Chippewa River, just referred to, comes into the Mississippi on its left bank, within half a mile of the foot of Lake Pepin. It is a tributary of prime volume, draining the Chippewa territories lying around the south and west shores of Lake Superior. Originating on the sandy tracts extending over the elevated central plains of the Wisconsin, it brings a large deposit of sand into the Mississippi, the navigation of which is visibly more embarrassed below this point with sand-bars, willow, and cotton-wood islands.At four o'clock in the afternoon we reached and landed at Wabashaw's village. It is eligibly seated on the west shore, and consists of four of the large elongated Sioux lodges before mentioned, containing a population of about sixty souls. The usual intercourse and speeches of congratulation by the Indians, and acknowledgment of the American authorities were made, and we again embarked, after a detention of forty minutes. A few miles below Wabashaw's village, we came to a high rocky or mountain island, calledLa montaigne qui trompe dans l'eau, a term which is shortened by western phraseology intoTrompledomountain. This is a very remarkable feature in the geography of the Upper Mississippi. The rock is calcareous; it is, in fact, the only fast or rocky island we have encountered below the little islet at the head of the Packagama Falls. It is not only striking from its lofty elevation, but is several miles in circumference; standing in the bed of the river and parting its channel into two, it appears to be the first bold geological monument which has effectually resisted its course.We had passed this island but a short distance, and the approaches of evening began to be manifest, when a large gray wolf sprang into the river to cross it. The greatest animation at once arose in our flotilla; the canoemen bending themselves to their paddles, the auxiliary Indians of our party shouting, and the whole party assuming an unwonted excitement. A shot was soon fired from one of our rifles, but either the distance was too great, or the aim incorrect. The wolf was fully apprised of his peril, put forth all his strength, outstripped his pursuers, reached the shore, and nimbly leaped into the woods.We encamped on the west shore, a few miles below the island at seven o'clock, having been twelve hours in our canoes. The confinement of the position nobody can appreciate who has not tried it, and I hastened to stretch my legs, by ascending the river cliffs in our rear, to have a glimpse of its geology and scenery. The view westwardly was one of groves and prairies of most inviting agricultural promise. In front, the island mountain rises to an elevation which appears to have been the original geological level of the stratification before the Mississippi cut its way through it.At the rapids of Black River, which enters opposite our encampment, a saw-mill, we were informed, had been erected by an inhabitant of Prairie du Chien. Thus the empire of the arts has begun to make its way into these regions, and proclaims the advance of a heavy civilization into a valley which has heretofore only resounded to the savage war-whoop. Or, if a higher grade of society and arts has ever before existed in it, as some of our tumuli and antiquities would lead us to infer, the light of history has failed to reach us on the subject.[104]At the spot of our encampment, as soon as the shades of night closed in, we were visited by hordes of ephemera. The candles lighted in our tents became the points of attraction for these evanescent creations. They soon, however, began to feel the influence of the sinking of the thermometer, and the air was imperceptibly cleared of them in an hour or two. By the hour of three o'clock the next morning (5th) the expedition was again in motion descending the river. It halted for breakfast at Painted Rock, on the west shore. While this matter was being accomplished, I found an abundant locality of unios in a curve of the shore which produced an eddy. Fine specimens of U. purpureus, elongatus, and orbiculatus were obtained. With the increased spirit and animation which the whole party felt on the prospect of our arrival at Prairie du Chien, we proceeded unremittingly on our descent, and reached that place at six o'clock in the evening.Prairie du Chien does not derive its name from the dog, but from a noted family of Fox Indians bearing this name, who anciently dwelt here. The old town is said to have been about a mile below the present settlement, which was commenced by Mr. Dubuque and his associates, in 1783. The prairie is most eligibly situated along the margin of the stream, above whose floods it is elevated. It consists of a heavy stratum of diluvial pebbles and boulders, which is picturesquely bounded by lofty cliffs of the silurian[105]limestones, and their accompanying column of stratification. The village has the old and shabby look of all the antique French towns on the Mississippi, and in the great lake basins; thedwellings being constructed of logs and barks, and the courtyards picketed in, as if they were intended for defence. It is called Kipisagee by the Chippewas and Algonquin tribes generally, meaning the place of the jet or outflow of the (Wisconsin) River. It is, in popular parlance, estimated to be 300 miles below St. Peter's, and 600 above St. Louis.[106]Its latitude is 43° 3´ 6´´. It is the seat of justice for Crawford County, having been so named in, honor of W. H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury of the U. S. It is, together with all the region west of Lake Michigan, attached to the territory of Michigan. There is a large and fertile island in the Mississippi, opposite the place.We found the garrison to consist of a single company of infantry, under the command of Capt. J. Fowle, Jun.,[107]who received us courteously, and offered the salute due to the rank of His Excellency, Gov. Cass. The fort is a square stockade, with bastions at two angles. There was found on this part of the prairie, when it came to be occupied with a garrison by the Americans, in 1819, an ancient platform-mound, in an exactly square form, the shape and outlines of which were preserved with exactitude by the prairie sod. This earthwork, the probable evidence of a condition of ancient society, arts, and events of a race who are now reduced so low, was, with good taste, preserved by the military, when they erected this stockade. One of the officers built a dwelling-house upon it, thus converting it, to the use, and probably the only use, to which it was originally devoted. No measurements have been preserved of its original condition; but judging from present appearances, it must have squared seventy-five feet, and have had an elevation of eight feet.CHAPTER XV.Mr. Schoolcraft makes a visit to the lead mines of Dubuque—Incidents of the trip—Description of the mines—The title of occupancy, and the mode of the mines being worked by the Fox tribe of Indians—Who are the Foxes?I solicited permission of Gov. Cass to visit the lead mines of Dubuque, which are situated on the west bank of the Mississippi, at the computed distance of twenty-five leagues below Prairie du Chien. Furnished with a light canoe, manned by eight voyageurs, including a guide, I left the prairie at half past eleven A. M. (6th). Passed the entrance of the Wisconsin, on the left bank, at the distance of a league.[108]Opposite this point is the high elevation which Pike, in 1806, recommended to be occupied with a military work. The suggestion has not, however, been adopted; military men, probably, thinking that, however eligible the site might be for a work where civilized nations were likely to come into contact, a simpler style of defensive works would serve the purpose of keeping the Indian tribes in check. I proceeded nine leagues below, and encamped at the site of a Fox village,[109]located on the east bank, a mile below the entrance of Turkey River from the west. The village, consisting of twelve lodges, was now temporarily deserted, the Indians being probably absent on a hunt; but, if so, it was remarkable that not a soul or living thing was left behind, not even a dog. My guide, indeed, informed me that the cause of the desertion was the fears entertained of an attack from the Sioux, in retaliation for the massacre lately perpetrated by them on the heads of the St. Peter's, which was alluded to in the speech of the Little Crow, while we were at his village (ante, p. 160).It was seven o'clock P. M. when I landed here, and having some hours of daylight, I walked back from the river to look at the village, and its fields, and to examine the geological structure of the adjacent cliffs. In their gardens I observed squashes, beans, and pumpkins, but the fields of corn, the principal article of cultivation, had been nearly all destroyed, probably by wild animals. I found an extensive field of water and musk melons, situated in an opening in a grove, detached from the other fields and gardens. None of the fruit was perfectly ripe, although it had been found so at Prairie du Chien; some of it had been bitten by wild animals.[110]The cliffs consisted of the same horizontal strata of sandstones and neutral colored limestone, prevailing at higher positions in this valley. Returning to the river beach, I perceived the same pebble drift which characterizes higher latitudes. This seems the only difference in its structure or form, namely, that the pieces of quartz pebble, limestone, and other fragments brought down, become smaller and smaller, as they are carried down.There were frequent thunders, and a rain-storm, during the night, which, with a slight intermission, characterized the morning until noon. I embarked at half past three A. M. (7th), and landed at the Fox village of the Kettle chief, at the site of Dubuque's house,[111]at ten o'clock; a moderate rain having continued all the way. It ceased an hour after my arrival.The Kettle chief's village is situated fifteen miles below the entrance of the Little Makokety River, consisting of nineteen lodges, built in two rows, pretty compact, and having a population of two hundred and fifty souls. There is a large island in the Mississippi, directly opposite this village, which is occupied by traders. I first landed there to get an interpreter of the Fox language, and obtain some necessary information respecting the location of the mines, and the best means of accomplishing my object. Meantime the rain had ceased. I then proceeded across the Mississippi to the Kettle chief's lodge, to solicit his permission to visit the mines, and obtain Indian guides. I succeeded in getting Mr. Gates, as interpreter; and was accompanied by Dr. S. Muir, a trader, who politely offered to go with me. On entering the lodge of Aquoqua, the chief, I found him suffering under a severe attack of bilious fever. As I approached him, he sat upon his pallet, being unable to stand, and bid me welcome; but soon became exhausted by the labor of conversation, and was obliged to resume his former position. He appeared to be a man of eighty years of age, had a venerable look, but was reduced to the last stage of physical debility. Yet he retained his faculties of sight and hearing unimpaired, together with his mental powers. He spoke to me of his death with calm resignation, as a thing to be desired. On stating the object of my visit, some objections were made by the chiefs who surrounded him, and they required further time to consider the proposition. In the mean time, I learned from another source, that since the death of Dubuque, to whom the Indians had formerly granted the privilege of working the mines, they had manifested great jealousy of the whites, were afraid they would encroach on their rights, denied all former grants, and did not make it a practice even to allow strangers to view their diggings. Apprehending some difficulties of this kind, I had provided myself with some presents, and concluding this to be the time, because of the reluctance manifested, directed one of my voyageurs to bring in a present of tobacco and whiskey; and in a few moments I received their assent, and two guides were furnished. One of these was a minor chief, called Scabass, or the Yelling Wolf; the other, Wa-ba-say-ah, or the White Foxskin. They