STANZAS.ON REACHING THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN 1832.I.Ha! truant of western waters! Thou who hastSo long concealed thy very sources—flitting shy,Now here, now there—through spreading mazes vastThou art, at length, discovered to the eyeIn crystal springs, that run, like silver thread,From out their sandy heights, and glittering lieWithin a beauteous basin, fair outspreadHesperian woodlands of the western sky,As if, in Indian myths, a truth there could be read,And these were tears, indeed, by fair Itasca shed.II.To bear the sword, on prancing steed arrayed;To lift the voice admiring Senates own;To tune the lyre, enraptured muses played;Or pierce the starry heavens—the blue unknown—These were the aims of many sons of fame,Who shook the world with glory's golden song.I sought a moral meed of less acclaim,In treading lands remote, and mazes long;And while around aerial voices ring,I quaff the limpid cup at Mississippi's spring.H. R. S.[165]Narrative of an Expedition to Itasca Lake. Harpers. 1834. 1 vol. 8vo. p. 307.[166]Mr. Nicollet, who ascended the same fork in 1836, makes the distance twelve miles more.VideEx., Doc. No. 237.[167]Entire trees are often found imbedded in its rocks of the middle era, as is evidenced by an individual of the juglans nigra, of at least fifty feet long, in the River De Plaine, valley of the Illinois.VideAppendix.[168]Appendix.[169]Kakábik.Abikis a rock. The prefixed syllable,Kak, may be derived fromKukidjewum, a rapid stream.Kais often a prefix of negation in compound words, which has the force of a derogative.[170]From the termIah-pinuniddewin, an emphatic expression for a place of carnage, so called from a secret attack made at this place, in time past, by a party of Sioux, who killed every member of a lodge of Chippewas, and then shockingly mangled their bodies.[171]FromMonominakauning, place of wild rice.[172]Fromocaut, a leg, andkinabic, a snake.[173]Lieut.-Col. James Allen, U. S. A. This officer graduated at West Point in 1825. After passing through various grades, he was promoted to a captaincy of infantry in 1837. He was lieutenant-colonel and commandant of the battalion of Mormon volunteers in the Mexican war, which was raised by his exertions, and died at Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri, on the 23d of August, 1846.[174]Doc. No. 237.[175]From the wordpuka, abrupt phenomenon, and the verbsaugi, outflowing.[176]FromAizhenagozze, countenance, andkozh, a bill of a bird, or snout of an animal. The word is appropriately translatedguelleby the Canadians.[177]Equa, a female; it is not, appropriately, the term of wife, for which the vocabulary has a peculiar term, but is generally employed in the sense of woman.[178]I have observed this to be the universal custom among all the aboriginal females of America. They never part the feet.[179]It is hoped, hereafter, to give further sketches of this interview, and of this chief's life and character.[180]Called by the FrenchCrees.[181]The Fore-standing man. From the verbmaja, to go,ninabow, I stand, andizzee, a person or man.[182]For an account of this transaction,videReports of the Disputes between the Earl of Selkirk and the Northwest Company, at the assizes held at York, Upper Canada, Oct. 1818. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 664. Montreal, Casie & Mower, 1819.[183]Fromininéeg, men, andsugiegan, lake, signs of a war party having been discovered at this place. In this derivative, the usual transition ofntolof the old Algonquin is made.[184]Professor D. B. Douglas.[185]The angle of country above Leaf River, on the Crow-Wing, has been proposed as a refuge for the Menomonee tribe, of Wisconsin, for whom temporary arrangements, at least, are now made, on the head of Fox River, of that State.[186]This river has been assigned as the residence of the Winnebago Indians. It is the present seat of the United States agency, and of the farming and mechanical establishment for that tribe.[187]Mr. J. J. Nicolet pursued this route in 1836, on his visit to the sources of the Mississippi.VideSenate Doc. No. 237. Washington, D. C., 1843.[188]Crow-Wing River.—This stream is the largest tributary of the Mississippi above the falls of St. Anthony. It enters the Mississippi in lat. 46° 15´ 50´´, 180 miles above the latter, and 145 miles below Sandy Lake. Government first explored it, in 1832, from its source in Lake Kaginogumaug to its mouth, and an accurate map of its channel, and its eleven lakes, was made by Lieut. Allen, U. S. A., who accompanied the party as topographer. It is 210 miles in length, to its source in Long Lake. The island, in its mouth, is about three miles long, and covered with hard-wood timber. The whole region is noted for its pine timber; the lands lie in gentle ridges, with much open country; a large part of it is adapted to agriculture, and there is much hydraulic power It is navigable at the lowest stages of water, about 80 miles, and by small boats to its very source.[189]FromNoka, a man's name, andseebi, a river.