, the handsome elevation, and the commanding geographical advantages of this spot, render it one which, I think, might be advantageously occupied as a military post. Such an occupancy would have the effect to keep the parties at peace; and the point of land, on which the work is proposed to be erected, might be purchased from the Sioux, together with such part of the disputed lands near the mills as might be deemed necessary to quiet the title of the Chippewas. By acquiring this portion of country for the purposes of military occupancy, the United States would be justified in punishing any murders committed upon it; and I am fully convinced that no measure which could, at this time, be adopted, would so certainly conduce to a permanent peace between the tribes. Itherefore beg leave, through you, to submit these subjects to the consideration of the honorable the Secretary of War, with every distrust in my own powers of observation, and with a very full confidence in his.I have the honor to be, sir,Very respectfully, your obedient servant,H. R. SCHOOLCRAFT.To Elbert Herring, Esq.,Com. Ind. Affairs.Brief Notes of a Tour in 1831, from Galena, in Illinois, to Fort Winnebago, on the source of Fox River, Wisconsin.ByHenry R. Schoolcraft.Time admonishes me of my promise to furnish you some account of my journey from Galena to Fort Winnebago. But I confess, that time has taken away none of those features which make me regard it as a task. Other objects have occupied so much of my thoughts, that the subject has lost some of its vividness, and I shall be obliged to confine myself more exclusively to my notes than I had intended. This will be particularly true in speaking of geological facts. Geographical features impress themselves strongly on the mind. The shape of a mountain is not easily forgotten, and its relation to contiguous waters and woods is recollected after the lapse of many years. The succession of plains, streams, and settlements is likewise retained in the memory, while the peculiar plains, the soils overlaying them, and all the variety of their mineral and organic contents, require to be perpetuated by specimens and by notes, which impose neither a slight nor a momentary labor.Limited sketches of this kind are, furthermore, liable to be misconceived. Prominent external objects can only be brought to mind, and these often reveal but an imperfect notion of the pervading character of strata, and still less knowledge of their mineral contents. Haste takes away many opportunities of observation; and scanty or inconvenient means of transporting hand specimens, often deprive us of the requisite data. Indeed, I should be loath to describe the few facts I am about to communicate, had you not personally visited and examined the great carboniferous and sandstone formation on the Mississippi andWisconsin, and thus got the knowledge of their features. The parallelism which is apparent in these rocks, by the pinnacles which have been left standing on high—the wasting effects of time in scooping out valleys and filling up declivities—and the dark and castle-looking character of the cherty limestone bluffs, as viewed from the water, while the shadows of evening are deepening around, are suited to make vivid impressions. And these broken and denuded cliffs offer the most favorable points for making geological observations. There are no places inland where the streams have cut so deep. On gaining the height of land, the strata are found to be covered with so heavy a deposit of soil, that it is difficult to glean much that can be relied on respecting the interior structure.The angle formed by the junction of the Wisconsin with the Mississippi, is a sombre line of weather-beaten rocks. Gliding along the current, at the base of these rocks, the idea of a "hill country," of no very productive character, is naturally impressed upon the observer. And this impression came down, probably, from the days of Marquette, who was the first European, that we read of, who descended the Wisconsin, and thus became the true discoverer of the Mississippi. The fact that it yielded lead ore, bits of which were occasionally brought in by the natives, was in accordance with this opinion; and aided, it may be supposed, in keeping out of view the real character of the country. I know not how else to account for the light which has suddenly burst upon us from this bank of the Mississippi, and which has at once proved it to be as valuable for the purposes of agriculture as for those of mining, and as sylvan in its appearance as if it were not fringed, as it were, with rocks, and lying at a great elevation above the water. This elevation is so considerable as to permit a lively descent in the streams, forming numerous mill-seats. The surface of the country is not, however, broken, but may be compared to the heavy and lazy-rolling waves of the sea after a tempest. These wave-like plains are often destitute of trees, except a few scattering ones, but present to the eye an almost boundless field of native herbage. Groves of oak sometimes diversify those native meadows, or cover the ridges which bound them. Very rarely does any rock appear above the surface. The highest elevations, the Platte Mounds, and the Blue Mound,are covered with soil and with trees. Numerous brooks of limpid water traverse the plains, and find their way into either the Wisconsin, Rock River, or the Mississippi. The common deer is still in possession of its favorite haunts; and the traveller is very often startled by flocks of the prairie-hen rising up in his path. The surface soil is a rich black alluvion; it yields abundant crops of corn, and, so far as they have been tried, all the cereal gramina. I have never, either in the West or out of the West, seen a richer soil, or more stately fields of corn and oats, than upon one of the plateaux of the Blue Mound.Such is the country which appears to be richer in ores of lead than any other mineral district in the world—which yielded forty millions of pounds in seven years—produced a single lump of ore of two thousand cubic feet—and appears adequate to supply almost any amount of this article that the demands of commerce require.The River of Galena rises in the mineral plains of Iowa county, in that part of the Northwestern Territory which is attached, for the purposes of temporary government, to Michigan. It is made up of clear and permanent springs, and has a descent which affords a very valuable water-power. This has been particularly remarked at the curve called Mill-seat Bend. No change in its general course, which is southwest, is, I believe, apparent after it enters the northwest angle of the State of Illinois. The town of Galena, the capital of the mining country, occupies a somewhat precipitous semicircular bend, on the right (or north) bank of the river, six or seven miles from its entrance into the Mississippi. Backwater, from the latter, gives the stream itself the appearance, as it bears the name, of a "river," and admits steamboat navigation thus far. It is a rapid brook immediately above the town, and of no further value for the purpose of navigation. Lead is brought in from the smelting furnaces, on heavy ox-teams, capable of carrying several tons at a load. I do not know that waterhas been, or that itcannotbe made subservient in the transportation of this article from the mines. The streams themselves are numerous and permanent, although they are small, and it would require the aid of so many of these, on any projected route, that it is to be feared the supply of water would be inadequate. To remedy this deficiency, the Wisconsin itself might berelied on. Could the waters of this river be conducted in a canal along its valley from the portage to the bend at Arena, they might, from this point, be deflected in a direct line to Galena. This route would cut the mine district centrally, and afford the upper tributaries of the Pekatolika and Fever Rivers as feeders. Such a communication would open the way to a northern market, and merchandise might be supplied by the way of Green Bay, when the low state of water in the Mississippi prevents the ascent of boats. It would, at all times, obviate the tedious voyage, which goods ordered from the Atlantic cities have to perform through the straits of Florida and Gulf of Mexico. A railroad could be laid upon this route with equal, perhaps superior advantages. These things may seem too much like making arrangements for the next generation. But we cannot fix bounds to the efforts of our spreading population, and spirit of enterprise. Nor, after what we have seen in the way of internal improvement, in our own day and generation, should we deem anything too hard to be accomplished.I set out from Galena in a light wagon, drawn by two horses, about ten o'clock in the morning (August 17th), accompanied by Mr. B. It had rained the night and morning of the day previous, which rendered the streets and roads quite muddy. A marly soil, easily penetrated by rain, was, however, as susceptible to the influence of the sun, and, in a much shorter period than would be imagined, the surface became dry. Although a heavy and continued shower had thoroughly drenched the ground, and covered it with superfluous water, but very little effects of it were to be seen at this time. We ascended into the open plain country, which appears in every direction around the town, and directed our course to Gratiot's Grove. In this distance, which, on our programme of the route, was put down, at fifteen miles, a lively idea of the formation and character of the country is given. The eye is feasted with the boundlessness of its range. Grass and flowers spread before and beside the traveller, and, on looking back, they fill up the vista behind him. He soon finds himself in the midst of a sylvan scene. Groves fringe the tops of the most distant elevations, and clusters of trees—more rarely, open forests—are occasionally presented. The trees appear to be almost exclusively of the species of white oak and rough-bark hickory.Among the flowers, the plant called rosin-weed attracts attention by its gigantic stature, and it is accompanied, as certainly as substance by shadow, by the wild indigo, two plants which were afterwards detected, of less luxuriant growth, on Fox River. The roads are in their natural condition; they are excellent, except for a few yards where streams are crossed. At such places there is a plunge into soft, black muck, and it requires all the powers of a horse harnessed to a wagon to emerge from the stream.On reaching Gratiot's Grove, I handed letters of introduction to Mr. H. and B. Gratiot. These gentlemen appear to be extensively engaged in smelting. They conducted me to see the ore prepared for smelting in the log furnace; and also the preparation of such parts of it for the ash furnace as do not undergo complete fusion in the first process. The ash furnace is a very simple kind of air furnace, with a grate so arranged as to throw a reverberating flame upon the hearth where the prepared ore is laid. It is built against a declivity, and charged, by throwing the materials to be operated upon, down the flue. A silicious flux is used; and the scoria is tapped and suffered to flow out, from the side of the furnace, before drawing off the melted lead. The latter is received in an excavation made in the earth, from which it is ladled out into iron moulds. The whole process is conducted in the open air, with sometimes a slight shed. The lead ore is piled in cribs of logs, which are roofed. Hammers, ladles, a kind of tongs, and some other iron tools are required. The simplicity of the process, the absence of external show in buildings, and the direct and ready application of the means to the end, are remarkable, as pleasing characteristics about the smelting establishment.The ore used is the common sulphuret, with a foliated, glittering and cubical fracture. It occurs with scarcely any adhering gangue. Cubical masses of it are found, at some of the diggings, which are studded over with minute crystals of calcareous spar. These crystals, when examined, have the form of the dog-tooth spar. This broad, square-shaped, and square-broken mineral, is taken fromeast and west leads, is most easy to smelt, and yields the greatest per centum of lead. It is estimated to produce fifty per cent. from the log furnace, and about sixteen more when treated with a flux in the ash furnace.Miners classify their ore from its position in the mine. Orefromeast and west leads, is raised from clay diggings, although these diggings may be pursued under the first stratum of rock. Ore fromnorth and south leads, is termed "sheet minerals," and is usually taken from rock diggings. The vein or sheet stands perpendicularly in the fissure, and is usually struck in sinking from six to ten feet. The sheet varies in thickness from six or eight inches, in the broadest part, to not more than one. The great mass found at "Irish diggings" was of this kind.I observed, among the piles of ore at Gratiot's, the combination of zinc with lead ore, which is denominateddry bone. It is cast by as unproductive. Mr. B. Gratiot also showed me pieces of the common ore which had undergone desulphuration in the log furnace. Its natural splendor is increased by this process, so as to have the appearance of highly burnished steel. He also presented me some uniform masses of lead, recrystallized from a metallic state, under the hearth of the ash furnace. The tendency to rectangular structure in these delicate and fragile masses is very remarkable. Crystallization appears to have taken place under circumstances which opposed the production of a complete and perfect cube or parallelogram, although there are innumerable rectangles of each geometric form.In the drive from Gratiot's to Willow Springs, we saw a succession of the same objects that had formed the prominent features of the landscape from Galena. The platte mounds, which had appeared on our left all the morning, continued visible until we entered the grove that embraces the site of the springs. Little mounds of red earth frequently appeared above the grass, to testify to the labors of miners along this part of the route. In taking a hasty survey of some of the numerous excavations of Irish diggings, I observed among the rubbish small flat masses of a yellowish white amorphous mineral substance of great weight. I have not had time to submit it to any tests. It appears too heavy and compact for the earthy yellow oxide of lead. I should not be disappointed to find it an oxide of zinc. No rock stratum protrudes from the ground in this part of the country. The consolidated masses, thrown up from the diggings, appear to be silicated limestone, often friable, and not crystalline. Galena is found in open fissures in this rock.We reached the springs in the dusk of the evening, and foundgood accommodations at Ray's. Distance from Galena thirty miles.The rain fell copiously during the night, and on the morning (18th) gave no signs of a speedy cessation. Those who travel ought often, however, to call to mind the remark of Xenophon, that "pleasure is the result of toil," and not permit slight impediments to arrest them, particularly when they have definite points to make. We set forward in a moderate rain, but in less than an hour had the pleasure to perceive signs of its mitigating, and before nine o'clock it was quite clear. We stopped a short time at Bracken's furnace. Mr. Bracken gave me specimens of organic remains, in the condition of earthy calcareous carbonates, procured on a neighboring ridge. He described the locality as being plentiful in casts and impressions such as he exhibited, which appeared to have been removed from the surface of a shelly limestone. At Rock-Branch diggings, I found masses of calcareous spar thrown from the pits. The surface appears to have been much explored for lead in this vicinity. I stopped to examine Vanmater's lead. It had been a productive one, and affords a fair example of what are called east and west leads. I observed a compass standing on the line of the lead, and asked Mr. V. whether much reliance was to be placed upon the certainty of striking the lead by the aid of this instrument. He said that it was much relied on. That the course of the leads was definite. The present one varied from a due east and west line but nine minutes, and the lead had been followed without much difficulty. The position of the ore was about forty feet below the surface. Of this depth about thirty-six feet consisted of the surface rock and its earthy covering. A vein of marly clay, enveloping the ore, was then penetrated. A series of pits had been sunk on the course of it, and the earth and ore in the interstices removed, and drawn to the surface by a windlass and bucket. Besides the ore, masses of iron pyrites had been thrown out, connected with galena. In stooping to detach some pieces from one of these masses, I placed my feet on the verge of an abandoned pit, around which weeds and bushes had grown. My face was, however, averted from the danger; but, on beholding it, I was made sensible that the least deviation from a proper balance would have pitched me into it. It was forty feet deep. The danger I had just escapedfell to the lot of Mr. B.'s dog, who, probably deceived by the growth of bushes, fell in. Whether killed or not, it was impossible to tell, and we were obliged to leave the poor animal, under a promise of Mr. V., that he would cause a windlass to be removed to the pit, to ascertain his fate.At eleven o'clock we reached Mineral Point, the seat of justice of Iowa county. I delivered an introductory letter to Mr. Ansley, who had made a discovery of copper ore in the vicinity, and through his politeness, visited the locality. The discovery was made in sinking pits in search of lead ore. Small pieces of green carbonate of copper were found on striking the rock, which is apparently silico-calcareous, and of a very friable structure. From one of the excavations, detached masses of the sulphuret, blue and green mingled, were raised. These masses are enveloped with ochery clay.In riding out on horseback to see this locality, I passed over the ridge of land which first received the appellation of "Mineral Point." No digging was observed in process, but the heaps of red marly clay, the vigorous growth of shrubbery around them, and the number of open or partially filled pits, remain to attest the labor which was formerly devoted in the search for lead. And this search is said to have been amply rewarded. The track of discovery is conspicuously marked by these excavations, which often extend, in a direct line, on the cardinal points, as far as the eye can reach. Everywhere the marly clay formation appears to have been relied on for the ore, and much of it certainly appears to bein sitûin it. It bears no traces of attrition; and its occurrence in regular leads forbids the supposition of its being an oceanic arrangement of mineral detritus. At Vanmater's, the metalliferous clay marl is overlaid by a grayish sedimentary limestone. Different is the geological situation of what is denominatedgravel ore, of which I noticed piles, on the route from Gratiot's. This bears evident marks of attrition, and appears to have been uniformly taken from diluvial earth.On returning to the village from this excursion, I found Mr. B. ready to proceed, and we lost no time in making the next point in our proposed route. A drive of five miles brought us to the residence of Colonel Dodge, whose zeal and enterprise in opening this portion of our western country for settlement, give himclaims to be looked up to as a public benefactor. I here met the superintendent of the mines (Captain Legate), and after spending some time in conversation on the resources and prospects of the country, and partaking of the hospitalities politely offered by Colonel D. and his intelligent family, we pursued our way. The village of Dodgeville lies at the distance of four miles. Soon after passing through it some part of our tackle gave way, in crossing a gully, and I improved the opportunity of the delay to visit the adjacent diggings, which are extensive. The ore is found as at other mines, in regular leads, and not scattered about promiscuously in the red marl. Masses of brown oxide of iron were more common here than I had noticed them elsewhere. Among the rubbish of the diggings, fragments of hornstone occur. They appear to be, most commonly, portions of nodules, which exhibit, on being fractured, various discolorings.Night overtook us before we entered Porter's Grove, which is also the seat of mining and smelting operations. We are indebted to the hospitality of Mr. M., of whom my companion was an acquaintance, for opening his door to us, at an advanced hour of the evening. Distance from Willow Springs, twenty-five miles.There is no repose for a traveller. We retired to rest at a late hour, and rose at an early one. The morning (19th) was hazy, and we set forward while the dew was heavy on the grass. Our route still lay through a prairie country. The growth of native grass, bent down with dew, nearly covered the road, so that our horses' legs were continually bathed. The rising sun was a very cheerful sight, but as our road lay up a long ascent, we soon felt its wilting effects. Nine miles of such driving, with not a single grove to shelter us, brought us to Mr. Brigham's, at the foot of the Blue Mound, being the last house in the direction to Fort Winnebago. The distance from Galena is sixty-four miles, and this area embraces the present field of mining operations. In rapidly passing over it, mines, furnaces, dwelling-houses, mining villages, inclosed fields, upland prairies (an almost continued prairie), groves, springs, and brooks, have formed the prominent features of the landscape. The impulse to the settlement of the country was first given by its mineral wealth; and it brought here, as it were by magic, an enterprising and active population.It is evident that a far greater amount of labor was a few years ago engaged in mining operations; but the intrinsic value of the lands has operated to detain the present population, which may be considered as permanent. The lands are beautifully disposed, well watered, well drained by natural streams, and easily brought into cultivation. Crops have everywhere repaid the labors of the farmer; and, thus far, the agricultural produce of the country has borne a fair price. The country appears to afford every facility for raising cattle, horses, and hogs. Mining, the cardinal interest heretofore, has not ceased in the degree that might be inferred from the depression of the lead market; and it will be pursued, with increased activity, whenever the purposes of commerce call for it. In the present situation of the country, there appear to be two objects essential to the lasting welfare of the settlements: first, a title to their lands from Congress; second, a northern market for the products of their mines and farms. To these, athirdrequisite may be considered auxiliary, namely, the establishment of the seat of territorial government at some point west of Lake Michigan, where its powers may be more readily exercised, and the reciprocal obligations of governor and people more vividly felt.Mr. Brigham, in whom I was happy to recognize an esteemed friend, conducted us over his valuable plantation. He gave me a mass of a white, heavy metallic substance, taken as an accompanying mineral, from a lead of Galena, which he has recently discovered in a cave. Without instituting any examination of it but such as its external characters disclose, it may be deemed a native carbonate of lead. The mass from which it was broken weighed ninety or one hundred pounds. And its occurrence, at the lead, was not alone.From the Blue Mound to Fort Winnebago is an estimated distance of fifty-six miles. The country is, however, entirely in a state of nature. The trace is rather obscure; but, with a knowledge of the general geography and face of the country, there is no difficulty in proceeding with a light wagon, or even a loaded team, as the Indian practice of firing the prairies every fall has relieved the surface from underbrush and fallen timber. After driving a few miles, we encountered two Winnebagoes on horseback, the forward rider having a white man in ties behind him.The latter informed us that his name was H., that he had come out to Twelve-mile Creek, for the purpose of locating himself there, and was in pursuit of a hired man, who had gone off, with some articles of his property, the night previous. With this relation, and aboshu[274]for the natives, with whom we had no means of conversing, we continued our way, without further incident, to Duck Creek, a distance of ten miles. We here struck the path, which is one of the boundary lines, in the recent purchase from the Winnebagoes. It is a deeply marked horse path, cutting quite through the prairie sod, and so much used by the natives as to prevent grass from growing on it; in this respect, it is as well-defined a landmark as "blazed tree," or "saddle." The surveyor appointed to run out the lines, had placed mile-posts on the route, but the Winnebagoes, with a prejudice against the practice which is natural, pulled up many, and defaced others. When we had gone ten miles further, we began to see the glittering of water through the trees, and we soon found ourselves on the margin of a clear lake. I heard no name for this handsome sheet of water. It is one of the four lakes, which are connected with each other by a stream, and have their outlet into Rock River, through a tributary called the Guskihaw. We drove through the margin of it, where the shores were sandy, and innumerable small unio shells were driven up. Most of these small pieces appeared to be helices. Standing tent-poles, and other remains of Indian encampments, appeared at this place. A rock stratum, dark and weather-beaten, apparently sandstone, jutted out into the lake. A little further, we passed to the left of an abandoned village. By casting our eyes across the lake, we observed the new position which had been selected and occupied by the Winnebagoes. We often assign wrong motives, when we undertake to reason for the Indian race; but in the present instance, we may presume that their removal was influenced by too near a position to the boundary path.We drove to the second brook, beyond the lake, and encamped.Comfort in an encampment depends very much upon getting agood fire. In this we totally failed last night, owing to our having but a small piece of spunk, which ignited and burned out without inflaming our kindling materials. The atmosphere was damp, but not sufficiently cooled to quiet the ever-busy mosquito. Mr. B. deemed it a hardship that he could not boil the kettle, so as to have the addition of tea to our cold repast. I reminded him that there was a bright moon, and that it did not rain; and that, for myself, I had fared so decidedly worse, on former occasions, that I was quite contented with the light of the moon and a dry blanket. By raising up and putting a fork under the wagon-tongue, and spreading our tent-cloth over it, I found the means of insulating ourselves from the insect hordes, but it was not until I had pitched my mosquito net within it that we found repose.On awaking in the morning (20th), we found H., who had passed us the day before in company with the Winnebagoes, lying under the wagon. He had returned from pursuing the fugitive, and had overtaken us, after twelve o'clock at night. He complained of being cold. We admitted him into the wagon, and drove on to reach his camp at Twelve-mile Creek. In crossing what he denominated Seven-mile Prairie, I observed on our right a prominent wall of rock, surmounted with image-stones. The rock itself consisted of sandstone. Elongated water-worn masses of stone had been set up, so as to resemble, at a distance, the figures of men. The illusion had been strengthened by some rude paints. This had been the serious or the sportive work of Indians. It is not to be inferred, hence, that