led me up the cliff, where I understood the Indian woman, Peosta, first found lead ore; after reaching the level ofthe river bluffs, we pursued a path over undulating hills, exhibiting a half prairie, and quite picturesque rural aspect. On reaching the diggings, the most striking part of them, but not all of them, exhibited excavations such as the Indians only do not seem persevering enough in labor to have made.The district of country called Dubuque's Mines, embraces an area of about twenty-one square leagues, commencing at the mouth of the Little Maquaquity River, sixty miles below Prairie du Chien, and extending along the west bank of the Mississippi River, seven leagues in front by three in depth. The principal mines are situated on a tract of one square league, beginning immediately at the Fox village of Aquoqua, or the Kettle chief, and extending westwardly. This is the seat of the mining operations carried on by Dubuque, as well as of what are called the Indian Diggings.Geologically it is the same formation that characterizes the mines of Missouri; but there are some peculiarities. The ore found is the common sulphuret of lead, with a broad foliated, or lamellated structure, and high metallic lustre. It occurs massive and disseminated, in a red loam, resting on a horizontal limestone rock. Sometimes small veins of the ore are seen in the rock, but it has been generally explored in the soil. It generally occurs in narrow beds, which have a fixed direction; these beds extend three or four hundred feet, when they cease, or are traced into crevices in the rock. At this stage, the pursuit of ore, at most of the diggings, has been abandoned, frequently with small veins of the metal in view. No matrix, so far as I observed, is found with the ore which is dug out of the soil, unless we may consider such an ochery oxide of iron, with which it is slightly incrusted. Occasionally, pieces of calcareous spar are thrown out with the earth in digging after ore. I picked up from one of these heaps of earth a specimen of transparent crystallized sulphate of barytes; but this mineral appears to be rare. There appears to be none of the radiated quartz, or white opaque heavy spar, which are so abundantly found at the Missouri mines.[112]The ore at these mines is now exclusively dug by the Indianwomen. Old and superannuated men also partake in the mining labor, but the warriors and men hold themselves above it. In this labor, the persons who engage in it employ the hoe, shovel, pick-axe, and crow-bar. These implements are supplied by the traders at the island, who are the purchasers of the crude ore. With these implements they dig trenches, till they are arrested by the solid rock. There are no shafts, even of the simplest kind, and the windlass and bucket are unknown to them—far more so the use of gunpowder in the mining operations. Their mode of going down into the deepest pits, and coming up from them, is by digging an inclined way, which permits the women to keep an erect position in walking.[113]I descended into one of these inclined excavations, which had probably been carried down forty feet, at the perpendicular angle.When a quantity of ore has been got out, it is carried in baskets to the banks of the Mississippi, by the females, who are ferried over to the island. They receive at the rate of two dollars for a hundred and twenty pounds, payable in goods. At the profit at which these are usually sold, it may be presumed to cost the traders at the rate of seventy-five cents or a dollar, cash value, per hundred weight. The traders smelt the ore on the island, in furnaces of the same construction which I have described, and given plates of, in my treatise on the mines.[114]They observe that it yields the same per centum of metallic lead. Formerly, the Indians were in the habit of smelting the ore themselves on log heaps, by which an unusual proportion of it was converted into lead-ashes and lost. They are now induced to search about the sites of these old fires to collect these lead-ashes, which consist, for the most part, of desulphuretted ore, for which they receive a dollar per bushel.There are three mines in addition to those above mentioned, situated upon the Upper Mississippi, which are worked by the Indians. They are located at Sinsinaway, at Rivière au Fevre, and at the Little Makokety. 1. Sinsinaway mines. They are situated fifteen miles below Aquoqua's Village, on the east shore of the Mississippi, at the junction of the Sinsinaway River. 2.Mine au Fevre. Situated on the River au Fevre, which enters the Mississippi on its east banks, twenty-one miles below Dubuque's mines. The lead ore is found ten miles from its mouth. At this locality, the ore is accompanied by the sulphate of barytes, and is sometimes crystallized in cubes or octohedrons.[115]3. Mine of the Makokety, or Maquoqueti. This small river enters the Mississippi fifteen miles above Dubuque's mines. The mineral character and value of the country has been but little explored.The history of the mines of Dubuque is brief and simple. In 1780, a discovery of lead ore was made by the wife of Peosta, a Fox Indian of Aquoqua's Village. This gave the hint for explorations, which resulted in extensive discoveries. The lands were formally granted by the Indians to Julien Dubuque, at a council held at Prairie du Chien in 1788, by virtue of which he permanently settled on them, erected buildings and furnaces, and continued to work them until 1810. In 1796, he received a confirmation of his grant from Carondelet, the governor of Louisiana, in which they are called "the mines of Spain." By a stone monument which stands on a hill near the mines, Dubuque died on the 24th March, 1810, aged forty-five years and six months. After his death, the Indians burnt down his house and fences—he leaving, I believe, no family[116]—and erased every vestige of civilized life; and they have since revoked, or at least denied the grant, and appear to set a very high value on the mines. Dubuque's claim was assigned to his creditors, by whom it was presented to the commissioners for deciding on land titles, in 1806. By a majority of the board it was determined to be valid, in which condition it was reported to Washington for final action. At this stage ofthe investigation, Mr. Gallatin, who was then Secretary of the Treasury, made a report on the subject, clearly stating the facts, and coming to the conclusion that it was not a perfect title, stating that no patent had ever been issued for it, at New Orleans, the seat of the Spanish authority, from which transcripts of the records of all grants had been transmitted to the Treasury.[117]On the arrival of Lieut. Pike at Mr. Dubuque's on the 1st of September, 1805, he endeavored to obtain information necessary to judge of the value and extent and the nature of the grant of the mines; but he was not able to visit them. To the inquiries which he addressed to Mr. Dubuque on the subject, the latter replied in writing that a copy of the grant was filed at the proper office in St. Louis, which would show its date, together with the date of its confirmation by the Spanish authority, and the extent of the grant to him. He states the mine to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight leagues long, and from one to three leagues broad. He represents the per centum of metal to be yielded from the ore to be seventy-five, and the quantity smelted per annum at from 20,000 to 40,000 pounds. He stated that the whole product was cast into pig lead, and that there were no other metals at the mines but copper, of the value of which he could not judge.Having examined the mines with as much minuteness as the time allowed me would permit, and obtained specimens of its ores and minerals, I returned to the banks of the Mississippi, before the daylight departed, and, immediately embarking, went up the river two leagues and encamped on an island.It may be proper to add to this narrative of my mineralogical visit to these mines, a few words respecting the Fox Indians, by whom the country is owned. The first we hear of these people is from early missionaries of New France, who call them, in a list drawn up for the government in 1736, "Gens du Sang," and Miskaukis. The latter I found to be the name they apply to themselves. We get nothing, however, by it. It means Red-earths, being a compound frommisk-wau, red, andauki, earth. They are a branch of the great Algonquin family. The French, who formed a bad opinion of them, as their history opened, bestowedon them the name of Renouard, from which we derive their long-standing popular name. Their traditions attribute their origin to eastern portions of America. Mr. Gates, who acted as my interpreter, and is well acquainted with their language and customs, informs me that their traditions refer to their residence on the north banks of the St. Lawrence, near the ancient Cataraqui. They appear to have been a very erratic, spirited, warlike, and treacherous tribe; dwelling but a short time at a spot, and pushing westward, as their affairs led them, till they finally reached the Mississippi, which they must have crossed after 1766, for Carver found them living in villages on the Wisconsin. At Saginaw, they appear to have formed a fast alliance with the Saucs, a tribe to whom they are closely allied by language and history. They figure in the history of Indian events about old Michilimackinac, where they played pranks under the not very definite title of Muscodainsug, but are first conspicuously noted while they dwelt on the river bearing their name, which falls into Green Bay, Wisconsin.[118]The Chippewas, with whom they have strong affinity of language, call them Otagami, and ever deemed them a sanguinary and unreliable tribe. The French defeated them in a sanguinary battle at Butte de Mort, and by this defeat drove them from Fox River.Their present numbers cannot be accurately given. I was informed that the village I visited contained two hundred and fifty souls. They have a large village at Rock Island, where the Foxes and Saucs live together, which consists of sixty lodges, and numbers three hundred souls. One-half of these may be Saucs. They have another village at the mouth of Turkey River; altogether, they may muster from 460 to 500 souls. Yet, they are at war with most of the tribes around them, except the Iowas, Saucs, and Kickapoos. They are engaged in a deadly, and apparently successful war against the Sioux tribes. They recently killed nine men of that nation, on the Terre Blue River; and a party of twenty men are now absent, in the same direction, under a half-breed named Morgan. They are on bad terms with the Osages and Pawnees of the Missouri, and not on the best terms with their neighbors the Winnebagoes.I again embarked at four o'clock A. M. (8th). My men were stout fellows, and worked with hearty will, and it was thought possible to reach the Prairie during the day, by hard and late pushing. We passed Turkey River at two o'clock, and they boldly plied their paddles, sometimes animating their labors with a song; but the Mississippi proved too stout for us; and some time after nightfall we put ashore on an island, before reaching the Wisconsin. In ascending the river this day, observed the pelican, which exhibited itself in a flock, standing on a low sandy spot of an island. This bird has a clumsy and unwieldy look, from the duplicate membrane attached to its lower mandible, which is constructed so as when inflated to give it a bag-like appearance. A short sleep served to restore the men, and we were again in our canoes the next morning (9th) before I could certainly tell the time by my watch. Daylight had not yet broke when we passed the influx of the Wisconsin, and we reached the Prairie under a full chorus, and landed at six o'clock.CHAPTER XVI.The expedition proceeds from Prairie du Chein up the Wisconsin Valley—Incidents of the ascent—Etymology of the name—The low state of its waters favorable to the observation of its fresh-water conchology—Cross the Wisconsin summit, and descend the Fox River to Winnebago Lake.We were now at the foot of the Wisconsin Valley—at the point, in fact, where Marquette and Joliet, coming from the forests and lakes of New France, had discovered the great River of the West, in 1673. Marquette, led by his rubrics, named it the River "Conception," but, in his journal, he freely employs the aboriginal term of Mississippi, which was in use by the whole body of the Algonquin tribes. While awaiting, at Prairie du Chein, the preparations for ascending the Wisconsin, the locality was found a very remarkable one for its large unios, and some other species of fresh-water shells. Some specimens of the unio crassus, found on the shores of the island in the Mississippi, opposite the village, were of thrice the size of any noticed in America or Europe, and put conchologists in doubt whether the species should not be namedgiganteus.