[190]It was not till some time after my return to St. Mary's that I learned of the overthrow of the chief and his army, and his being taken prisoner at the battle of the Badaxe, on the 14th of August, 1832.[191]United States soldiers are not adapted to travelling in Indian canoes. Comparatively clumsy, formal, and used to the comforts of good quarters and shelter, they flinch under the activities and fatigue of forest life, and particularly of that kind of life and toil, which consists in the management of canoes, and the carrying forward canoes and baggage over bad portages, and conducting these frail vessels over dangerous rapids and around falls. No amount of energy is sufficient on the part of the officers to make them keep up, on these trips, with the gay, light, and athleticvoyageur, who unites the activity and expertness of the Indian with the power of endurance of the white man. Lieut. Allen deserves great credit, as an army officer, for urging his men forward as well as he did on this arduous journey, for they were a perpetual cause of delay and anxiety to me and to him. They were relieved and aided by my men at every practicable point; but, having the responsibility of performing a definite duty, on a fixed sum of money, with many men to feed in the wilderness, it was imperative in me to push on with energy, day in and day out, and to set a manful example of diligence, at every point; and, instead of carping at my rapidity of movement, as he does in his official report of the ascent of the St. Croix, he having every supply within himself, and being, moreover, in a friendly tribe, where there was no danger from Indian hostilities, he should not have evinced a desire to control my encampments, but rather given his men to understand that he could not countenance their dilatoriness.[192]It is, at this time, a part of the boundary between the State of Wisconsin and the Territory of Minnesota, and is the site of several flourishing towns and villages. On its western head is the town of Stillwater, the seat of justice for Washington County, Minnesota. This town has a population of 1,500 inhabitants, containing a court house, several churches, schools, printing offices, a public land office, and territorial penitentiary, with stores, mills, &c. Hudson is a town seated on its east bank, at Willow River, being the seat of justice for St. Croix County, Wisconsin. It contains a United States land-office, two churches, and 94 dwellings, besides stores and mills. Steamboats freely navigate its waters from the Mississippi.[193]Falls of St. Croix.—A thriving post town is now seated on the Wisconsin side of these falls in Polk County, Wisconsin, which contains several mills, at which it is estimated, four millions of feet of pine lumber are sawed annually. It is at the head of steamboat navigation of St. Croix River.[194]VideOwen's Geological Report, for the first attempt to delineate the order of the various local and general formations. Philada., Lippincott & Co., 1852.[195]Fromnama, a sturgeon, andkagun, a yoke or wier. I explored this stream in 1831, having reached it after ascending the Mauvais or Maskigo of Lake Superior.VidePersonal Memoirs: Lippincott, Grambo, & Co., 1851.[196]Frommukuda, black, andpenaisee, a bird, the name of the rail.[197]Frommisk, red or colored,muscoda, a plain, andauk, a dead standing tree, as a tree burned by fire or lightning. From the French translation of the word, by the phraseBrulé; the Indian meaning is clearly shown to be burnt, scorched, or parched—a term which is applied to metifs of the mixed race.[198]Frommong, a loon, andozid, his foot. The name is in allusion to the track of the bird on the sand.[199]On passing through Lake Superior, I learned from an Indian the first breaking out of Asiatic cholera in the country, in 1832, and the wide alarm it had produced.[200]This is the origin of Major Long's second expedition.[201]Explored by the preceding narrative in 1831-1833.[202]Explored by the preceding narrative in 1831-1833.[203]Galet, in the Canadian patois, means a smooth, flat rock.—H. R. S.[204]A little doubtful.[205]A little doubtful.[206]Or 20´´.[207]This copper rock now (1854) lies in the yard of the War Office at Washington.[208]A locality of serpentine rock has since been discovered at Presque Isle, on Lake Superior.[209]The two geological profiles of the Mississippi Valley and the Lake Basins accompanying the original are here omitted; as, also, most of the illustrative views of scenery which accompanied the original.[210]Pike's Expedition. This observation is corrected by Capt. Douglass to 47° 27´ 10´´; the point of observation being, however, a few miles south.[211]VideNarrative Journal.[212]In 1824, an Indian brought me a specimen of native silver found on this part of the coast. It was imbedded in a boulder of mixed granite and steatite.[213]Ships make the traverse where it is sixty miles wide.[214]The reason of this name I did not learn. It is apparently the same name as that bestowed on a mountain range in Orange and Ulster Counties, New York, lying south of the Catskills, where it is sometimes called, for short, Shongum. The meaning is, evidently, something like South-land-place. The localunkmay be translated hill, island, continent, &c. &c.