the Winnebagoes are idolaters. But there is a strong tendency to idolatry in the minds of the North American Indians. They do not bow before a carved image, shaped like Dagon or Juggernaut; but they rely upon their guardian spirits, or personal manitos, for aid in exigencies, and impute to the skins of animals, which are preserved with religious care, the power of gods. Their medicine institution is also a gross and bold system of semi-deification connected with magic, witchcraft, and necromancy. Their jossakeeds are impostors and jugglers of the grossest stamp. Their wabenos address Satan directly for power; and their metais, who appear to be least idolatrous, rely more upon the invisible agency of spirits and magic influence, than upon the physical properties of the medicines they exhibit.On reaching Twelve-mile Creek, we found a yoke of steers of H., in a pen, which had been tied there two days and nights without water. He evinced, however, an obliging disposition, and, after refreshing ourselves and our horses, we left him to complete the labors of a "local habitation." The intermediate route to Fort Winnebago afforded few objects of either physical or mental interest. The upland soil, which had become decidedly thinner and more arenaceous, after reaching the Lake, appears to increase in sterility on approaching the Wisconsin. And the occurrence oflost rocks(primitive boulders), as Mr. B. happily termed them, which are first observed after passing the Blue Mound, becomes more frequent in this portion of the country, denoting our approach to the borders of the northwestern primitive formation. This formation, we have now reason to conclude, extends in an angle, so far south as to embrace a part of Fox River, above Apukwa Lake.Anticipated difficulties always appear magnified. This we verified in crossing Duck Creek, near its entrance into the Wisconsin. We found the adjoining bog nearly dry, and drove through the stream without the water entering into the body of the wagon. It here commenced raining. Having but four miles to make, and that a level prairie, we pushed on. But the rain increased, and poured down steadily and incessantly till near sunset. In the midst of this rain-storm we reached the fort, about one o'clock, and crossed over to the elevated ground occupied by the Indian Department, where my sojourn, while awaiting the expedition, was rendered as comfortable as the cordial greeting and kind attention of Mr. Kinzie, the agent, and his intelligent family, could make it.A recapitulation of the distances from Galena makes the route as follows, viz: Gratiot's Grove, fifteen miles; Willow Springs, fifteen; Mineral Point, seven; Dodgeville, nine; Porter's Grove, nine; Blue Mound, nine; Duck Creek, ten; Lake, ten; Twelve-mile Creek, twenty-four; Crossing of Duck Creek, eight; and Fort Winnebago, four; total, one hundred and twenty miles.H. R. S.ToGeorge P. Morris, Esq., New York.3.Official Report of the Exploratory Expedition to the Actual Source of the Mississippi River in 1832.Office of the Indian Agency of Sault Ste. Marie,Sept. 1, 1832.Sir: I had the honor to inform you, on the 15th ultimo, of my return from the sources of the Mississippi, and that I should communicate the details of my observations to you as soon as they could be prepared.On reaching the remotest point visited heretofore by official authority, I found that the waters on that summit were favorable to my tracing this river to its utmost sources. This point having been left undetermined by prior expeditions, I determined to avail myself of the occasion to take Indian guides, with light canoes, and, after encamping my heavy force, to make the ascent. It was represented to be practicable in five days. I accomplished it, by great diligence, in three. The distance is 158 miles above Cass Lake. There are many sharp rapids, which made the trial severe. The river expands into numerous lakes.After passing about forty miles north of Red Cedar Lake, during which we ascended a summit, I entered a fine large lake, which, to avoid repetitions in our geographical names, I called Queen Anne's Lake. From this point the ascent of the Mississippi was due south; and it was finally found to have its origin in a handsome lake, of some seven miles in extent, on the height of land to which I gave the name of Itasca.This lake lies in latitude 47° 13' 25". It lies at an altitude of 1,575 feet, by the barometer, above the Gulf of Mexico. It affords me satisfaction to say, that, by this discovery, the geographical point of the origin of this river is definitely fixed. Materials for maps and plans of the entire route have been carefully collected by Lieut. James Allen, of the U. S. Army, who accompanied me, with a small detachment of infantry, as high as Cass Lake; and, having encamped them at that point, with my extra men, he proceeded with me to Itasca Lake. The distance which is thus added to the Mississippi, agreeably to him, is164 miles, making its entire length, by the most authentic estimates, to be 3,200 miles. In this distance there are numerous and arduous rapids, in which the total amount of ascent to be overcome is 173 feet.Councils were held with the Indians at Fond du Lac, at Sandy Lake, Cass Lake, at the mouth of the Great De Corbeau River, &c.In returning, I visited the military bands at Leech Lake; passing from thence to its source, and descending the whole length of the Crow-wing River, and thence to St. Anthony's Falls, I assembled the Sioux at the agency of St. Peter's, and at the Little Crow's village. The Chippewas of the St. Croix and Broule Rivers were particularly visited. Many thousands of the Chippewa and Sioux nations were seen and counselled with, including their most distinguished chiefs and warriors. Everywhere they disclaimed a connection with Black Hawk and his schemes. I left the Mississippi, about forty miles above the point where, in a few days, the Sauk chief was finally captured and his forces overthrown; and, reaching the waters of Lake Superior, at the mouth of the Brule, returned from that point to the agency at Sault de Ste. Marie.The flag of the Union has secured respect from the tribes at every point; and I feel confident in declaring the Chippewas and Sioux, as tribes, unconnected with the Black Hawk movement.I am, sir, very respectfully,Your obedient servant,HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT,U. S. Ind. Agent.C. Herring, Esq.,Commissioner of Indian AffairsIV.VACCINATION OF THE INDIANS.4.Report of the number and position of the Indians vaccinated on the Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, conducted by Mr. Schoolcraft, in 1832.By Dr.Douglass Houghton.Sault Ste. Marie, Sept. 21, 1832.Sir: In conformity with your instructions, I take the earliest opportunity to lay before you such facts as I have collected, touching the vaccination of the Chippewa Indians, during theprogress of the late expedition into their country: and also "of the prevalence, from time to time, of the smallpox" among them.The accompanying table will serve to illustrate the "ages, sex, tribe, and local situation" of those Indians who have been vaccinated by me. With the view of illustrating more fully their local situation, I have arranged those bands residing upon the shores of Lake Superior; those residing in the Folle Avoine country (or that section of country lying between the highlands southwest from Lake Superior, and the Mississippi River); and those residing near the sources of the Mississippi River, separately.Nearly all the Indians noticed in this table were vaccinated at their respective villages; yet I did not fail to vaccinate those whom we chanced to meet in their hunting or other excursions.I have embraced, with the Indians of the frontier bands, those half-breeds, who, in consequence of having adopted more or less the habits of the Indian, may be identified with him.But little difficulty has occurred in convincing the Indians of the efficacy of vaccination; and the universal dread in which they hold the appearance of the smallpox among them, rendered it an easy task to overcome their prejudices, whatever they chanced to be. The efficacy of the vaccine disease is well appreciated, even by the most interior of the Chippewa Indians; and so universal is this information, that only one instance occurred where the Indian had never heard of the disease.In nearly every instance the opportunity which was presented for vaccination, was embraced with cheerfulness and apparent gratitude; at the same time manifesting great anxiety that, for the safety of the whole, each one of the band should undergo the operation. When objections were made to vaccination, they were not usually made because the Indian doubted the protective power of the disease, but because he supposed (never having seen its progress), that the remedy must nearly equal the disease which it was intended to counteract.Our situation, while travelling, did not allow me sufficient time to test the result of the vaccination in most instances; but an occasional return to bands where the operation had been performed, enabled me, in those bands, either to note the progress of the disease, or to judge from the cicatrices marking the original situation of the pustules, the cases in which the disease had proved successful.CHIPPEWA INDIANS.MALES.FEMALES.BANDS.Under10.10to20.20to40.40to60.60to80.Over80.Under10.10to20.20to40.40to60.60to80.Over80.Males.Females.Total.Lake SuperiorSault Ste. Marie9322198217528211031145138283Grand Island17972......1257.........352459Keweena Bay23111061...2012175215157108Ontonagon River78103......1351261...283765La Pointe373240621382528122...118106224Fond du Lac502145102...4118351362128115243Folle Avoine CountryLac du Flambeau62611...23422...161529Ottowa Lake11481......10732......242246Yellow River11261......113621...202343Nama Kowagun of St. Croix River4121......4...32......8917Snake River14374112531211...304272Sources of theMississippi RiverSandy Lake752147102...8619482362155184339Lake Winnipeg44103......1112......21526Cass, or Upper Red Cedar Lake185116...11838511413677Leech Lake76437316419641612521213226439Lake Superior22710313135721999312046145505477982Folle Avoine Country46122982152123294...98109207Sources of the Mississippi173731413562201641185594430451881Total44618830178155452169270110279103310372070About one-fourth of the whole number were vaccinated directly from the pustules of patients laboring under the disease; while the remaining three-fourths were vaccinated from crusts, or from virus which had been several days on hand. I did not pass by a single opportunity for securing the crusts and virus from the arms of healthy patients; and to avoid, as far as possible, the chance of giving rise to a disease of a spurious kind, I invariably made use of those crusts and that virus, for the purposes of vaccination, which had been most recently obtained. To secure, as far as possible, against the chances of escaping the vaccine disease, I invariably vaccinated in each arm.Of the whole number of Indians vaccinated, I have either watched the progress of the disease, or examined the cicatrices of about seven hundred. An average of one in three of those vaccinated from crusts has failed, while of those vaccinated directly from the arm of a person laboring under the disease, not more than one in twenty has failed to take effect—when the disease did not make its appearance after vaccination, I have invariably, as the cases came under my examination, revaccinated until a favorable result has been obtained.Of the different bands of Indians vaccinated, a large proportion of the following have, as an actual examination has shown, undergone thoroughly the effects of the disease; viz: Sault Ste. Marie, Keweena Bay, La Pointe, and Cass Lake, being seven hundred and fifty-one in number; while of the remaining thirteen hundred and seventy-eight, of other bands, I think it may safely be calculated that more than three-fourths have passed effectually under the influence of the vaccine disease: and as directions to revaccinate all those in whom the disease failed, together with instructions as to time and manner of vaccination, were given to the chiefs of the different bands, it is more than probable that, where the bands remained together a sufficient length of time, the operation of revaccination has been performed by themselves.Upon our return to Lake Superior, I had reason to suspect, on examining several cicatrices, that two of the crusts furnished by the surgeon-general, in consequence of a partial decomposition, gave rise to a spurious disease, and these suspicions were confirmed when revaccinating with genuine vaccine matter, when the true disease was communicated. Nearly all those Indiansvaccinated with those two crusts, have been vaccinated, and passed regularly though the vaccine disease.The answers to my repeated inquiries respecting the introduction, progress, and fatality of the smallpox, would lead me to infer that the disease has made its appearance at least five times, among the bands of Chippewa Indians noticed in the accompanying table of vaccination.The smallpox appears to have been wholly unknown to the Chippewas of Lake Superior until about 1750; when a war-party, of more than one hundred young men, from the bands resident near the head of the lake, having visited Montreal for the purpose of assisting the French in their then existing troubles with the English, became infected with the disease, and but few of the party survived to reach their homes. It does not appear, although they made a precipitate retreat to their own country, that the disease was at this time communicated to any others of the tribe.About the year 1770, the disease appeared a second time among the Chippewas, but, unlike that which preceded it, it was communicated to the more northern bands.The circumstances connected with its introduction are related nearly as follows:—Some time in the fall of 1767 or 8, a trader who had ascended the Mississippi, and established himself near Leech Lake, was robbed of his goods by the Indians residing at that lake; and, in consequence of his exertions in defending his property, he died soon after.These facts became known to the directors of the Fur Company, at Mackinac; and, each successive year after, requests were sent to the Leech Lake Indians, that they should visit Mackinac, and make reparation for the goods they had taken, by a payment of furs, at the same time threatening punishment in case of a refusal. In the spring of 1770, the Indians saw fit to comply with this request; and a deputation from the band visited Mackinac, with a quantity of furs, which they considered an equivalent for the goods which had been taken. The deputation was received with politeness by the directors of the Company, and the difficulties readily adjusted. When this was effected, a cask of liquor and a flag closely rolled were presented to the Indians as a token of friendship. They were at the same time strictly enjoinedneither to break the seal of the cask nor to unroll the flag, until they had reached the heart of their own country. This they promised to observe; but while returning, and after having travelled many days, the chief of the deputation made a feast for the Indians of the band at Fond du Lac, Lake Superior, upon which occasion he unsealed the cask and unrolled the flag for the gratification of his guests. The Indians drank of the liquor, and remained in a state of inebriation during several days. The rioting was over, and they were fast recovering from its effects, when several of the party were seized with violent pain. This was attributed to the liquor they had drunk; but the pain increasing, they were induced to drink deeper of the poisonous drug, and in this inebriated state several of the party died, before the real cause was suspected. Other like cases occurred; and it was not long before one of the war-party who had visited Montreal in 1750, and who had narrowly escaped with his life, recognized the disease as the same which had attacked their party at that time. It proved to be so; and of those Indians then at Fond du Lac, about three hundred in number, nearly the whole were swept off by it. Nor did it stop here; for numbers of those at Fond du Lac, at the time the disease made its appearance, took refuge among the neighboring bands; and although it did not extend easterly on Lake Superior, it is believed that not a single band of Chippewas north or west from Fond du Lac escaped its ravages. Of a large band then resident at Cass Lake, near the source of the Mississippi River, only one person, a child, escaped. The others having been attacked by the disease, died before any opportunity for dispersing was offered. The Indians at this day are firmly of the opinion that the smallpox was at this time communicated through the articles presented to their brethren by the agent of the Fur Company at Mackinac; and that it was done for the purpose of punishing them more severely for their offences.The most western bands of Chippewas relate a singular allegory of the introduction of the smallpox into their country by a war-party, returning from the plains of the Missouri, as nearly as information will enable me to judge, in the year 1784. It does not appear that, at this time, the disease extended to the bands east of Fond du Lac; but it is represented to have been extremely fatal to those bands north and west from there.In 1802 or 3, the smallpox made its appearance among the Indians residing at the Sault Ste. Marie, but did not extend to the bands west from that place. The disease was introduced by a voyager, in the employ of the Northwest Fur Company, who had just returned from Montreal; and although all communication with him was prohibited, an Indian imprudently having made him a visit, was infected with and transmitted the disease to others of the band. When once communicated, it raged with great violence, and of a large band scarcely one of those then at the village survived, and the unburied bones still remain, marking the situation they occupied. From this band the infection was communicated to a band residing upon St. Joseph's Island, and many died of it; but the surgeon of the military post then there, succeeded, by judicious and early measures, in checking it before the infection became general.In 1824, the smallpox again made its appearance among the Indians at the Sault Ste. Marie. It was communicated by a voyager to the Indians upon Drummond's Island, Lake Huron; and through them several families at Sault Ste. Marie became infected. Of those belonging to the latter place, more than twenty in number, only two escaped. The disease is represented to have been extremely fatal to the Indians at Drummond's Island.Since 1824, the smallpox is not known to have appeared among the Indians at the Sault Ste. Marie, nor among the Chippewas north or west from that place. But the Indians of these bands still tremble at the bare name of a disease which (next to the compounds of alcohol) has been one of the greatest scourges that has ever overtaken them since their first communication with the whites. The disease, when once communicated to a band of Indians, rages with a violence wholly unknown to the civilized man. The Indian, guided by present feeling, adopts a course of treatment (if indeed it deserves that appellation) which not unfrequently arms the disease with new power. An attack is but a warning to the poor and helpless patient to prepare for death, which will almost assuredly soon follow. His situation under these circumstances is truly deplorable; for while in a state that even, with proper advice, he would of himself recover, he adds fresh fuel to the flame which is already consuming him, under the delusive hope of gaining relief. The intoxicatingdraught (when it is within his reach) is not among the last remedies to which he resorts, to produce a lethargy from which he is never to recover. Were the friends of the sick man, even under these circumstances, enabled to attend him, his sufferings might be, at least, somewhat mitigated; but they too are, perhaps, in a similar situation, and themselves without even a single person to minister to their wants. Death comes to the poor invalid, and, perhaps, even as a welcome guest, to rid him of his suffering.By a comparison of the number of Indians vaccinated upon the borders of Lake Superior with the actual population, it will be seen that the proportion who have passed through the vaccine disease is so great as to secure them against any general prevalence of the smallpox; and perhaps it is sufficient to prevent the introduction of the disease to the bands beyond, through this channel. But in the Folle Avoine country it is not so. Of the large bands of Indians residing in that section of country, only a small fraction have been vaccinated; while of other bands, not a single person has passed through the disease.Their local situation undoubtedly renders it of the first importance that the benefits of vaccination should be extended to them. Their situation may be said to render them a connecting link between the southern and northwestern bands of Chippewas; and while on the south they are liable to receive the virus of the smallpox from the whites and Indians, the passage of the disease through them to their more northern brethren would only be prevented by their remaining, at that time, completely separated. Every motive of humanity towards the suffering Indian, would lead to extend to him this protection against a disease he holds in constant dread, and of which he knows, by sad experience, the fatal effects. The protection he will prize highly, and will give in return the only boon a destitute man is capable of giving; the deep-felt gratitude of an overflowing heart.I have the honour to beVery respectfully, sir,Your obedient servant,DOUGLASS HOUGHTON.Henry R. Schoolcraft, Esq.,U. S. Ind. Agt., Sault de Ste. Marie.4. TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHY.IX.ASTRONOMICAL AND BAROMETRICAL OBSERVATIONS.1.A Table of Geographical Positions on the Mississippi River at Low Water, observed in 1836.[275]ByJ. N. Nicollet.PLACES OF OBSERVATION.ESTIMATED DISTANCESBY WATER.Altitudesabove theGulf ofMexico.[276]Northlatitudes.WEST OF GREENWICH.Authorities,&c.Fromplace toplace.From theGulf ofMexico.Longitudesin time.Longitudesin arc.Mouths of the MississippiMiles.Miles.Feet.°´´´h.m.s.°´´´Northeast passThe old Balize of the French and pilothouse,.........29715.355618.4489436.6Captain A. Talcott.Lighthouse at the entrance.........29832.85565.5289122.9do.South passlighthouse at the entrance.........285942.355629.4089727.1do.Southwest passThe new Balize and pilothouse on the east bayou.........285949.555715.88891858.2do.The new lighthouse, completed January, 1840.........28585055725.80892127do.New Orleans Cathedral and level of its front pavement10410410.52957235595689594Note.—Level of the Mississippi above the Gulf of Mexico, 0.5 foot...................Albert Stein, C. E.Greatest depth of the Mississippi at low water, 113 feet.Range between high and low water, 13 feet.Red River, north end of the island, opposite the mouth23634076312256645914115Nicollet.Natchez,lighthouse66406863133376553.5912822.5do.general level of the city......264Note.—Range between high and low water, in 1835, 52 feetYazoo River, the mouth128534...3228006358905930Ferrer.White River, Montgomery's Landing, one mile above the mouth2207542023357206147902645Nicollet.New Madrid, Missouri3611,115...36343055749892715Ferrer.Ohio River, north side of the mouth1011,2168243700255561089230Ferrer's longitude.Cape Girardeau411,257...3718395578891700Long's 1st expedition.St. Genevieve, Catholic church, and level of its pavement731,3303723759476044.7901110Nicollet.St. Louis, garden of the Cathedral601,390382383728612.6901539do.Illinois River, the mouth361,426...385812......Long's 1st expedition.Moingonan River (Des Moines River), a small island at the mouth1681,5944444021436610913230Nicollet.Montrose, or old Fort Des Moines, the mouth of the creek151,609470403034664913100do.Flint River, the mouth, above Burlington301,639486405256......do.Maskudeng, the middle mouth of the slough391,6785054114476526912130do.Rock Island, a quarter of a mile above Davenport's residence441,722528413150......do.Head of the Upper Rapids, below Port Biron and Parkhurst151,737554413686156902900do.Prairie du Chien (Kipisaging), American Fur Company's house1951,93264243366437.391919.5do.Summit of bluff on the eastern side of Prairie du Chien......1,010Capàl'ail, the summitheight above the Mississipi, 335 feet321,9641,013.........do.Upper Iowa River, island at the mouth141,978...4329266440911000do.Hokah River (Root River), the mouth232,001...4347006446911130do.Praire à la Crosse River, the mouth32,004...4349006456911400do.Sappah River, or Black River opposite the old mouth312,0356834357146536912400do.Top of mountain on right bank, opposite the old mouth......1,214.........do.Dividing ridge between Sappah River and Prairie à la Crosse River, 6 miles east of Mississippi......1,103.........do.Mountain Island, orMontagne qui trempe à l'Eauof the French72,042...4417662913030Nicollet.Miniskah River, or White-water River272,069...4412366725915115do.Wazi-oju River, or Pinewood River (Rivière aux Embarrasof the French)12,070...4413206722915030do.At Roque's, two and a half miles below Chippeway River142,084...4423246800920000do.Clear Water River, the mouth, northwest corner of Lake Pepin.........4436206940922500do.Reminicha (Montagne la Grangeof the French), upper end of Lake Pepin312,1157144433306104923100do.Top of Reminicha......1,036.........do.La Hontan River, the mouth (Cannon River of the Americans, Canoe River of the French)32,118...4434006108923200do.St. Croix River, the mouth322,15072944453061100924500do.Upland on the banks of the Mississippi and Lake St. Croix......866.........do.St. Peter's, the mouth422,19274444524661219.693454do.General level of the plateau on which Fort Snelling and the Indian agency stand......850.........do.Pilot Knob, the top......1,006.........do.Falls of St. Anthony, United States Cottage82,20085644584061242931030do.Ishkode-wabo River, or Rum River, the mouth192,219...451500......do.Karishon River (Sioux), or Undeg River (Chippewas), Crow River of the Americans102,229...451600......do.St. Francis River, Wicha-niwa River of the Sioux92,238...452030......Nicollet.Migadiwin Creek, or War Creek, the mouth182,256...45181461550935730do.Kawakomik River, or Clear-Water River, the mouth242,280...4524256163094730do.Round Island, at the lower end of Osakis Rapids.........45350061648941200do.Osakis River, the mouth222,302...45353561648941200do.Watab River, the mouth32,305...45370061658941430do.Pekushino River, the mouth182,323...45465061714941830do.Wabezi River, or Swan River, a half mile above the mouth182,3411,09845543061728942200do.Omoshkos River, or Elk River, the mouth102,351...464006174941600do.Nokay's River, the mouth182,369...46103061715941845do.Kagi-wigwan River, the mouth (Aile de Corbeau Riverof the French, Crow-Wing River of the Americans)122,3811,13046165061731942245do.Nagadjika River, opposite the mouth182,399...462600......do.Pine River, the mouth302,4291,176463500......do.Willow River, the mouth652,494...46403061330932230do.Sandy Lake River, the mouth322,5261,2534647106123893930do.Swan River, the mouth382,5641,2904700436123693900do.Kabikons, or Little Falls, the head of the falls632,6271,84047145061347932645do.Wanomon River, or Vermilion River, the mouth212,648...4711461410933230do.Eagle Nest savannah (Marais aux Nids d'Aigleof the French)162,664...47181061436933900do.Leach Lake River, the mouth112,6751,35647140061452934300do.Lake Cass, the old trading-house on a tongue of land near the entrance of the Mississippi802,7551,40247252361816943400do.Pemidji Lake, or Lake Travers, the entrance of the Mississippi452,8001,45647284661922945030do.Itasca Lake, Schoolcraft's Island902,8901,575471335620895200do.Utmost sources of the Mississippi, at the summit of the Hauteurs de Terre, or dividing ridge, between the Mississippi and Red River of the North62,8961,680