[119]I had, in coming down the Mississippi, procured some fine and large specimens of the unio purpureus of Mr. Say, at the Painted Rock, with some other species; and the discovery of such large species of the crassus served to direct new attention to the subject.Our sympathies were excited, at this place, by observing an object of human deformity in the person of an Indian, who, to remedy the want of the power of locomotion, had adjusted his legs in a large wooden bowl. By rocking this on the ground, he supplied, in a manner, the lost locomotive power. This man of the bowl possessed his faculties of mind unimpaired, spoke several Indian languages, besides the Canadian French, and appeared cheerful and intelligent. An excursion into the adjacent country, to view some caves, and a reported mineral locality made by Mr. Trowbridge, during my descent to the mines of Dubuque, brought me some concretions of carbonate of lime, but the Indian guides either faltered to make the promised discoveries, through their superstitions, or really failed in the effort to find the object. By tracing the shores of the Mississippi, I found the rolled and hard agates and other quartz species, which characterize the pebble-drift of its sources, still present in the down-flowing shore-drift.The aboriginal name of this place is Kipesági, an Algonquin word, which is applied to the mouth or outflow of the Wisconsin River. It appears to be based on the verbkipa, to be thick or turbid, andsauge, outflow—the river at its floods, being but little else than a moving mass of sand and water.It was the 9th (Aug.) at half-past ten in the morning before the expedition left the Prairie to ascend the Wisconsin, the mouth of which we reached after descending the Mississippi three miles. This is an impressive scene—the bold cliffs of the west bank of the Mississippi, with Pike's-hill rising in front on the west, while those of the Wisconsin Valley stand at but little less elevation on the north and south. At this season of the year the water is clear and placid, and mingles itself in its mighty recipient without disturbance. But it is easy to conceive, what the Indians affirm, that in its floods it is a strong and turbid mass of moving waters, against which nothing can stand. This character of the stream is believed, indeed, to be the origin of the Indian name of Wisconsin. Miskawägumi, means a strong or mixed water, or liquid. By adding to this wordtotoshabo(milk), the meaning is coagulated or turning milk; it is often used to mean brandy, which is then called strong water; by addingiscodawabo, the meaning is fire-water. Marquette, in 1673, spells the name of the river indifferently Meshkousing, and Mishkousing. Of this term, the inflectioning, is simply a local form, the lettersbeing thrown in for euphony. This word appears to be a derivation from the termmushkowa, strong water. By admitting the transmutation ofmtow, the initial syllablemisis changed towis, and the interpretation is then river (or place) of strong waters. The term ofkipesagi, appliedto its mouth, is but another characteristic feature of it—the one laying stress on itsturbidity in flood, and the other on itsstrength of current. These are certainly the two leading traits of the Wisconsin, which rushes with a great average velocity over an inclined plane, without falls, for a great distance. It originates in a remarkable summit of sandy plains, which send out to the west the Chippewa River of Lake Pepin, to the north the Montreal and Ontonagon of Lake Superior, and to the east the Menomonee of Green Bay, while the Wisconsin becomes its southern off-drain, till it finally turns west at the Portage, and flows into the Mississippi.We ascended, the first day, eighteen miles; the next, thirty-six; the third day, thirty-four miles; the fourth, forty; the fifth, thirty-eight, and the sixth, sixteen, which brought us to the Fox and Wisconsin Portage, a spot renowned from the earliest French days of western discovery. For here, on the waters separating the Mississippi from the great lakes, there had, at successive intervals, been pitched the tents of Marquette, La Hontan, Carver, and other explorers, who have, in their published journals, left traces of their footsteps. La Salle, who excelled them all in energy of character, proceeded to the Mississippi from Lake Michigan, down the Illinois.Our estimates made the distance from the Mississippi to this point one hundred and eighty-two miles. It is a wide, and (at this season) shallow stream, with transparent waters, running over a bed of yellow sand, checkered with numerous small islands, and long spits of sand-bars. There is not a fall in this distance, and it must be navigable with large craft during the periodical freshets. It receives the Blue, Pine, and other tributaries in this distance. Its valley presents a geological section, on a large scale, of the series of lead-bearing rocks extending in regular succession from the fundamental sandstone to the topmost limestones. The water being shallow and warm, we often waded from bar to bar, and found the scene a fruitful one for its fresh-water conchology. The Indians frequently amused me by accounts of the lead mines and mineral productions of its borders; but I followed them in this search only to be convinced that they were without sincerity in these representations, and had nohigher objects on this head, than, by assuming a conciliatory manner, to secure temporary advantages while the expedition was passing through their country. The valley belongs to the Winnebagoes, whom we frequently met, and received a friendly reception from. We also encountered Menomonies, who occupy the lower part of the adjacent Fox River Valley, but rove widely west and north over the countries of the tribes they are at peace with.The Wisconsin Valley was formerly inhabited by the Sacs and Foxes, who raised large quantities of corn and beans on its fertile shores. They were driven by the French, in alliance with the Chippewas and Menomonies. It is now possessed exclusively by the Winnebagoes, a savage and bloodthirsty tribe, who came, according to tradition, many years ago from the south, and are thought to be related to some of the Mexican tribes. Their language is cognate with the great Sioux or Dakota stock west of the Mississippi, who likewise date their origin south. To those accustomed to hear the softer tones of the Chippewa and Algonquin, it sounds harsh and guttural. Their name for themselves is Hochungara; the French call themPuants.In passing up this valley, an almost never-failing object of interest was furnished by the univalve shells found along its banks, and by the variety in size, shape, and color which they exhibited. Of these, the late Mr. Barnes has described, from my duplicates, the U. plicatus, U. verrucosus, U. ventricosus, U. planus, U. obliqua, and U. gracilis.[120]We frequently observed the scolipax minor, the plover, the A. alcyon, a small yellow bird, and C. vociferus, along its sandy shores; and, in other positions, the brant, the grouse, the A. sponsa, and the summer duck, and F. melodia. A range of hills extends from the Mississippi, on each shore, to within twenty miles of the Portage, where it ceases, on the south side, but continues on the north—receding, however, a considerable distance. This section is called the Highlands of the Wisconsin. The stratification is exclusively sandstone and limestone, in the usual order of the metalliferous series of the West, and lying in horizontal positions.There are two kinds of rattlesnake in the Valley of the Wisconsin. The larger, or barred crotalis, is confined to the hills, and attains a large size. I killed one of this species at the mouthof a small cave on the summit of a cliff to which I ascended, which measured four feet in length, and had nine rattles. Its great thickness attracted notice. Attaching a twig to its neck, I drew it down into the valley as a present to our Indians, knowing that they regard the reptile in a peculiar manner. They found it a female, having eleven young, who had taken shelter in their maternal abdominal-covering. The Ottowas carefully took off the skin, and brought it with them. The second kind of this reptile is called prairie rattlesnake, is confined to the plains, and does not exceed fifteen or twenty inches in length.The Indians had reported localities of lead, copper, and silver at various places, but always failed, as we ascended, to reveal anything of more value than detached pieces of sulphuret of iron, or brown iron-stone. When we reached the portage, a Winnebago, who had been the chief person in making these reports, came with great ceremony to present a specimen of his reported silver. On taking off the envelop it turned out to be a small mass of light-colored glistening folia of mica. We had found the horizontal rocks along the stream thus far, but the primitive shows itself, within a mile north of the portage, in orbicular masses in situ, coming through the prairies.Having reached the summit, we proceeded across it to the banks of Fox River, where we encamped. It consists of a level plain. The distance is a mile and a half. It required, however, some time to have our baggage and canoes transported, which was done by a Frenchman residing at this summit. Such is the slight difference in the level of the two rivers, that Indian canoes are pushed through the marshy ridges when the rivers are swelled by freshets. It was half-past three o'clock of the 15th, the day following our arrival, before the transportation and loading of our canoes was completed. It was then necessary to push our canoes through fields of rushes and other aquatic plants, through which the river winds. This was a slow mode of progress, and we spent the remainder of the day in passing fifteen miles, which brought us to theFORKS, so called, where the northern unites with the southern branch of the river. At this spot we encamped. Next day we estimated our descent at sixty-three miles, having found the navigation less intricate and obstructed from the aquatic growth. In this distance we passed, at thirty miles below thefork, a piece of clear water of nine miles extent, called Buffalo Lake; and at the distance of twelve miles lower, another lake of some twelve miles in extent, called Puckaway Lake. Down to this point, the Fox River has scarcely a perceptible current. We found we had not only, in parting from the Wisconsin to the Fox, exchanged an open, swift, and strong flowing current, for a very quiet and still one, winding through areas of wild rice and the whole family of water plants; but had intruded into a region of water-fowl and birds of every plumage, who, as they rioted upon their cherished zizania aquatica, made the air resound with their screams. The blackbird appeared to be lord of these fields. We had also intruded upon a favorite region of the water-snake, who, coiled up on his bed of plants at every bend of the stream, slid off with spiteful glance into the stream. In passing these places of habitation, which the Chippewas callwauzh, we perceptibly smelt an unpleasant odor arising from it.The next day we descended the river seventy miles. There is a perceptible current below Puckaway Lake. The river increases in width and depth, and offers no impediment whatever to its navigation. Fox River runs, indeed, from the portage to Winnebago Lake on a summit, over which it winds among sylvan hills, covered with grass and prairie-flowers, interspersed with groves of oak, elm, ash, and hickory, and dotted at intervals with lakes of refreshing transparent water. The height