[215]The name, as pronounced by the Indians, is Mich-en-i-mack-in-ong, meaning Place of Turtle Spirits, a notion of their mythology. It was anciently deemed a sacred spot, or one where Monetoes revealed themselves.[216]Dr. John Bigsby, in a memoir read before the London Geological Society, has described and figured several of these. In a memoir by Charles Stokes, Esq., of London, read before this Society in June, 1837, some of its most striking fossils are figured and described, with references to the prior discoveries of Dr. Bigsby, Captain Bayfield, and Dr. Richardson. Six new species of the Arctinoceras, and five of the Huronia, Ormoceras, and Orthocerata, are figured and described in the most splendid manner. This memoir is essential to all who would understand its fossil history, and that of the North generally.[217]Strong water.[218]Reached somewhere about 1641, by the French missionaries.[219]In 1825, Lieutenant Charles F. Morton, U. S. A., sent to my office a mass of this red sand rock, of about twelve inches diameter, perfectly round and ball-shaped, which he had directed one of the soldiers to pick up, in an excursion among the islands of the lower St. Mary's. This ball was a monument of that physical throe which had originally carried this river through the sandstone pass of St. Mary's, having been manifestly rounded in what geologists have called "a pocket hole" in the rock at the falls, and afterwards carried away, with the disrupted rocks, down the valley.[220]The Indiana call itPauwateeg(water leaping on the rocks), when speaking of the phenomenon, andPawating, when referring to the place of it.[221]During a subsequent residence of eleven years at this point, the excavations made on both sides of the river, in digging wells, canals made by the military, &c., fully demonstrated the truth of this general observation. In these positions, it was evident that some greatly superior force of watery removal, such as does not now exist, had heaped together particles of similar matters, according to laws which govern moving, compacted masses of water, leaving clay to settle according to the laws of diffused clay, sand of sand, and pebbles and boulders of pebbles and boulders. In their change and redeposit, gravity has evidently been the primary cause, modified by compressed currents, attraction, and probably those secret and still undeveloped magnetic and electric influences which exist in connection with astronomical phenomena. That the earth's surface, "standing out of the water and in the water," has been disrupted and preyed upon by oceanic power, no one, at this day of geological illumination, will deny.[222]In 1831, in making some explorations of this rock with gunpowder, I found the serpentine in a crystalline state, of a beautiful deep-green color, but appearing as if the crystallization was pseudomorphous.[223]The extensive iron mines of Marquette County, Upper Michigan, are now worked in this vicinity.[224]Porcupine Mountains. Fromkaug, a porcupine, andwudju, mountain.[225]Videmy view of the lead mines, in the Appendix to "Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mountains."[226]I would also refer, for subsequent information, to my report of the 1st of October, 1822, made in compliance to a resolution of the Senate, and printed in the Executive Documents of that year, No. 365, 17th Congress, 2d session.[227]VideView of the lead mines.[228]Agreeable to barometric observations made in 1836, by Mr. Nicollet, its true altitude is found to be 1,402 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. Its latitude, by the same authority, is 47° 25´ 23´´.[229]Thirty years has made it the centre of the new territory of Minnesota, which has now entered on the career of nations.[230]This object was accomplished by an expedition by Major L. Long, in 1823.[231]This river was explored by me in 1831 and 1832, in two separate expeditions in the public service, accounts of which have been published in 1831 and 1832, of which abstracts are given in the preceding pages.[232]Galenahas subsequently been made the capital of these mines.[233]The subjoined petrifaction of a leaf, apparently a species of betula, was obtained on this river. Seeante, p.206.[234]This metal has subsequently (namely, in 1844) been found to constitute a percentage in the native copper of the Eagle River mines of Lake Superior. Traces of it were found in a mass of native copper found on the shores of Keweena Lake, by Mr. Moliday, in 1826. A mass of pure silver was discovered in a boulder in the drift of Lake Huron, west of White Rock, in 1824. These discoveries induce the belief that this element will be found to be extensively present in the eventual metallurgic operations of the Lake Superior basin.