It is obvious that the adjustment of this line must precede a permanent peace on this part of the frontiers. The number of Chippewas particularly interested in it is, from my notes, 2,102; to which, 911 may be added for certain bands on Lake Superior. It embraces 27 villages, and the most influential civil and war chiefs of the region. The population is enterprising and warlike. They have the means of subsistence incomparativeabundance. They are increasing in numbers. They command a ready access to the Mississippi by water, and a ready return from it by land. Habits of association have taught them to look upon this stream as the theatre of war. Their young men are carried into it as the natural and almost only means of distinction. And it is in coincidence with all observation to say that they are now, as they were in the days of Captain Carver, the terror of the east bankof this river, between the St. Croix and Chippewa Rivers. No other tribe has now, or has had, within the memory of man, a village or permanent possession on this part of the shore. It is landed on in fear. It is often passed by other nations by stealth, and at night. Such is not an exaggerated picture. And with a knowledge of their geographical advantages, and numbers, and distribution, on the tributary streams, slight causes, it may be imagined, will often excite the young and thoughtless portion of them to raise the war-club, to chant the war-song, and follow the war-path.

To remove these causes, to teach them the folly of such a contest, to remind them of the treaty stipulations and promises solemnly made to the Government, and to the Sioux, and to induce them to renew those promises, and to act on fixed principles of political faith, were the primary objects committed to me; and they were certainly objects of exalted attainment, according as well with the character of the Government as with the spirit and moral and intellectual tone of the age. To these objects I have faithfully, as I believe, devoted the means at my command. And the Chippewas cannot, hereafter, err on the subject of their hostilities with the Sioux, without knowing that the error is disapproved by the American government, and that a continuance in it will be visited upon them in measures of severity.