of this summit, above the Mississippi and the lakes, must be several hundred feet (stated at 234), which permits the stream to flow with liveliness, insuring, when it comes to be settled,[121]the erection of hydraulic works; and it would be difficult to point to a region possessing in its soil, climate, and natural resources, a more favorable character for an agricultural population. It has a diversified surface, without mountains; a fine dry atmosphere; an admirabledrainage east, west, north, and south, and a ready access to the great oceanic marts through the Great Lake and the Mississippi.We passed, this day, several encampments and villages of Winnebagoes and Menomonies—tribes, who, with the erratic habits of the Tartars, or Bedouins, once spread their tents in the Fox and Wisconsin valleys, but have now (1853) relinquished them to the European race; and it does not, at this distance of time, seem important to denote the particular spots where they once boiled their kettles of corn, or thumped their magic drums. God have mercy on them in their wild wanderings! We also passed the entrance of Wolf River, a fine bold stream on the left; and soon below it the handsome elevation of La Butte de Morts, or the Hillock of the Dead. This eminence was covered by the frail lodges of the Winnebagoes. The spot is memorable in Indian history, for a signal defeat of the Foxes, by the French and their Indian allies in the seventeenth century, after which, this tribe was finally expelled from the Fox valley. Our night's encampment (17th) was below this spot. The night air was remarkably cold, and put an end to our further annoyance from mosquitos. We embarked at five o'clock the next morning during a dense fog, which was in due time dissipated by the rising sun. We had been five hours in our canoes, under the full force of paddles, when we entered Winnebago Lake. This is a most beautiful and sylvan expanse of water some twenty-four miles long by ten in width, surrounded by picturesque prairie and sloping plains. It has a stream at Fond du Lac, its southern extremity,[122]which is connected by a short portage with the principal source of Rock River of the Mississippi.The Fox River, after having displayed itself in the lake, leaves it, at its northern extremity, flowing by a succession of rapids and falls over horizontal limestones to the head of Green Bay.There is a Winnebago village, under Hoo Tshoop, or Four Legs, at the point of outlet, where we landed, and as the first rapid begins at that point, creating a delay, I took the occasion to examine its geology more closely, by procuring fresh fractures of the masses of rock in the vicinity. This process, it appeared, was narrowly watched by the Indians, who wondered what such a scrutiny should mean. The French, said the chief to one of our interpreters, formerly held possession of this country; and, afterwards, came the British. They contented themselves with common things, and never disturbed these rocks, which have been laying here forever. But the moment the Americans get possession of the country, they must come and knock off pieces of the rock, and look at them. It is marvellous!A brilliant mass of native copper, weighing ten or twelve pounds, was found by an Indian, some years ago, on the shores of this lake. The moment he espied it, his imagination was fired, and he fancied he beheld the form of a beautiful female, standing in the water. Glittering in radiancy, she held out in her hand a lump of gold. He paddled his canoe towards her, furtively and slow, but, as he advanced, a transformation gradually ensued. Her eyes lost their brilliancy, her face the glow of life and health, her arms disappeared; and when he reached the spot, the object had changed into a stone monument of the human form, with the tail of a fish. Amazed, he sat awhile in silence; then, lighting his pipe, he offered it the incense of tobacco, and addressed it, as the guardian angel of his country. Lifting the miraculous image gently into his canoe, he took his seat, with his face in an opposite direction, and paddled towards shore, on reaching which, and turning round to the object of his regard, he discovered, in its place, nothing but a lump of shining virgin copper.Such are the imaginative efforts of this race, who look to the eyes of civilization as if they had themselves faces of stone, and hearts of adamant.CHAPTER XVII.Descent of the Fox River from Winnebago Lake to Green Bay—Incidents—Etymology, conchology, mineralogy—Falls of the Konomic and Kakala—Population and antiquity of the settlement of Green Bay—Appearances of a tide, not sustained.A rapid commences at the precise point where Fox River issues from Winnebago Lake. This rapid, down which canoes descend with half loads, extends a mile and a half, when the river assumes its usual navigable form, presenting a noble volume. Nine miles below this, a ledge of the semi-crystalline limestone rock crosses the entire channel, lifting itself five feet above the bed of the stream. Over this the Fox River throws itself by an abrupt cascade. Down this shelf of rock, the canoes, previously lightened of their burden, are lifted by the men. It was sometime after dark when we reached and encamped on the north shore, at the foot of this cascade, which bears the name of Konamik. The syllablekon, in this word, appears to me to be the same asconin Wisconsin, and is, apparently, a derivative from a term for strong water, which has, in this case, the meaning of cascade or fall. The wordamik, its terminal, means a beaver. We thus have the probable original meaning in beaver-water, or, by implication, beaver cascade. There is a rapid below this fall. I judged the water must sink its level, in this vicinity, about fifteen feet. On examining the character of the limestone, I discovered crystals of calcareous spar occupying small cavities. At other localities, at lower points, there were found crystals of black sulphuret of zinc, and yellow sulphuret of iron. The rock appears to be of the same age as the lead-bearing limestone of the West; it is also overlaid by the red marly clay, and I should judge it to contain deposits of sulphuret of lead.The next morning, we resumed our descent of the Fox Riverwith difficulty. It was now the 19th of August, and the waters had reached their lowest summer stage. The entire distance of twelve miles from the Konamik to the Kákala fall may be deemed to be, at this season, a continuous rapid. Our barge was abandoned on the rapids. While the men toiled in these rapids to get down their canoes, it was found rather a privilege to walk, for it gave a more ample opportunity to examine the mineral structure and productions of the country.It was high noon when we reached the rapids of the Kákala. This is a formidable rapid, at which the river rushes with furious velocity down a rocky bed, which it seems impossible boats or canoes should ever safely descend. It demands a portage to be made, under all circumstances, the water sweeping round a curve or bow, of which the portage path is the string. This is the apparent meaning of the term, in the Indian tongue; but it is disguised by early orthography, in which the letterlhas taken the place ofn, and the syllableinofau. The termkakinais the ancient French form of the Indian transitive-adjectiveall, inclusive, entirely. There is another root for the term inkakiwa, which is the ordinary term for a portage, or walk across a point of land, which is rendered local by the usual inflection,o-nong.We found the portage path to be a well-beaten wagon road across a level fertile plain, which appeared to have been in cultivation from the earliest Indian period. Probably it had been a locality for the tribes, where they raised their favorite maize, long before the French first reached the waters of Green Bay. Evidence of such antiquity in the plain of Kákala appeared in an ancient cemetery of a circular shape, situated on one side of the road, on a comparatively large surface, which had reached the height of some eight or ten feet, by the mere accumulation of graves. This has all the appearance of a sepulchral mound, in the slow process of construction; for, on viewing it, I found a recent grave. We passed, on this plain, a Winnebago village of ten or twelve lodges, embracing two hundred souls. The portage is continued just one mile. Embarking again, at this point, we proceeded down the river, and encamped eight miles below this point, having, with every exertion, made but twenty miles this day.The interest which had been excited by the conchology of theMississippi and Wisconsin valleys, was renewed in the descent of the Fox River, particularly in the section of it below Winnebago Lake. Shrunk to its lowest summer level, its shores disclosed almost innumerable species of unios, many of which had been manifestly dragged to the shores and opened by the muskrat, thus serving to give hints for finding the living species. Among these, the U. obliqua, U. cornutus, U. ellipticus, U. carinatus, U. Alatus, U. prælongus, and U. parvus, were conspicuous; the latter of which, it is remarked by Mr. Barnes, is the smallest and most beautiful of all the genus yet discovered in America.[123]In the duplicates, from this part of the Fox River, transmitted to Mr. Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia, he found a species with green-rayed beaks, on a yellow surface and iridescent nacre, having a peculiar structure, which he did me the honor to name after me.[124]The description of Mr. Lea is as follows: "Unio Schoolcraftensis. Shell subrotund, somewhat angular at posterior dorsal margin, nearly equilateral, compressed, slightly tuberculate posteriorly to umbonical slope. Substance of the shell rather thick; beaks elevated; ligament short; epidermis smooth yellow, with several broad green rays; teeth elevated, and cleft in the left valve, single, and rising from a pit in the right; lateral teeth elevated, straight, and lamellar; anterior cicatrices distinct, posterior cicatrices confluent; dorsal cicatrices within the cavity of the shell on the base of the cardinal tooth; cavity of the beaks angular and deep; nacre pearly white and iridescent. Diameter ·7, length 1·1, breadth 1·3 inches."The next morning (20th), a heavy fog in the Fox Valley detained us in our encampment till 7 o'clock. Six miles brought us to another rapid, called the Little Kakala, which, however, opposes no obstacle to the descent of canoes. At this spot, which is the apparent western terminus of the Bay settlement, we found a party of U. S. soldiers, from Fort Howard, engaged in digging the foundations for a saw-mill. Our appearance must have been somewhat rusty at this time, from our deficiences in the tonsorial and sempstrescal way, for these sons of Mars did not recognize their superior officers in Capt. Douglass and Lt. Mackay; gliblysaying, in a jolly way, as they handed them a drink of water: "After me, sir, is manners;" and drinking off the first cup. At this rapid I got out of my canoe, wishing to see the geological formation more fully, and walked quite to the Rapide du Pere, where Fox River finds its level in the broad, elongated, and lake-like tongue of water, extending up from the head of Green Bay. On reaching this point, the scene of the settlement first burst on our view, with its farm-houses and cultivated fields stretching, for five miles, along both banks of the river; disclosing the flagstaff of the distant fort, and the bannered masts of vessels, all of which brought vividly to mind our approach to the civilized world. If the Canadian boat-song was ever exhilarating and appropriate, it was peculiarly so on the present occasion; and when ourvoyageursburst out, in full chorus, with the ancient ditty, beginning,
Chippewa River, just referred to, comes into the Mississippi on its left bank, within half a mile of the foot of Lake Pepin. It is a tributary of prime volume, draining the Chippewa territories lying around the south and west shores of Lake Superior. Originating on the sandy tracts extending over the elevated central plains of the Wisconsin, it brings a large deposit of sand into the Mississippi, the navigation of which is visibly more embarrassed below this point with sand-bars, willow, and cotton-wood islands.
At four o'clock in the afternoon we reached and landed at Wabashaw's village. It is eligibly seated on the west shore, and consists of four of the large elongated Sioux lodges before mentioned, containing a population of about sixty souls. The usual intercourse and speeches of congratulation by the Indians, and acknowledgment of the American authorities were made, and we again embarked, after a detention of forty minutes. A few miles below Wabashaw's village, we came to a high rocky or mountain island, calledLa montaigne qui trompe dans l'eau, a term which is shortened by western phraseology intoTrompledomountain. This is a very remarkable feature in the geography of the Upper Mississippi. The rock is calcareous; it is, in fact, the only fast or rocky island we have encountered below the little islet at the head of the Packagama Falls. It is not only striking from its lofty elevation, but is several miles in circumference; standing in the bed of the river and parting its channel into two, it appears to be the first bold geological monument which has effectually resisted its course.
We had passed this island but a short distance, and the approaches of evening began to be manifest, when a large gray wolf sprang into the river to cross it. The greatest animation at once arose in our flotilla; the canoemen bending themselves to their paddles, the auxiliary Indians of our party shouting, and the whole party assuming an unwonted excitement. A shot was soon fired from one of our rifles, but either the distance was too great, or the aim incorrect. The wolf was fully apprised of his peril, put forth all his strength, outstripped his pursuers, reached the shore, and nimbly leaped into the woods.
We encamped on the west shore, a few miles below the island at seven o'clock, having been twelve hours in our canoes. The confinement of the position nobody can appreciate who has not tried it, and I hastened to stretch my legs, by ascending the river cliffs in our rear, to have a glimpse of its geology and scenery. The view westwardly was one of groves and prairies of most inviting agricultural promise. In front, the island mountain rises to an elevation which appears to have been the original geological level of the stratification before the Mississippi cut its way through it.
At the rapids of Black River, which enters opposite our encampment, a saw-mill, we were informed, had been erected by an inhabitant of Prairie du Chien. Thus the empire of the arts has begun to make its way into these regions, and proclaims the advance of a heavy civilization into a valley which has heretofore only resounded to the savage war-whoop. Or, if a higher grade of society and arts has ever before existed in it, as some of our tumuli and antiquities would lead us to infer, the light of history has failed to reach us on the subject.[104]
At the spot of our encampment, as soon as the shades of night closed in, we were visited by hordes of ephemera. The candles lighted in our tents became the points of attraction for these evanescent creations. They soon, however, began to feel the influence of the sinking of the thermometer, and the air was imperceptibly cleared of them in an hour or two. By the hour of three o'clock the next morning (5th) the expedition was again in motion descending the river. It halted for breakfast at Painted Rock, on the west shore. While this matter was being accomplished, I found an abundant locality of unios in a curve of the shore which produced an eddy. Fine specimens of U. purpureus, elongatus, and orbiculatus were obtained. With the increased spirit and animation which the whole party felt on the prospect of our arrival at Prairie du Chien, we proceeded unremittingly on our descent, and reached that place at six o'clock in the evening.
Prairie du Chien does not derive its name from the dog, but from a noted family of Fox Indians bearing this name, who anciently dwelt here. The old town is said to have been about a mile below the present settlement, which was commenced by Mr. Dubuque and his associates, in 1783. The prairie is most eligibly situated along the margin of the stream, above whose floods it is elevated. It consists of a heavy stratum of diluvial pebbles and boulders, which is picturesquely bounded by lofty cliffs of the silurian[105]limestones, and their accompanying column of stratification. The village has the old and shabby look of all the antique French towns on the Mississippi, and in the great lake basins; thedwellings being constructed of logs and barks, and the courtyards picketed in, as if they were intended for defence. It is called Kipisagee by the Chippewas and Algonquin tribes generally, meaning the place of the jet or outflow of the (Wisconsin) River. It is, in popular parlance, estimated to be 300 miles below St. Peter's, and 600 above St. Louis.[106]Its latitude is 43° 3´ 6´´. It is the seat of justice for Crawford County, having been so named in, honor of W. H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury of the U. S. It is, together with all the region west of Lake Michigan, attached to the territory of Michigan. There is a large and fertile island in the Mississippi, opposite the place.
We found the garrison to consist of a single company of infantry, under the command of Capt. J. Fowle, Jun.,[107]who received us courteously, and offered the salute due to the rank of His Excellency, Gov. Cass. The fort is a square stockade, with bastions at two angles. There was found on this part of the prairie, when it came to be occupied with a garrison by the Americans, in 1819, an ancient platform-mound, in an exactly square form, the shape and outlines of which were preserved with exactitude by the prairie sod. This earthwork, the probable evidence of a condition of ancient society, arts, and events of a race who are now reduced so low, was, with good taste, preserved by the military, when they erected this stockade. One of the officers built a dwelling-house upon it, thus converting it, to the use, and probably the only use, to which it was originally devoted. No measurements have been preserved of its original condition; but judging from present appearances, it must have squared seventy-five feet, and have had an elevation of eight feet.
Mr. Schoolcraft makes a visit to the lead mines of Dubuque—Incidents of the trip—Description of the mines—The title of occupancy, and the mode of the mines being worked by the Fox tribe of Indians—Who are the Foxes?
I solicited permission of Gov. Cass to visit the lead mines of Dubuque, which are situated on the west bank of the Mississippi, at the computed distance of twenty-five leagues below Prairie du Chien. Furnished with a light canoe, manned by eight voyageurs, including a guide, I left the prairie at half past eleven A. M. (6th). Passed the entrance of the Wisconsin, on the left bank, at the distance of a league.[108]Opposite this point is the high elevation which Pike, in 1806, recommended to be occupied with a military work. The suggestion has not, however, been adopted; military men, probably, thinking that, however eligible the site might be for a work where civilized nations were likely to come into contact, a simpler style of defensive works would serve the purpose of keeping the Indian tribes in check. I proceeded nine leagues below, and encamped at the site of a Fox village,[109]located on the east bank, a mile below the entrance of Turkey River from the west. The village, consisting of twelve lodges, was now temporarily deserted, the Indians being probably absent on a hunt; but, if so, it was remarkable that not a soul or living thing was left behind, not even a dog. My guide, indeed, informed me that the cause of the desertion was the fears entertained of an attack from the Sioux, in retaliation for the massacre lately perpetrated by them on the heads of the St. Peter's, which was alluded to in the speech of the Little Crow, while we were at his village (ante, p. 160).
It was seven o'clock P. M. when I landed here, and having some hours of daylight, I walked back from the river to look at the village, and its fields, and to examine the geological structure of the adjacent cliffs. In their gardens I observed squashes, beans, and pumpkins, but the fields of corn, the principal article of cultivation, had been nearly all destroyed, probably by wild animals. I found an extensive field of water and musk melons, situated in an opening in a grove, detached from the other fields and gardens. None of the fruit was perfectly ripe, although it had been found so at Prairie du Chien; some of it had been bitten by wild animals.[110]The cliffs consisted of the same horizontal strata of sandstones and neutral colored limestone, prevailing at higher positions in this valley. Returning to the river beach, I perceived the same pebble drift which characterizes higher latitudes. This seems the only difference in its structure or form, namely, that the pieces of quartz pebble, limestone, and other fragments brought down, become smaller and smaller, as they are carried down.
There were frequent thunders, and a rain-storm, during the night, which, with a slight intermission, characterized the morning until noon. I embarked at half past three A. M. (7th), and landed at the Fox village of the Kettle chief, at the site of Dubuque's house,[111]at ten o'clock; a moderate rain having continued all the way. It ceased an hour after my arrival.
The Kettle chief's village is situated fifteen miles below the entrance of the Little Makokety River, consisting of nineteen lodges, built in two rows, pretty compact, and having a population of two hundred and fifty souls. There is a large island in the Mississippi, directly opposite this village, which is occupied by traders. I first landed there to get an interpreter of the Fox language, and obtain some necessary information respecting the location of the mines, and the best means of accomplishing my object. Meantime the rain had ceased. I then proceeded across the Mississippi to the Kettle chief's lodge, to solicit his permission to visit the mines, and obtain Indian guides. I succeeded in getting Mr. Gates, as interpreter; and was accompanied by Dr. S. Muir, a trader, who politely offered to go with me. On entering the lodge of Aquoqua, the chief, I found him suffering under a severe attack of bilious fever. As I approached him, he sat upon his pallet, being unable to stand, and bid me welcome; but soon became exhausted by the labor of conversation, and was obliged to resume his former position. He appeared to be a man of eighty years of age, had a venerable look, but was reduced to the last stage of physical debility. Yet he retained his faculties of sight and hearing unimpaired, together with his mental powers. He spoke to me of his death with calm resignation, as a thing to be desired. On stating the object of my visit, some objections were made by the chiefs who surrounded him, and they required further time to consider the proposition. In the mean time, I learned from another source, that since the death of Dubuque, to whom the Indians had formerly granted the privilege of working the mines, they had manifested great jealousy of the whites, were afraid they would encroach on their rights, denied all former grants, and did not make it a practice even to allow strangers to view their diggings. Apprehending some difficulties of this kind, I had provided myself with some presents, and concluding this to be the time, because of the reluctance manifested, directed one of my voyageurs to bring in a present of tobacco and whiskey; and in a few moments I received their assent, and two guides were furnished. One of these was a minor chief, called Scabass, or the Yelling Wolf; the other, Wa-ba-say-ah, or the White Foxskin. They led me up the cliff, where I understood the Indian woman, Peosta, first found lead ore; after reaching the level ofthe river bluffs, we pursued a path over undulating hills, exhibiting a half prairie, and quite picturesque rural aspect. On reaching the diggings, the most striking part of them, but not all of them, exhibited excavations such as the Indians only do not seem persevering enough in labor to have made.