Without indulging the expectation that my influence on the tour will have the effect to put an end to the spirit of predatory warfare, it may be asserted that this spirit has been checked and allayed; and that a state of feeling and reflection has been produced by it, which cannot fail to be beneficial to our relations with them, and to their relations with each other. The messages sent to the Sioux chiefs, may be anticipated to have resulted in restoring a perfect peace during the present fall and ensuing winter, and will thus leave to each party the undisturbed chase of their lands. The meditated blow of Steenaba was turned aside, and his war-party arrested and dispersed at the moment it was ready to proceed. Every argument was used to show them the folly and the insecurity of a continuance of the war. And the whole tenor and effect of my visit has been to inform and reform these remote bands. It has destroyed the charm of their seclusion.It has taught them that their conduct is under the super-vision of the American government; that they depend on its care and protection; that no other government has power to regulate trade and send traders among them; finally, that an adherence to foreign counsels, and to anti-pacific maxims, can be visited upon them in measures of coercion. That their country, hitherto deemed nearly inaccessible, can be penetrated and traversed by men and troops, with baggage and provisions, even in midsummer, when the waters are lowest; and that, in proportion as they comply with political maxims, as benevolent as they are just, will they live at peace with their enemies, and have the means of subsistence for an increased population among themselves. The conduct of the traders in this quarter, and the influence they have exerted, both moral and political, cannot here be entered upon, and must be left to some other occasion, together with statistical details and other branches of information not arising from particular instructions.