The district of country called Dubuque's Mines, embraces an area of about twenty-one square leagues, commencing at the mouth of the Little Maquaquity River, sixty miles below Prairie du Chien, and extending along the west bank of the Mississippi River, seven leagues in front by three in depth. The principal mines are situated on a tract of one square league, beginning immediately at the Fox village of Aquoqua, or the Kettle chief, and extending westwardly. This is the seat of the mining operations carried on by Dubuque, as well as of what are called the Indian Diggings.
Geologically it is the same formation that characterizes the mines of Missouri; but there are some peculiarities. The ore found is the common sulphuret of lead, with a broad foliated, or lamellated structure, and high metallic lustre. It occurs massive and disseminated, in a red loam, resting on a horizontal limestone rock. Sometimes small veins of the ore are seen in the rock, but it has been generally explored in the soil. It generally occurs in narrow beds, which have a fixed direction; these beds extend three or four hundred feet, when they cease, or are traced into crevices in the rock. At this stage, the pursuit of ore, at most of the diggings, has been abandoned, frequently with small veins of the metal in view. No matrix, so far as I observed, is found with the ore which is dug out of the soil, unless we may consider such an ochery oxide of iron, with which it is slightly incrusted. Occasionally, pieces of calcareous spar are thrown out with the earth in digging after ore. I picked up from one of these heaps of earth a specimen of transparent crystallized sulphate of barytes; but this mineral appears to be rare. There appears to be none of the radiated quartz, or white opaque heavy spar, which are so abundantly found at the Missouri mines.[112]
The ore at these mines is now exclusively dug by the Indianwomen. Old and superannuated men also partake in the mining labor, but the warriors and men hold themselves above it. In this labor, the persons who engage in it employ the hoe, shovel, pick-axe, and crow-bar. These implements are supplied by the traders at the island, who are the purchasers of the crude ore. With these implements they dig trenches, till they are arrested by the solid rock. There are no shafts, even of the simplest kind, and the windlass and bucket are unknown to them—far more so the use of gunpowder in the mining operations. Their mode of going down into the deepest pits, and coming up from them, is by digging an inclined way, which permits the women to keep an erect position in walking.[113]I descended into one of these inclined excavations, which had probably been carried down forty feet, at the perpendicular angle.
When a quantity of ore has been got out, it is carried in baskets to the banks of the Mississippi, by the females, who are ferried over to the island. They receive at the rate of two dollars for a hundred and twenty pounds, payable in goods. At the profit at which these are usually sold, it may be presumed to cost the traders at the rate of seventy-five cents or a dollar, cash value, per hundred weight. The traders smelt the ore on the island, in furnaces of the same construction which I have described, and given plates of, in my treatise on the mines.[114]They observe that it yields the same per centum of metallic lead. Formerly, the Indians were in the habit of smelting the ore themselves on log heaps, by which an unusual proportion of it was converted into lead-ashes and lost. They are now induced to search about the sites of these old fires to collect these lead-ashes, which consist, for the most part, of desulphuretted ore, for which they receive a dollar per bushel.
There are three mines in addition to those above mentioned, situated upon the Upper Mississippi, which are worked by the Indians. They are located at Sinsinaway, at Rivière au Fevre, and at the Little Makokety. 1. Sinsinaway mines. They are situated fifteen miles below Aquoqua's Village, on the east shore of the Mississippi, at the junction of the Sinsinaway River. 2.Mine au Fevre. Situated on the River au Fevre, which enters the Mississippi on its east banks, twenty-one miles below Dubuque's mines. The lead ore is found ten miles from its mouth. At this locality, the ore is accompanied by the sulphate of barytes, and is sometimes crystallized in cubes or octohedrons.[115]3. Mine of the Makokety, or Maquoqueti. This small river enters the Mississippi fifteen miles above Dubuque's mines. The mineral character and value of the country has been but little explored.
The history of the mines of Dubuque is brief and simple. In 1780, a discovery of lead ore was made by the wife of Peosta, a Fox Indian of Aquoqua's Village. This gave the hint for explorations, which resulted in extensive discoveries. The lands were formally granted by the Indians to Julien Dubuque, at a council held at Prairie du Chien in 1788, by virtue of which he permanently settled on them, erected buildings and furnaces, and continued to work them until 1810. In 1796, he received a confirmation of his grant from Carondelet, the governor of Louisiana, in which they are called "the mines of Spain." By a stone monument which stands on a hill near the mines, Dubuque died on the 24th March, 1810, aged forty-five years and six months. After his death, the Indians burnt down his house and fences—he leaving, I believe, no family[116]—and erased every vestige of civilized life; and they have since revoked, or at least denied the grant, and appear to set a very high value on the mines. Dubuque's claim was assigned to his creditors, by whom it was presented to the commissioners for deciding on land titles, in 1806. By a majority of the board it was determined to be valid, in which condition it was reported to Washington for final action. At this stage ofthe investigation, Mr. Gallatin, who was then Secretary of the Treasury, made a report on the subject, clearly stating the facts, and coming to the conclusion that it was not a perfect title, stating that no patent had ever been issued for it, at New Orleans, the seat of the Spanish authority, from which transcripts of the records of all grants had been transmitted to the Treasury.[117]
On the arrival of Lieut. Pike at Mr. Dubuque's on the 1st of September, 1805, he endeavored to obtain information necessary to judge of the value and extent and the nature of the grant of the mines; but he was not able to visit them. To the inquiries which he addressed to Mr. Dubuque on the subject, the latter replied in writing that a copy of the grant was filed at the proper office in St. Louis, which would show its date, together with the date of its confirmation by the Spanish authority, and the extent of the grant to him. He states the mine to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight leagues long, and from one to three leagues broad. He represents the per centum of metal to be yielded from the ore to be seventy-five, and the quantity smelted per annum at from 20,000 to 40,000 pounds. He stated that the whole product was cast into pig lead, and that there were no other metals at the mines but copper, of the value of which he could not judge.
Having examined the mines with as much minuteness as the time allowed me would permit, and obtained specimens of its ores and minerals, I returned to the banks of the Mississippi, before the daylight departed, and, immediately embarking, went up the river two leagues and encamped on an island.
It may be proper to add to this narrative of my mineralogical visit to these mines, a few words respecting the Fox Indians, by whom the country is owned. The first we hear of these people is from early missionaries of New France, who call them, in a list drawn up for the government in 1736, "Gens du Sang," and Miskaukis. The latter I found to be the name they apply to themselves. We get nothing, however, by it. It means Red-earths, being a compound frommisk-wau, red, andauki, earth. They are a branch of the great Algonquin family. The French, who formed a bad opinion of them, as their history opened, bestowedon them the name of Renouard, from which we derive their long-standing popular name. Their traditions attribute their origin to eastern portions of America. Mr. Gates, who acted as my interpreter, and is well acquainted with their language and customs, informs me that their traditions refer to their residence on the north banks of the St. Lawrence, near the ancient Cataraqui. They appear to have been a very erratic, spirited, warlike, and treacherous tribe; dwelling but a short time at a spot, and pushing westward, as their affairs led them, till they finally reached the Mississippi, which they must have crossed after 1766, for Carver found them living in villages on the Wisconsin. At Saginaw, they appear to have formed a fast alliance with the Saucs, a tribe to whom they are closely allied by language and history. They figure in the history of Indian events about old Michilimackinac, where they played pranks under the not very definite title of Muscodainsug, but are first conspicuously noted while they dwelt on the river bearing their name, which falls into Green Bay, Wisconsin.[118]The Chippewas, with whom they have strong affinity of language, call them Otagami, and ever deemed them a sanguinary and unreliable tribe. The French defeated them in a sanguinary battle at Butte de Mort, and by this defeat drove them from Fox River.
Their present numbers cannot be accurately given. I was informed that the village I visited contained two hundred and fifty souls. They have a large village at Rock Island, where the Foxes and Saucs live together, which consists of sixty lodges, and numbers three hundred souls. One-half of these may be Saucs. They have another village at the mouth of Turkey River; altogether, they may muster from 460 to 500 souls. Yet, they are at war with most of the tribes around them, except the Iowas, Saucs, and Kickapoos. They are engaged in a deadly, and apparently successful war against the Sioux tribes. They recently killed nine men of that nation, on the Terre Blue River; and a party of twenty men are now absent, in the same direction, under a half-breed named Morgan. They are on bad terms with the Osages and Pawnees of the Missouri, and not on the best terms with their neighbors the Winnebagoes.
I again embarked at four o'clock A. M. (8th). My men were stout fellows, and worked with hearty will, and it was thought possible to reach the Prairie during the day, by hard and late pushing. We passed Turkey River at two o'clock, and they boldly plied their paddles, sometimes animating their labors with a song; but the Mississippi proved too stout for us; and some time after nightfall we put ashore on an island, before reaching the Wisconsin. In ascending the river this day, observed the pelican, which exhibited itself in a flock, standing on a low sandy spot of an island. This bird has a clumsy and unwieldy look, from the duplicate membrane attached to its lower mandible, which is constructed so as when inflated to give it a bag-like appearance. A short sleep served to restore the men, and we were again in our canoes the next morning (9th) before I could certainly tell the time by my watch. Daylight had not yet broke when we passed the influx of the Wisconsin, and we reached the Prairie under a full chorus, and landed at six o'clock.
The expedition proceeds from Prairie du Chein up the Wisconsin Valley—Incidents of the ascent—Etymology of the name—The low state of its waters favorable to the observation of its fresh-water conchology—Cross the Wisconsin summit, and descend the Fox River to Winnebago Lake.
We were now at the foot of the Wisconsin Valley—at the point, in fact, where Marquette and Joliet, coming from the forests and lakes of New France, had discovered the great River of the West, in 1673. Marquette, led by his rubrics, named it the River "Conception," but, in his journal, he freely employs the aboriginal term of Mississippi, which was in use by the whole body of the Algonquin tribes. While awaiting, at Prairie du Chein, the preparations for ascending the Wisconsin, the locality was found a very remarkable one for its large unios, and some other species of fresh-water shells. Some specimens of the unio crassus, found on the shores of the island in the Mississippi, opposite the village, were of thrice the size of any noticed in America or Europe, and put conchologists in doubt whether the species should not be namedgiganteus.[119]I had, in coming down the Mississippi, procured some fine and large specimens of the unio purpureus of Mr. Say, at the Painted Rock, with some other species; and the discovery of such large species of the crassus served to direct new attention to the subject.
Our sympathies were excited, at this place, by observing an object of human deformity in the person of an Indian, who, to remedy the want of the power of locomotion, had adjusted his legs in a large wooden bowl. By rocking this on the ground, he supplied, in a manner, the lost locomotive power. This man of the bowl possessed his faculties of mind unimpaired, spoke several Indian languages, besides the Canadian French, and appeared cheerful and intelligent. An excursion into the adjacent country, to view some caves, and a reported mineral locality made by Mr. Trowbridge, during my descent to the mines of Dubuque, brought me some concretions of carbonate of lime, but the Indian guides either faltered to make the promised discoveries, through their superstitions, or really failed in the effort to find the object. By tracing the shores of the Mississippi, I found the rolled and hard agates and other quartz species, which characterize the pebble-drift of its sources, still present in the down-flowing shore-drift.
The aboriginal name of this place is Kipesági, an Algonquin word, which is applied to the mouth or outflow of the Wisconsin River. It appears to be based on the verbkipa, to be thick or turbid, andsauge, outflow—the river at its floods, being but little else than a moving mass of sand and water.
It was the 9th (Aug.) at half-past ten in the morning before the expedition left the Prairie to ascend the Wisconsin, the mouth of which we reached after descending the Mississippi three miles. This is an impressive scene—the bold cliffs of the west bank of the Mississippi, with Pike's-hill rising in front on the west, while those of the Wisconsin Valley stand at but little less elevation on the north and south. At this season of the year the water is clear and placid, and mingles itself in its mighty recipient without disturbance. But it is easy to conceive, what the Indians affirm, that in its floods it is a strong and turbid mass of moving waters, against which nothing can stand. This character of the stream is believed, indeed, to be the origin of the Indian name of Wisconsin. Miskawägumi, means a strong or mixed water, or liquid. By adding to this wordtotoshabo(milk), the meaning is coagulated or turning milk; it is often used to mean brandy, which is then called strong water; by addingiscodawabo, the meaning is fire-water. Marquette, in 1673, spells the name of the river indifferently Meshkousing, and Mishkousing. Of this term, the inflectioning, is simply a local form, the lettersbeing thrown in for euphony. This word appears to be a derivation from the termmushkowa, strong water. By admitting the transmutation ofmtow, the initial syllablemisis changed towis, and the interpretation is then river (or place) of strong waters. The term ofkipesagi, appliedto its mouth, is but another characteristic feature of it—the one laying stress on itsturbidity in flood, and the other on itsstrength of current. These are certainly the two leading traits of the Wisconsin, which rushes with a great average velocity over an inclined plane, without falls, for a great distance. It originates in a remarkable summit of sandy plains, which send out to the west the Chippewa River of Lake Pepin, to the north the Montreal and Ontonagon of Lake Superior, and to the east the Menomonee of Green Bay, while the Wisconsin becomes its southern off-drain, till it finally turns west at the Portage, and flows into the Mississippi.
We ascended, the first day, eighteen miles; the next, thirty-six; the third day, thirty-four miles; the fourth, forty; the fifth, thirty-eight, and the sixth, sixteen, which brought us to the Fox and Wisconsin Portage, a spot renowned from the earliest French days of western discovery. For here, on the waters separating the Mississippi from the great lakes, there had, at successive intervals, been pitched the tents of Marquette, La Hontan, Carver, and other explorers, who have, in their published journals, left traces of their footsteps. La Salle, who excelled them all in energy of character, proceeded to the Mississippi from Lake Michigan, down the Illinois.
Our estimates made the distance from the Mississippi to this point one hundred and eighty-two miles. It is a wide, and (at this season) shallow stream, with transparent waters, running over a bed of yellow sand, checkered with numerous small islands, and long spits of sand-bars. There is not a fall in this distance, and it must be navigable with large craft during the periodical freshets. It receives the Blue, Pine, and other tributaries in this distance. Its valley presents a geological section, on a large scale, of the series of lead-bearing rocks extending in regular succession from the fundamental sandstone to the topmost limestones. The water being shallow and warm, we often waded from bar to bar, and found the scene a fruitful one for its fresh-water conchology. The Indians frequently amused me by accounts of the lead mines and mineral productions of its borders; but I followed them in this search only to be convinced that they were without sincerity in these representations, and had nohigher objects on this head, than, by assuming a conciliatory manner, to secure temporary advantages while the expedition was passing through their country. The valley belongs to the Winnebagoes, whom we frequently met, and received a friendly reception from. We also encountered Menomonies, who occupy the lower part of the adjacent Fox River Valley, but rove widely west and north over the countries of the tribes they are at peace with.
The Wisconsin Valley was formerly inhabited by the Sacs and Foxes, who raised large quantities of corn and beans on its fertile shores. They were driven by the French, in alliance with the Chippewas and Menomonies. It is now possessed exclusively by the Winnebagoes, a savage and bloodthirsty tribe, who came, according to tradition, many years ago from the south, and are thought to be related to some of the Mexican tribes. Their language is cognate with the great Sioux or Dakota stock west of the Mississippi, who likewise date their origin south. To those accustomed to hear the softer tones of the Chippewa and Algonquin, it sounds harsh and guttural. Their name for themselves is Hochungara; the French call themPuants.
In passing up this valley, an almost never-failing object of interest was furnished by the univalve shells found along its banks, and by the variety in size, shape, and color which they exhibited. Of these, the late Mr. Barnes has described, from my duplicates, the U. plicatus, U. verrucosus, U. ventricosus, U. planus, U. obliqua, and U. gracilis.[120]We frequently observed the scolipax minor, the plover, the A. alcyon, a small yellow bird, and C. vociferus, along its sandy shores; and, in other positions, the brant, the grouse, the A. sponsa, and the summer duck, and F. melodia. A range of hills extends from the Mississippi, on each shore, to within twenty miles of the Portage, where it ceases, on the south side, but continues on the north—receding, however, a considerable distance. This section is called the Highlands of the Wisconsin. The stratification is exclusively sandstone and limestone, in the usual order of the metalliferous series of the West, and lying in horizontal positions.
There are two kinds of rattlesnake in the Valley of the Wisconsin. The larger, or barred crotalis, is confined to the hills, and attains a large size. I killed one of this species at the mouthof a small cave on the summit of a cliff to which I ascended, which measured four feet in length, and had nine rattles. Its great thickness attracted notice. Attaching a twig to its neck, I drew it down into the valley as a present to our Indians, knowing that they regard the reptile in a peculiar manner. They found it a female, having eleven young, who had taken shelter in their maternal abdominal-covering. The Ottowas carefully took off the skin, and brought it with them. The second kind of this reptile is called prairie rattlesnake, is confined to the plains, and does not exceed fifteen or twenty inches in length.
The Indians had reported localities of lead, copper, and silver at various places, but always failed, as we ascended, to reveal anything of more value than detached pieces of sulphuret of iron, or brown iron-stone. When we reached the portage, a Winnebago, who had been the chief person in making these reports, came with great ceremony to present a specimen of his reported silver. On taking off the envelop it turned out to be a small mass of light-colored glistening folia of mica. We had found the horizontal rocks along the stream thus far, but the primitive shows itself, within a mile north of the portage, in orbicular masses in situ, coming through the prairies.
Having reached the summit, we proceeded across it to the banks of Fox River, where we encamped. It consists of a level plain. The distance is a mile and a half. It required, however, some time to have our baggage and canoes transported, which was done by a Frenchman residing at this summit. Such is the slight difference in the level of the two rivers, that Indian canoes are pushed through the marshy ridges when the rivers are swelled by freshets. It was half-past three o'clock of the 15th, the day following our arrival, before the transportation and loading of our canoes was completed. It was then necessary to push our canoes through fields of rushes and other aquatic plants, through which the river winds. This was a slow mode of progress, and we spent the remainder of the day in passing fifteen miles, which brought us to theFORKS, so called, where the northern unites with the southern branch of the river. At this spot we encamped. Next day we estimated our descent at sixty-three miles, having found the navigation less intricate and obstructed from the aquatic growth. In this distance we passed, at thirty miles below thefork, a piece of clear water of nine miles extent, called Buffalo Lake; and at the distance of twelve miles lower, another lake of some twelve miles in extent, called Puckaway Lake. Down to this point, the Fox River has scarcely a perceptible current. We found we had not only, in parting from the Wisconsin to the Fox, exchanged an open, swift, and strong flowing current, for a very quiet and still one, winding through areas of wild rice and the whole family of water plants; but had intruded into a region of water-fowl and birds of every plumage, who, as they rioted upon their cherished zizania aquatica, made the air resound with their screams. The blackbird appeared to be lord of these fields. We had also intruded upon a favorite region of the water-snake, who, coiled up on his bed of plants at every bend of the stream, slid off with spiteful glance into the stream. In passing these places of habitation, which the Chippewas callwauzh, we perceptibly smelt an unpleasant odor arising from it.