It may be said that the Indians upon the St. Croix and Chippewa Rivers, and their numerous branches, have been drawn into a close intercourse with Government. But it will be obvious that a perseverance in the system of official advice and restraints, is essential to give permanence to the effects already produced, and to secure a firm and lasting peace between them and the Sioux. To this end, the settlement of the line upon the Red Cedar Fork is an object which claims the attention of the Department; and would justify, in my opinion, the calling together the parties interested, at some convenient spot near the junction of the Red Cedar River with the Chippewa. Indeed, the handsome elevation, and the commanding geographical advantages of this spot, render it one which, I think, might be advantageously occupied as a military post. Such an occupancy would have the effect to keep the parties at peace; and the point of land, on which the work is proposed to be erected, might be purchased from the Sioux, together with such part of the disputed lands near the mills as might be deemed necessary to quiet the title of the Chippewas. By acquiring this portion of country for the purposes of military occupancy, the United States would be justified in punishing any murders committed upon it; and I am fully convinced that no measure which could, at this time, be adopted, would so certainly conduce to a permanent peace between the tribes. Itherefore beg leave, through you, to submit these subjects to the consideration of the honorable the Secretary of War, with every distrust in my own powers of observation, and with a very full confidence in his.

I have the honor to be, sir,Very respectfully, your obedient servant,H. R. SCHOOLCRAFT.

To Elbert Herring, Esq.,Com. Ind. Affairs.

Brief Notes of a Tour in 1831, from Galena, in Illinois, to Fort Winnebago, on the source of Fox River, Wisconsin.ByHenry R. Schoolcraft.

Time admonishes me of my promise to furnish you some account of my journey from Galena to Fort Winnebago. But I confess, that time has taken away none of those features which make me regard it as a task. Other objects have occupied so much of my thoughts, that the subject has lost some of its vividness, and I shall be obliged to confine myself more exclusively to my notes than I had intended. This will be particularly true in speaking of geological facts. Geographical features impress themselves strongly on the mind. The shape of a mountain is not easily forgotten, and its relation to contiguous waters and woods is recollected after the lapse of many years. The succession of plains, streams, and settlements is likewise retained in the memory, while the peculiar plains, the soils overlaying them, and all the variety of their mineral and organic contents, require to be perpetuated by specimens and by notes, which impose neither a slight nor a momentary labor.

Limited sketches of this kind are, furthermore, liable to be misconceived. Prominent external objects can only be brought to mind, and these often reveal but an imperfect notion of the pervading character of strata, and still less knowledge of their mineral contents. Haste takes away many opportunities of observation; and scanty or inconvenient means of transporting hand specimens, often deprive us of the requisite data. Indeed, I should be loath to describe the few facts I am about to communicate, had you not personally visited and examined the great carboniferous and sandstone formation on the Mississippi andWisconsin, and thus got the knowledge of their features. The parallelism which is apparent in these rocks, by the pinnacles which have been left standing on high—the wasting effects of time in scooping out valleys and filling up declivities—and the dark and castle-looking character of the cherty limestone bluffs, as viewed from the water, while the shadows of evening are deepening around, are suited to make vivid impressions. And these broken and denuded cliffs offer the most favorable points for making geological observations. There are no places inland where the streams have cut so deep. On gaining the height of land, the strata are found to be covered with so heavy a deposit of soil, that it is difficult to glean much that can be relied on respecting the interior structure.

The angle formed by the junction of the Wisconsin with the Mississippi, is a sombre line of weather-beaten rocks. Gliding along the current, at the base of these rocks, the idea of a "hill country," of no very productive character, is naturally impressed upon the observer. And this impression came down, probably, from the days of Marquette, who was the first European, that we read of, who descended the Wisconsin, and thus became the true discoverer of the Mississippi. The fact that it yielded lead ore, bits of which were occasionally brought in by the natives, was in accordance with this opinion; and aided, it may be supposed, in keeping out of view the real character of the country. I know not how else to account for the light which has suddenly burst upon us from this bank of the Mississippi, and which has at once proved it to be as valuable for the purposes of agriculture as for those of mining, and as sylvan in its appearance as if it were not fringed, as it were, with rocks, and lying at a great elevation above the water. This elevation is so considerable as to permit a lively descent in the streams, forming numerous mill-seats. The surface of the country is not, however, broken, but may be compared to the heavy and lazy-rolling waves of the sea after a tempest. These wave-like plains are often destitute of trees, except a few scattering ones, but present to the eye an almost boundless field of native herbage. Groves of oak sometimes diversify those native meadows, or cover the ridges which bound them. Very rarely does any rock appear above the surface. The highest elevations, the Platte Mounds, and the Blue Mound,are covered with soil and with trees. Numerous brooks of limpid water traverse the plains, and find their way into either the Wisconsin, Rock River, or the Mississippi. The common deer is still in possession of its favorite haunts; and the traveller is very often startled by flocks of the prairie-hen rising up in his path. The surface soil is a rich black alluvion; it yields abundant crops of corn, and, so far as they have been tried, all the cereal gramina. I have never, either in the West or out of the West, seen a richer soil, or more stately fields of corn and oats, than upon one of the plateaux of the Blue Mound.

Such is the country which appears to be richer in ores of lead than any other mineral district in the world—which yielded forty millions of pounds in seven years—produced a single lump of ore of two thousand cubic feet—and appears adequate to supply almost any amount of this article that the demands of commerce require.

The River of Galena rises in the mineral plains of Iowa county, in that part of the Northwestern Territory which is attached, for the purposes of temporary government, to Michigan. It is made up of clear and permanent springs, and has a descent which affords a very valuable water-power. This has been particularly remarked at the curve called Mill-seat Bend. No change in its general course, which is southwest, is, I believe, apparent after it enters the northwest angle of the State of Illinois. The town of Galena, the capital of the mining country, occupies a somewhat precipitous semicircular bend, on the right (or north) bank of the river, six or seven miles from its entrance into the Mississippi. Backwater, from the latter, gives the stream itself the appearance, as it bears the name, of a "river," and admits steamboat navigation thus far. It is a rapid brook immediately above the town, and of no further value for the purpose of navigation. Lead is brought in from the smelting furnaces, on heavy ox-teams, capable of carrying several tons at a load. I do not know that waterhas been, or that itcannotbe made subservient in the transportation of this article from the mines. The streams themselves are numerous and permanent, although they are small, and it would require the aid of so many of these, on any projected route, that it is to be feared the supply of water would be inadequate. To remedy this deficiency, the Wisconsin itself might berelied on. Could the waters of this river be conducted in a canal along its valley from the portage to the bend at Arena, they might, from this point, be deflected in a direct line to Galena. This route would cut the mine district centrally, and afford the upper tributaries of the Pekatolika and Fever Rivers as feeders. Such a communication would open the way to a northern market, and merchandise might be supplied by the way of Green Bay, when the low state of water in the Mississippi prevents the ascent of boats. It would, at all times, obviate the tedious voyage, which goods ordered from the Atlantic cities have to perform through the straits of Florida and Gulf of Mexico. A railroad could be laid upon this route with equal, perhaps superior advantages. These things may seem too much like making arrangements for the next generation. But we cannot fix bounds to the efforts of our spreading population, and spirit of enterprise. Nor, after what we have seen in the way of internal improvement, in our own day and generation, should we deem anything too hard to be accomplished.

I set out from Galena in a light wagon, drawn by two horses, about ten o'clock in the morning (August 17th), accompanied by Mr. B. It had rained the night and morning of the day previous, which rendered the streets and roads quite muddy. A marly soil, easily penetrated by rain, was, however, as susceptible to the influence of the sun, and, in a much shorter period than would be imagined, the surface became dry. Although a heavy and continued shower had thoroughly drenched the ground, and covered it with superfluous water, but very little effects of it were to be seen at this time. We ascended into the open plain country, which appears in every direction around the town, and directed our course to Gratiot's Grove. In this distance, which, on our programme of the route, was put down, at fifteen miles, a lively idea of the formation and character of the country is given. The eye is feasted with the boundlessness of its range. Grass and flowers spread before and beside the traveller, and, on looking back, they fill up the vista behind him. He soon finds himself in the midst of a sylvan scene. Groves fringe the tops of the most distant elevations, and clusters of trees—more rarely, open forests—are occasionally presented. The trees appear to be almost exclusively of the species of white oak and rough-bark hickory.Among the flowers, the plant called rosin-weed attracts attention by its gigantic stature, and it is accompanied, as certainly as substance by shadow, by the wild indigo, two plants which were afterwards detected, of less luxuriant growth, on Fox River. The roads are in their natural condition; they are excellent, except for a few yards where streams are crossed. At such places there is a plunge into soft, black muck, and it requires all the powers of a horse harnessed to a wagon to emerge from the stream.

On reaching Gratiot's Grove, I handed letters of introduction to Mr. H. and B. Gratiot. These gentlemen appear to be extensively engaged in smelting. They conducted me to see the ore prepared for smelting in the log furnace; and also the preparation of such parts of it for the ash furnace as do not undergo complete fusion in the first process. The ash furnace is a very simple kind of air furnace, with a grate so arranged as to throw a reverberating flame upon the hearth where the prepared ore is laid. It is built against a declivity, and charged, by throwing the materials to be operated upon, down the flue. A silicious flux is used; and the scoria is tapped and suffered to flow out, from the side of the furnace, before drawing off the melted lead. The latter is received in an excavation made in the earth, from which it is ladled out into iron moulds. The whole process is conducted in the open air, with sometimes a slight shed. The lead ore is piled in cribs of logs, which are roofed. Hammers, ladles, a kind of tongs, and some other iron tools are required. The simplicity of the process, the absence of external show in buildings, and the direct and ready application of the means to the end, are remarkable, as pleasing characteristics about the smelting establishment.

The ore used is the common sulphuret, with a foliated, glittering and cubical fracture. It occurs with scarcely any adhering gangue. Cubical masses of it are found, at some of the diggings, which are studded over with minute crystals of calcareous spar. These crystals, when examined, have the form of the dog-tooth spar. This broad, square-shaped, and square-broken mineral, is taken fromeast and west leads, is most easy to smelt, and yields the greatest per centum of lead. It is estimated to produce fifty per cent. from the log furnace, and about sixteen more when treated with a flux in the ash furnace.

Miners classify their ore from its position in the mine. Orefromeast and west leads, is raised from clay diggings, although these diggings may be pursued under the first stratum of rock. Ore fromnorth and south leads, is termed "sheet minerals," and is usually taken from rock diggings. The vein or sheet stands perpendicularly in the fissure, and is usually struck in sinking from six to ten feet. The sheet varies in thickness from six or eight inches, in the broadest part, to not more than one. The great mass found at "Irish diggings" was of this kind.

I observed, among the piles of ore at Gratiot's, the combination of zinc with lead ore, which is denominateddry bone. It is cast by as unproductive. Mr. B. Gratiot also showed me pieces of the common ore which had undergone desulphuration in the log furnace. Its natural splendor is increased by this process, so as to have the appearance of highly burnished steel. He also presented me some uniform masses of lead, recrystallized from a metallic state, under the hearth of the ash furnace. The tendency to rectangular structure in these delicate and fragile masses is very remarkable. Crystallization appears to have taken place under circumstances which opposed the production of a complete and perfect cube or parallelogram, although there are innumerable rectangles of each geometric form.

In the drive from Gratiot's to Willow Springs, we saw a succession of the same objects that had formed the prominent features of the landscape from Galena. The platte mounds, which had appeared on our left all the morning, continued visible until we entered the grove that embraces the site of the springs. Little mounds of red earth frequently appeared above the grass, to testify to the labors of miners along this part of the route. In taking a hasty survey of some of the numerous excavations of Irish diggings, I observed among the rubbish small flat masses of a yellowish white amorphous mineral substance of great weight. I have not had time to submit it to any tests. It appears too heavy and compact for the earthy yellow oxide of lead. I should not be disappointed to find it an oxide of zinc. No rock stratum protrudes from the ground in this part of the country. The consolidated masses, thrown up from the diggings, appear to be silicated limestone, often friable, and not crystalline. Galena is found in open fissures in this rock.

We reached the springs in the dusk of the evening, and foundgood accommodations at Ray's. Distance from Galena thirty miles.

The rain fell copiously during the night, and on the morning (18th) gave no signs of a speedy cessation. Those who travel ought often, however, to call to mind the remark of Xenophon, that "pleasure is the result of toil," and not permit slight impediments to arrest them, particularly when they have definite points to make. We set forward in a moderate rain, but in less than an hour had the pleasure to perceive signs of its mitigating, and before nine o'clock it was quite clear. We stopped a short time at Bracken's furnace. Mr. Bracken gave me specimens of organic remains, in the condition of earthy calcareous carbonates, procured on a neighboring ridge. He described the locality as being plentiful in casts and impressions such as he exhibited, which appeared to have been removed from the surface of a shelly limestone. At Rock-Branch diggings, I found masses of calcareous spar thrown from the pits. The surface appears to have been much explored for lead in this vicinity. I stopped to examine Vanmater's lead. It had been a productive one, and affords a fair example of what are called east and west leads. I observed a compass standing on the line of the lead, and asked Mr. V. whether much reliance was to be placed upon the certainty of striking the lead by the aid of this instrument. He said that it was much relied on. That the course of the leads was definite. The present one varied from a due east and west line but nine minutes, and the lead had been followed without much difficulty. The position of the ore was about forty feet below the surface. Of this depth about thirty-six feet consisted of the surface rock and its earthy covering. A vein of marly clay, enveloping the ore, was then penetrated. A series of pits had been sunk on the course of it, and the earth and ore in the interstices removed, and drawn to the surface by a windlass and bucket. Besides the ore, masses of iron pyrites had been thrown out, connected with galena. In stooping to detach some pieces from one of these masses, I placed my feet on the verge of an abandoned pit, around which weeds and bushes had grown. My face was, however, averted from the danger; but, on beholding it, I was made sensible that the least deviation from a proper balance would have pitched me into it. It was forty feet deep. The danger I had just escapedfell to the lot of Mr. B.'s dog, who, probably deceived by the growth of bushes, fell in. Whether killed or not, it was impossible to tell, and we were obliged to leave the poor animal, under a promise of Mr. V., that he would cause a windlass to be removed to the pit, to ascertain his fate.

At eleven o'clock we reached Mineral Point, the seat of justice of Iowa county. I delivered an introductory letter to Mr. Ansley, who had made a discovery of copper ore in the vicinity, and through his politeness, visited the locality. The discovery was made in sinking pits in search of lead ore. Small pieces of green carbonate of copper were found on striking the rock, which is apparently silico-calcareous, and of a very friable structure. From one of the excavations, detached masses of the sulphuret, blue and green mingled, were raised. These masses are enveloped with ochery clay.

In riding out on horseback to see this locality, I passed over the ridge of land which first received the appellation of "Mineral Point." No digging was observed in process, but the heaps of red marly clay, the vigorous growth of shrubbery around them, and the number of open or partially filled pits, remain to attest the labor which was formerly devoted in the search for lead. And this search is said to have been amply rewarded. The track of discovery is conspicuously marked by these excavations, which often extend, in a direct line, on the cardinal points, as far as the eye can reach. Everywhere the marly clay formation appears to have been relied on for the ore, and much of it certainly appears to bein sitûin it. It bears no traces of attrition; and its occurrence in regular leads forbids the supposition of its being an oceanic arrangement of mineral detritus. At Vanmater's, the metalliferous clay marl is overlaid by a grayish sedimentary limestone. Different is the geological situation of what is denominatedgravel ore, of which I noticed piles, on the route from Gratiot's. This bears evident marks of attrition, and appears to have been uniformly taken from diluvial earth.

On returning to the village from this excursion, I found Mr. B. ready to proceed, and we lost no time in making the next point in our proposed route. A drive of five miles brought us to the residence of Colonel Dodge, whose zeal and enterprise in opening this portion of our western country for settlement, give himclaims to be looked up to as a public benefactor. I here met the superintendent of the mines (Captain Legate), and after spending some time in conversation on the resources and prospects of the country, and partaking of the hospitalities politely offered by Colonel D. and his intelligent family, we pursued our way. The village of Dodgeville lies at the distance of four miles. Soon after passing through it some part of our tackle gave way, in crossing a gully, and I improved the opportunity of the delay to visit the adjacent diggings, which are extensive. The ore is found as at other mines, in regular leads, and not scattered about promiscuously in the red marl. Masses of brown oxide of iron were more common here than I had noticed them elsewhere. Among the rubbish of the diggings, fragments of hornstone occur. They appear to be, most commonly, portions of nodules, which exhibit, on being fractured, various discolorings.

Night overtook us before we entered Porter's Grove, which is also the seat of mining and smelting operations. We are indebted to the hospitality of Mr. M., of whom my companion was an acquaintance, for opening his door to us, at an advanced hour of the evening. Distance from Willow Springs, twenty-five miles.