The next day we descended the river seventy miles. There is a perceptible current below Puckaway Lake. The river increases in width and depth, and offers no impediment whatever to its navigation. Fox River runs, indeed, from the portage to Winnebago Lake on a summit, over which it winds among sylvan hills, covered with grass and prairie-flowers, interspersed with groves of oak, elm, ash, and hickory, and dotted at intervals with lakes of refreshing transparent water. The height of this summit, above the Mississippi and the lakes, must be several hundred feet (stated at 234), which permits the stream to flow with liveliness, insuring, when it comes to be settled,[121]the erection of hydraulic works; and it would be difficult to point to a region possessing in its soil, climate, and natural resources, a more favorable character for an agricultural population. It has a diversified surface, without mountains; a fine dry atmosphere; an admirabledrainage east, west, north, and south, and a ready access to the great oceanic marts through the Great Lake and the Mississippi.
We passed, this day, several encampments and villages of Winnebagoes and Menomonies—tribes, who, with the erratic habits of the Tartars, or Bedouins, once spread their tents in the Fox and Wisconsin valleys, but have now (1853) relinquished them to the European race; and it does not, at this distance of time, seem important to denote the particular spots where they once boiled their kettles of corn, or thumped their magic drums. God have mercy on them in their wild wanderings! We also passed the entrance of Wolf River, a fine bold stream on the left; and soon below it the handsome elevation of La Butte de Morts, or the Hillock of the Dead. This eminence was covered by the frail lodges of the Winnebagoes. The spot is memorable in Indian history, for a signal defeat of the Foxes, by the French and their Indian allies in the seventeenth century, after which, this tribe was finally expelled from the Fox valley. Our night's encampment (17th) was below this spot. The night air was remarkably cold, and put an end to our further annoyance from mosquitos. We embarked at five o'clock the next morning during a dense fog, which was in due time dissipated by the rising sun. We had been five hours in our canoes, under the full force of paddles, when we entered Winnebago Lake. This is a most beautiful and sylvan expanse of water some twenty-four miles long by ten in width, surrounded by picturesque prairie and sloping plains. It has a stream at Fond du Lac, its southern extremity,[122]which is connected by a short portage with the principal source of Rock River of the Mississippi.
The Fox River, after having displayed itself in the lake, leaves it, at its northern extremity, flowing by a succession of rapids and falls over horizontal limestones to the head of Green Bay.There is a Winnebago village, under Hoo Tshoop, or Four Legs, at the point of outlet, where we landed, and as the first rapid begins at that point, creating a delay, I took the occasion to examine its geology more closely, by procuring fresh fractures of the masses of rock in the vicinity. This process, it appeared, was narrowly watched by the Indians, who wondered what such a scrutiny should mean. The French, said the chief to one of our interpreters, formerly held possession of this country; and, afterwards, came the British. They contented themselves with common things, and never disturbed these rocks, which have been laying here forever. But the moment the Americans get possession of the country, they must come and knock off pieces of the rock, and look at them. It is marvellous!
A brilliant mass of native copper, weighing ten or twelve pounds, was found by an Indian, some years ago, on the shores of this lake. The moment he espied it, his imagination was fired, and he fancied he beheld the form of a beautiful female, standing in the water. Glittering in radiancy, she held out in her hand a lump of gold. He paddled his canoe towards her, furtively and slow, but, as he advanced, a transformation gradually ensued. Her eyes lost their brilliancy, her face the glow of life and health, her arms disappeared; and when he reached the spot, the object had changed into a stone monument of the human form, with the tail of a fish. Amazed, he sat awhile in silence; then, lighting his pipe, he offered it the incense of tobacco, and addressed it, as the guardian angel of his country. Lifting the miraculous image gently into his canoe, he took his seat, with his face in an opposite direction, and paddled towards shore, on reaching which, and turning round to the object of his regard, he discovered, in its place, nothing but a lump of shining virgin copper.
Such are the imaginative efforts of this race, who look to the eyes of civilization as if they had themselves faces of stone, and hearts of adamant.
Descent of the Fox River from Winnebago Lake to Green Bay—Incidents—Etymology, conchology, mineralogy—Falls of the Konomic and Kakala—Population and antiquity of the settlement of Green Bay—Appearances of a tide, not sustained.
A rapid commences at the precise point where Fox River issues from Winnebago Lake. This rapid, down which canoes descend with half loads, extends a mile and a half, when the river assumes its usual navigable form, presenting a noble volume. Nine miles below this, a ledge of the semi-crystalline limestone rock crosses the entire channel, lifting itself five feet above the bed of the stream. Over this the Fox River throws itself by an abrupt cascade. Down this shelf of rock, the canoes, previously lightened of their burden, are lifted by the men. It was sometime after dark when we reached and encamped on the north shore, at the foot of this cascade, which bears the name of Konamik. The syllablekon, in this word, appears to me to be the same asconin Wisconsin, and is, apparently, a derivative from a term for strong water, which has, in this case, the meaning of cascade or fall. The wordamik, its terminal, means a beaver. We thus have the probable original meaning in beaver-water, or, by implication, beaver cascade. There is a rapid below this fall. I judged the water must sink its level, in this vicinity, about fifteen feet. On examining the character of the limestone, I discovered crystals of calcareous spar occupying small cavities. At other localities, at lower points, there were found crystals of black sulphuret of zinc, and yellow sulphuret of iron. The rock appears to be of the same age as the lead-bearing limestone of the West; it is also overlaid by the red marly clay, and I should judge it to contain deposits of sulphuret of lead.
The next morning, we resumed our descent of the Fox Riverwith difficulty. It was now the 19th of August, and the waters had reached their lowest summer stage. The entire distance of twelve miles from the Konamik to the Kákala fall may be deemed to be, at this season, a continuous rapid. Our barge was abandoned on the rapids. While the men toiled in these rapids to get down their canoes, it was found rather a privilege to walk, for it gave a more ample opportunity to examine the mineral structure and productions of the country.
It was high noon when we reached the rapids of the Kákala. This is a formidable rapid, at which the river rushes with furious velocity down a rocky bed, which it seems impossible boats or canoes should ever safely descend. It demands a portage to be made, under all circumstances, the water sweeping round a curve or bow, of which the portage path is the string. This is the apparent meaning of the term, in the Indian tongue; but it is disguised by early orthography, in which the letterlhas taken the place ofn, and the syllableinofau. The termkakinais the ancient French form of the Indian transitive-adjectiveall, inclusive, entirely. There is another root for the term inkakiwa, which is the ordinary term for a portage, or walk across a point of land, which is rendered local by the usual inflection,o-nong.
We found the portage path to be a well-beaten wagon road across a level fertile plain, which appeared to have been in cultivation from the earliest Indian period. Probably it had been a locality for the tribes, where they raised their favorite maize, long before the French first reached the waters of Green Bay. Evidence of such antiquity in the plain of Kákala appeared in an ancient cemetery of a circular shape, situated on one side of the road, on a comparatively large surface, which had reached the height of some eight or ten feet, by the mere accumulation of graves. This has all the appearance of a sepulchral mound, in the slow process of construction; for, on viewing it, I found a recent grave. We passed, on this plain, a Winnebago village of ten or twelve lodges, embracing two hundred souls. The portage is continued just one mile. Embarking again, at this point, we proceeded down the river, and encamped eight miles below this point, having, with every exertion, made but twenty miles this day.
The interest which had been excited by the conchology of theMississippi and Wisconsin valleys, was renewed in the descent of the Fox River, particularly in the section of it below Winnebago Lake. Shrunk to its lowest summer level, its shores disclosed almost innumerable species of unios, many of which had been manifestly dragged to the shores and opened by the muskrat, thus serving to give hints for finding the living species. Among these, the U. obliqua, U. cornutus, U. ellipticus, U. carinatus, U. Alatus, U. prælongus, and U. parvus, were conspicuous; the latter of which, it is remarked by Mr. Barnes, is the smallest and most beautiful of all the genus yet discovered in America.[123]In the duplicates, from this part of the Fox River, transmitted to Mr. Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia, he found a species with green-rayed beaks, on a yellow surface and iridescent nacre, having a peculiar structure, which he did me the honor to name after me.[124]The description of Mr. Lea is as follows: "Unio Schoolcraftensis. Shell subrotund, somewhat angular at posterior dorsal margin, nearly equilateral, compressed, slightly tuberculate posteriorly to umbonical slope. Substance of the shell rather thick; beaks elevated; ligament short; epidermis smooth yellow, with several broad green rays; teeth elevated, and cleft in the left valve, single, and rising from a pit in the right; lateral teeth elevated, straight, and lamellar; anterior cicatrices distinct, posterior cicatrices confluent; dorsal cicatrices within the cavity of the shell on the base of the cardinal tooth; cavity of the beaks angular and deep; nacre pearly white and iridescent. Diameter ·7, length 1·1, breadth 1·3 inches."
The next morning (20th), a heavy fog in the Fox Valley detained us in our encampment till 7 o'clock. Six miles brought us to another rapid, called the Little Kakala, which, however, opposes no obstacle to the descent of canoes. At this spot, which is the apparent western terminus of the Bay settlement, we found a party of U. S. soldiers, from Fort Howard, engaged in digging the foundations for a saw-mill. Our appearance must have been somewhat rusty at this time, from our deficiences in the tonsorial and sempstrescal way, for these sons of Mars did not recognize their superior officers in Capt. Douglass and Lt. Mackay; gliblysaying, in a jolly way, as they handed them a drink of water: "After me, sir, is manners;" and drinking off the first cup. At this rapid I got out of my canoe, wishing to see the geological formation more fully, and walked quite to the Rapide du Pere, where Fox River finds its level in the broad, elongated, and lake-like tongue of water, extending up from the head of Green Bay. On reaching this point, the scene of the settlement first burst on our view, with its farm-houses and cultivated fields stretching, for five miles, along both banks of the river; disclosing the flagstaff of the distant fort, and the bannered masts of vessels, all of which brought vividly to mind our approach to the civilized world. If the Canadian boat-song was ever exhilarating and appropriate, it was peculiarly so on the present occasion; and when ourvoyageursburst out, in full chorus, with the ancient ditty, beginning,