There is no repose for a traveller. We retired to rest at a late hour, and rose at an early one. The morning (19th) was hazy, and we set forward while the dew was heavy on the grass. Our route still lay through a prairie country. The growth of native grass, bent down with dew, nearly covered the road, so that our horses' legs were continually bathed. The rising sun was a very cheerful sight, but as our road lay up a long ascent, we soon felt its wilting effects. Nine miles of such driving, with not a single grove to shelter us, brought us to Mr. Brigham's, at the foot of the Blue Mound, being the last house in the direction to Fort Winnebago. The distance from Galena is sixty-four miles, and this area embraces the present field of mining operations. In rapidly passing over it, mines, furnaces, dwelling-houses, mining villages, inclosed fields, upland prairies (an almost continued prairie), groves, springs, and brooks, have formed the prominent features of the landscape. The impulse to the settlement of the country was first given by its mineral wealth; and it brought here, as it were by magic, an enterprising and active population.It is evident that a far greater amount of labor was a few years ago engaged in mining operations; but the intrinsic value of the lands has operated to detain the present population, which may be considered as permanent. The lands are beautifully disposed, well watered, well drained by natural streams, and easily brought into cultivation. Crops have everywhere repaid the labors of the farmer; and, thus far, the agricultural produce of the country has borne a fair price. The country appears to afford every facility for raising cattle, horses, and hogs. Mining, the cardinal interest heretofore, has not ceased in the degree that might be inferred from the depression of the lead market; and it will be pursued, with increased activity, whenever the purposes of commerce call for it. In the present situation of the country, there appear to be two objects essential to the lasting welfare of the settlements: first, a title to their lands from Congress; second, a northern market for the products of their mines and farms. To these, athirdrequisite may be considered auxiliary, namely, the establishment of the seat of territorial government at some point west of Lake Michigan, where its powers may be more readily exercised, and the reciprocal obligations of governor and people more vividly felt.

Mr. Brigham, in whom I was happy to recognize an esteemed friend, conducted us over his valuable plantation. He gave me a mass of a white, heavy metallic substance, taken as an accompanying mineral, from a lead of Galena, which he has recently discovered in a cave. Without instituting any examination of it but such as its external characters disclose, it may be deemed a native carbonate of lead. The mass from which it was broken weighed ninety or one hundred pounds. And its occurrence, at the lead, was not alone.

From the Blue Mound to Fort Winnebago is an estimated distance of fifty-six miles. The country is, however, entirely in a state of nature. The trace is rather obscure; but, with a knowledge of the general geography and face of the country, there is no difficulty in proceeding with a light wagon, or even a loaded team, as the Indian practice of firing the prairies every fall has relieved the surface from underbrush and fallen timber. After driving a few miles, we encountered two Winnebagoes on horseback, the forward rider having a white man in ties behind him.The latter informed us that his name was H., that he had come out to Twelve-mile Creek, for the purpose of locating himself there, and was in pursuit of a hired man, who had gone off, with some articles of his property, the night previous. With this relation, and aboshu[274]for the natives, with whom we had no means of conversing, we continued our way, without further incident, to Duck Creek, a distance of ten miles. We here struck the path, which is one of the boundary lines, in the recent purchase from the Winnebagoes. It is a deeply marked horse path, cutting quite through the prairie sod, and so much used by the natives as to prevent grass from growing on it; in this respect, it is as well-defined a landmark as "blazed tree," or "saddle." The surveyor appointed to run out the lines, had placed mile-posts on the route, but the Winnebagoes, with a prejudice against the practice which is natural, pulled up many, and defaced others. When we had gone ten miles further, we began to see the glittering of water through the trees, and we soon found ourselves on the margin of a clear lake. I heard no name for this handsome sheet of water. It is one of the four lakes, which are connected with each other by a stream, and have their outlet into Rock River, through a tributary called the Guskihaw. We drove through the margin of it, where the shores were sandy, and innumerable small unio shells were driven up. Most of these small pieces appeared to be helices. Standing tent-poles, and other remains of Indian encampments, appeared at this place. A rock stratum, dark and weather-beaten, apparently sandstone, jutted out into the lake. A little further, we passed to the left of an abandoned village. By casting our eyes across the lake, we observed the new position which had been selected and occupied by the Winnebagoes. We often assign wrong motives, when we undertake to reason for the Indian race; but in the present instance, we may presume that their removal was influenced by too near a position to the boundary path.

We drove to the second brook, beyond the lake, and encamped.

Comfort in an encampment depends very much upon getting agood fire. In this we totally failed last night, owing to our having but a small piece of spunk, which ignited and burned out without inflaming our kindling materials. The atmosphere was damp, but not sufficiently cooled to quiet the ever-busy mosquito. Mr. B. deemed it a hardship that he could not boil the kettle, so as to have the addition of tea to our cold repast. I reminded him that there was a bright moon, and that it did not rain; and that, for myself, I had fared so decidedly worse, on former occasions, that I was quite contented with the light of the moon and a dry blanket. By raising up and putting a fork under the wagon-tongue, and spreading our tent-cloth over it, I found the means of insulating ourselves from the insect hordes, but it was not until I had pitched my mosquito net within it that we found repose.

On awaking in the morning (20th), we found H., who had passed us the day before in company with the Winnebagoes, lying under the wagon. He had returned from pursuing the fugitive, and had overtaken us, after twelve o'clock at night. He complained of being cold. We admitted him into the wagon, and drove on to reach his camp at Twelve-mile Creek. In crossing what he denominated Seven-mile Prairie, I observed on our right a prominent wall of rock, surmounted with image-stones. The rock itself consisted of sandstone. Elongated water-worn masses of stone had been set up, so as to resemble, at a distance, the figures of men. The illusion had been strengthened by some rude paints. This had been the serious or the sportive work of Indians. It is not to be inferred, hence, that the Winnebagoes are idolaters. But there is a strong tendency to idolatry in the minds of the North American Indians. They do not bow before a carved image, shaped like Dagon or Juggernaut; but they rely upon their guardian spirits, or personal manitos, for aid in exigencies, and impute to the skins of animals, which are preserved with religious care, the power of gods. Their medicine institution is also a gross and bold system of semi-deification connected with magic, witchcraft, and necromancy. Their jossakeeds are impostors and jugglers of the grossest stamp. Their wabenos address Satan directly for power; and their metais, who appear to be least idolatrous, rely more upon the invisible agency of spirits and magic influence, than upon the physical properties of the medicines they exhibit.

On reaching Twelve-mile Creek, we found a yoke of steers of H., in a pen, which had been tied there two days and nights without water. He evinced, however, an obliging disposition, and, after refreshing ourselves and our horses, we left him to complete the labors of a "local habitation." The intermediate route to Fort Winnebago afforded few objects of either physical or mental interest. The upland soil, which had become decidedly thinner and more arenaceous, after reaching the Lake, appears to increase in sterility on approaching the Wisconsin. And the occurrence oflost rocks(primitive boulders), as Mr. B. happily termed them, which are first observed after passing the Blue Mound, becomes more frequent in this portion of the country, denoting our approach to the borders of the northwestern primitive formation. This formation, we have now reason to conclude, extends in an angle, so far south as to embrace a part of Fox River, above Apukwa Lake.

Anticipated difficulties always appear magnified. This we verified in crossing Duck Creek, near its entrance into the Wisconsin. We found the adjoining bog nearly dry, and drove through the stream without the water entering into the body of the wagon. It here commenced raining. Having but four miles to make, and that a level prairie, we pushed on. But the rain increased, and poured down steadily and incessantly till near sunset. In the midst of this rain-storm we reached the fort, about one o'clock, and crossed over to the elevated ground occupied by the Indian Department, where my sojourn, while awaiting the expedition, was rendered as comfortable as the cordial greeting and kind attention of Mr. Kinzie, the agent, and his intelligent family, could make it.

A recapitulation of the distances from Galena makes the route as follows, viz: Gratiot's Grove, fifteen miles; Willow Springs, fifteen; Mineral Point, seven; Dodgeville, nine; Porter's Grove, nine; Blue Mound, nine; Duck Creek, ten; Lake, ten; Twelve-mile Creek, twenty-four; Crossing of Duck Creek, eight; and Fort Winnebago, four; total, one hundred and twenty miles.

H. R. S.

ToGeorge P. Morris, Esq., New York.

3.Official Report of the Exploratory Expedition to the Actual Source of the Mississippi River in 1832.

Office of the Indian Agency of Sault Ste. Marie,Sept. 1, 1832.

Sir: I had the honor to inform you, on the 15th ultimo, of my return from the sources of the Mississippi, and that I should communicate the details of my observations to you as soon as they could be prepared.

On reaching the remotest point visited heretofore by official authority, I found that the waters on that summit were favorable to my tracing this river to its utmost sources. This point having been left undetermined by prior expeditions, I determined to avail myself of the occasion to take Indian guides, with light canoes, and, after encamping my heavy force, to make the ascent. It was represented to be practicable in five days. I accomplished it, by great diligence, in three. The distance is 158 miles above Cass Lake. There are many sharp rapids, which made the trial severe. The river expands into numerous lakes.

After passing about forty miles north of Red Cedar Lake, during which we ascended a summit, I entered a fine large lake, which, to avoid repetitions in our geographical names, I called Queen Anne's Lake. From this point the ascent of the Mississippi was due south; and it was finally found to have its origin in a handsome lake, of some seven miles in extent, on the height of land to which I gave the name of Itasca.

This lake lies in latitude 47° 13' 25". It lies at an altitude of 1,575 feet, by the barometer, above the Gulf of Mexico. It affords me satisfaction to say, that, by this discovery, the geographical point of the origin of this river is definitely fixed. Materials for maps and plans of the entire route have been carefully collected by Lieut. James Allen, of the U. S. Army, who accompanied me, with a small detachment of infantry, as high as Cass Lake; and, having encamped them at that point, with my extra men, he proceeded with me to Itasca Lake. The distance which is thus added to the Mississippi, agreeably to him, is164 miles, making its entire length, by the most authentic estimates, to be 3,200 miles. In this distance there are numerous and arduous rapids, in which the total amount of ascent to be overcome is 173 feet.

Councils were held with the Indians at Fond du Lac, at Sandy Lake, Cass Lake, at the mouth of the Great De Corbeau River, &c.

In returning, I visited the military bands at Leech Lake; passing from thence to its source, and descending the whole length of the Crow-wing River, and thence to St. Anthony's Falls, I assembled the Sioux at the agency of St. Peter's, and at the Little Crow's village. The Chippewas of the St. Croix and Broule Rivers were particularly visited. Many thousands of the Chippewa and Sioux nations were seen and counselled with, including their most distinguished chiefs and warriors. Everywhere they disclaimed a connection with Black Hawk and his schemes. I left the Mississippi, about forty miles above the point where, in a few days, the Sauk chief was finally captured and his forces overthrown; and, reaching the waters of Lake Superior, at the mouth of the Brule, returned from that point to the agency at Sault de Ste. Marie.

The flag of the Union has secured respect from the tribes at every point; and I feel confident in declaring the Chippewas and Sioux, as tribes, unconnected with the Black Hawk movement.

I am, sir, very respectfully,Your obedient servant,HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT,U. S. Ind. Agent.

C. Herring, Esq.,Commissioner of Indian Affairs

IV.VACCINATION OF THE INDIANS.

4.Report of the number and position of the Indians vaccinated on the Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, conducted by Mr. Schoolcraft, in 1832.By Dr.Douglass Houghton.

Sault Ste. Marie, Sept. 21, 1832.

Sir: In conformity with your instructions, I take the earliest opportunity to lay before you such facts as I have collected, touching the vaccination of the Chippewa Indians, during theprogress of the late expedition into their country: and also "of the prevalence, from time to time, of the smallpox" among them.

The accompanying table will serve to illustrate the "ages, sex, tribe, and local situation" of those Indians who have been vaccinated by me. With the view of illustrating more fully their local situation, I have arranged those bands residing upon the shores of Lake Superior; those residing in the Folle Avoine country (or that section of country lying between the highlands southwest from Lake Superior, and the Mississippi River); and those residing near the sources of the Mississippi River, separately.

Nearly all the Indians noticed in this table were vaccinated at their respective villages; yet I did not fail to vaccinate those whom we chanced to meet in their hunting or other excursions.

I have embraced, with the Indians of the frontier bands, those half-breeds, who, in consequence of having adopted more or less the habits of the Indian, may be identified with him.

But little difficulty has occurred in convincing the Indians of the efficacy of vaccination; and the universal dread in which they hold the appearance of the smallpox among them, rendered it an easy task to overcome their prejudices, whatever they chanced to be. The efficacy of the vaccine disease is well appreciated, even by the most interior of the Chippewa Indians; and so universal is this information, that only one instance occurred where the Indian had never heard of the disease.

In nearly every instance the opportunity which was presented for vaccination, was embraced with cheerfulness and apparent gratitude; at the same time manifesting great anxiety that, for the safety of the whole, each one of the band should undergo the operation. When objections were made to vaccination, they were not usually made because the Indian doubted the protective power of the disease, but because he supposed (never having seen its progress), that the remedy must nearly equal the disease which it was intended to counteract.

Our situation, while travelling, did not allow me sufficient time to test the result of the vaccination in most instances; but an occasional return to bands where the operation had been performed, enabled me, in those bands, either to note the progress of the disease, or to judge from the cicatrices marking the original situation of the pustules, the cases in which the disease had proved successful.

About one-fourth of the whole number were vaccinated directly from the pustules of patients laboring under the disease; while the remaining three-fourths were vaccinated from crusts, or from virus which had been several days on hand. I did not pass by a single opportunity for securing the crusts and virus from the arms of healthy patients; and to avoid, as far as possible, the chance of giving rise to a disease of a spurious kind, I invariably made use of those crusts and that virus, for the purposes of vaccination, which had been most recently obtained. To secure, as far as possible, against the chances of escaping the vaccine disease, I invariably vaccinated in each arm.

Of the whole number of Indians vaccinated, I have either watched the progress of the disease, or examined the cicatrices of about seven hundred. An average of one in three of those vaccinated from crusts has failed, while of those vaccinated directly from the arm of a person laboring under the disease, not more than one in twenty has failed to take effect—when the disease did not make its appearance after vaccination, I have invariably, as the cases came under my examination, revaccinated until a favorable result has been obtained.

Of the different bands of Indians vaccinated, a large proportion of the following have, as an actual examination has shown, undergone thoroughly the effects of the disease; viz: Sault Ste. Marie, Keweena Bay, La Pointe, and Cass Lake, being seven hundred and fifty-one in number; while of the remaining thirteen hundred and seventy-eight, of other bands, I think it may safely be calculated that more than three-fourths have passed effectually under the influence of the vaccine disease: and as directions to revaccinate all those in whom the disease failed, together with instructions as to time and manner of vaccination, were given to the chiefs of the different bands, it is more than probable that, where the bands remained together a sufficient length of time, the operation of revaccination has been performed by themselves.

Upon our return to Lake Superior, I had reason to suspect, on examining several cicatrices, that two of the crusts furnished by the surgeon-general, in consequence of a partial decomposition, gave rise to a spurious disease, and these suspicions were confirmed when revaccinating with genuine vaccine matter, when the true disease was communicated. Nearly all those Indiansvaccinated with those two crusts, have been vaccinated, and passed regularly though the vaccine disease.

The answers to my repeated inquiries respecting the introduction, progress, and fatality of the smallpox, would lead me to infer that the disease has made its appearance at least five times, among the bands of Chippewa Indians noticed in the accompanying table of vaccination.

The smallpox appears to have been wholly unknown to the Chippewas of Lake Superior until about 1750; when a war-party, of more than one hundred young men, from the bands resident near the head of the lake, having visited Montreal for the purpose of assisting the French in their then existing troubles with the English, became infected with the disease, and but few of the party survived to reach their homes. It does not appear, although they made a precipitate retreat to their own country, that the disease was at this time communicated to any others of the tribe.

About the year 1770, the disease appeared a second time among the Chippewas, but, unlike that which preceded it, it was communicated to the more northern bands.

The circumstances connected with its introduction are related nearly as follows:—

Some time in the fall of 1767 or 8, a trader who had ascended the Mississippi, and established himself near Leech Lake, was robbed of his goods by the Indians residing at that lake; and, in consequence of his exertions in defending his property, he died soon after.

These facts became known to the directors of the Fur Company, at Mackinac; and, each successive year after, requests were sent to the Leech Lake Indians, that they should visit Mackinac, and make reparation for the goods they had taken, by a payment of furs, at the same time threatening punishment in case of a refusal. In the spring of 1770, the Indians saw fit to comply with this request; and a deputation from the band visited Mackinac, with a quantity of furs, which they considered an equivalent for the goods which had been taken. The deputation was received with politeness by the directors of the Company, and the difficulties readily adjusted. When this was effected, a cask of liquor and a flag closely rolled were presented to the Indians as a token of friendship. They were at the same time strictly enjoinedneither to break the seal of the cask nor to unroll the flag, until they had reached the heart of their own country. This they promised to observe; but while returning, and after having travelled many days, the chief of the deputation made a feast for the Indians of the band at Fond du Lac, Lake Superior, upon which occasion he unsealed the cask and unrolled the flag for the gratification of his guests. The Indians drank of the liquor, and remained in a state of inebriation during several days. The rioting was over, and they were fast recovering from its effects, when several of the party were seized with violent pain. This was attributed to the liquor they had drunk; but the pain increasing, they were induced to drink deeper of the poisonous drug, and in this inebriated state several of the party died, before the real cause was suspected. Other like cases occurred; and it was not long before one of the war-party who had visited Montreal in 1750, and who had narrowly escaped with his life, recognized the disease as the same which had attacked their party at that time. It proved to be so; and of those Indians then at Fond du Lac, about three hundred in number, nearly the whole were swept off by it. Nor did it stop here; for numbers of those at Fond du Lac, at the time the disease made its appearance, took refuge among the neighboring bands; and although it did not extend easterly on Lake Superior, it is believed that not a single band of Chippewas north or west from Fond du Lac escaped its ravages. Of a large band then resident at Cass Lake, near the source of the Mississippi River, only one person, a child, escaped. The others having been attacked by the disease, died before any opportunity for dispersing was offered. The Indians at this day are firmly of the opinion that the smallpox was at this time communicated through the articles presented to their brethren by the agent of the Fur Company at Mackinac; and that it was done for the purpose of punishing them more severely for their offences.

The most western bands of Chippewas relate a singular allegory of the introduction of the smallpox into their country by a war-party, returning from the plains of the Missouri, as nearly as information will enable me to judge, in the year 1784. It does not appear that, at this time, the disease extended to the bands east of Fond du Lac; but it is represented to have been extremely fatal to those bands north and west from there.

In 1802 or 3, the smallpox made its appearance among the Indians residing at the Sault Ste. Marie, but did not extend to the bands west from that place. The disease was introduced by a voyager, in the employ of the Northwest Fur Company, who had just returned from Montreal; and although all communication with him was prohibited, an Indian imprudently having made him a visit, was infected with and transmitted the disease to others of the band. When once communicated, it raged with great violence, and of a large band scarcely one of those then at the village survived, and the unburied bones still remain, marking the situation they occupied. From this band the infection was communicated to a band residing upon St. Joseph's Island, and many died of it; but the surgeon of the military post then there, succeeded, by judicious and early measures, in checking it before the infection became general.

In 1824, the smallpox again made its appearance among the Indians at the Sault Ste. Marie. It was communicated by a voyager to the Indians upon Drummond's Island, Lake Huron; and through them several families at Sault Ste. Marie became infected. Of those belonging to the latter place, more than twenty in number, only two escaped. The disease is represented to have been extremely fatal to the Indians at Drummond's Island.

Since 1824, the smallpox is not known to have appeared among the Indians at the Sault Ste. Marie, nor among the Chippewas north or west from that place. But the Indians of these bands still tremble at the bare name of a disease which (next to the compounds of alcohol) has been one of the greatest scourges that has ever overtaken them since their first communication with the whites. The disease, when once communicated to a band of Indians, rages with a violence wholly unknown to the civilized man. The Indian, guided by present feeling, adopts a course of treatment (if indeed it deserves that appellation) which not unfrequently arms the disease with new power. An attack is but a warning to the poor and helpless patient to prepare for death, which will almost assuredly soon follow. His situation under these circumstances is truly deplorable; for while in a state that even, with proper advice, he would of himself recover, he adds fresh fuel to the flame which is already consuming him, under the delusive hope of gaining relief. The intoxicatingdraught (when it is within his reach) is not among the last remedies to which he resorts, to produce a lethargy from which he is never to recover. Were the friends of the sick man, even under these circumstances, enabled to attend him, his sufferings might be, at least, somewhat mitigated; but they too are, perhaps, in a similar situation, and themselves without even a single person to minister to their wants. Death comes to the poor invalid, and, perhaps, even as a welcome guest, to rid him of his suffering.

By a comparison of the number of Indians vaccinated upon the borders of Lake Superior with the actual population, it will be seen that the proportion who have passed through the vaccine disease is so great as to secure them against any general prevalence of the smallpox; and perhaps it is sufficient to prevent the introduction of the disease to the bands beyond, through this channel. But in the Folle Avoine country it is not so. Of the large bands of Indians residing in that section of country, only a small fraction have been vaccinated; while of other bands, not a single person has passed through the disease.

Their local situation undoubtedly renders it of the first importance that the benefits of vaccination should be extended to them. Their situation may be said to render them a connecting link between the southern and northwestern bands of Chippewas; and while on the south they are liable to receive the virus of the smallpox from the whites and Indians, the passage of the disease through them to their more northern brethren would only be prevented by their remaining, at that time, completely separated. Every motive of humanity towards the suffering Indian, would lead to extend to him this protection against a disease he holds in constant dread, and of which he knows, by sad experience, the fatal effects. The protection he will prize highly, and will give in return the only boon a destitute man is capable of giving; the deep-felt gratitude of an overflowing heart.

I have the honour to beVery respectfully, sir,Your obedient servant,DOUGLASS HOUGHTON.

Henry R. Schoolcraft, Esq.,U. S. Ind. Agt., Sault de Ste. Marie.

1.A Table of Geographical Positions on the Mississippi River at Low Water, observed in 1836.[275]ByJ. N. Nicollet.

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