[235]To the Senate of the United States:—In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 8th May last, requesting "information relative to the copper mines on the southern shore of Lake Superior, their number, value, and position, the names of the Indian tribes who claim them, the practicability of extinguishing their titles, and the probable advantage which may result to the Republic from the acquisition and working these mines," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which comprises the information desired in the resolution referred to.JAMES MONROE.Washington, 7th December, 1822.Department of War, 3d December, 1822.The Secretary of War, to whom was referred the resolution of the Senate of the 8th May last, requesting the President of the United States "to communicate to the Senate, at the commencement of the next session of Congress, any information which may be in the possession of the Government, derived from special agents or otherwise, showing the number, value, and position of the copper mines on the south shore of Lake Superior, the names of the Indian tribes who claim them, the practicability of extinguishing their title, and the probable advantage which may result to the Republic from the acquisition and working these mines," has the honor to transmit a report of Henry R. Schoolcraft, Indian agent at the Sault of Ste. Marie, on the copper mines in the region of Lake Superior, which contains all the information in relation to the subject in this department.All which is respectfully submitted.J. C. CALHOUN.To thePresident of the United States.[236]VideJameson's Mineralogy, Parkes's Chemical Catechism, Phillips's Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy.[237]For the different names applied to this tribe of Indians, see Appendix H.[238]Videacts passed at the second session of the 16th Congress of the United States, page 88.[239]Videacts passed at the second session of the 16th Congress, p. 91.[240]Silliman.[241]This fact is not stated in full confidence. I cannot refer to any authorities to prove that they were formally recognized by the United States before this very recent period. By the French and British governments they were known soon after the first settlements at Quebec and Albany (A. D.1608, 1614), and subsequently treated with. A band of warriors from Chegoimegon, on Lake Superior, under the command of Waub Ojeag, or the White Fisher, was present at the taking of Fort Niagara by Sir W. Johnston in 1759.[242]At the time these sketches were written, no geological observations had been made on this field, which has, at subsequent periods, been so elaborately described; nor had the topic itself attracted much attention. I landed at New York, in the ship Arethusa, from New Orleans, in the summer of 1819, and published, in that city, in the fall of that year, an account of the lead-bearing rocks of Missouri, and their supporting white sandstones, which rest, in horizontal deposits, on the primitive formation of the St. Francis; bringing, at the same time, a rich collection of the mineralogy of that region, which soon became known in private cabinets. This became the cause of my employment, by the United States Government, to visit the alleged copper mines on Lake Superior, as a member of the expedition to the sources of the Mississippi. I left Oneida County, in the district remarked on, on the 10th of April of that year, and reached the banks of the Niagara River on the 29th of that month. On returning from the sources of the Mississippi, I entered the same region on the 17th of October, and reached Oneida on the 21st of the same month. Prior to my visit to the Great West, I had dwelt some three years—namely, 1809, '10, '11, '12—in Oneida and Ontario counties. These were the opportunities enjoyed, up to the period, for acquiring a knowledge of the geography and geology of the country. Mr. A. Eaton'sIndex to Geology, published early in 1820, embraces nothing extending to western New York.[243]Appropriately pronounced a "secondary graywacke slate," by Mr. Eaton.[244]Usually written Skenanodoah, but pronounced as above.[245]This formation cannot be called "red sandstone," from its being generally white or gray, but appears to occupy the position of the "horizontal red sandstone" among European rocks.[246]The cornutiferous lime-rock of Mr. Eaton.[247]These tracts bear a valuable growth of pines, which constitute the source of a profitable lumber trade with the Ohio Valley.[248]This mineral oil also occurs in several of the lower tributaries of the Alleghany River, within the coal district.[249]A discovery of coal has been announced in Alleghany County, New York, as these sheets are going through the press, more than thirty years after these lines were penned.[250]This term is superseded, in geological discussions of the present day, by the termsilurian, which embraces all strata of the era between thepalæozoicandtertiaryformations.[251]Public Documents relating to the New York Canals, with an Introduction, &c., by Colonel Haines.[252]Notes on Virginia.[253]The only addition to ornithology which it fell to my lot to make, was in the grosbeck family, and this occurred after I came to return to St. Mary's. Mr. Wm. Cooper has called the new species fringilia vespertina, from the supposition that it sings during the evening. The Chippewas call this species paushkundame, from its thick and penetrating bill.[254]This animal was found grazing the prairies on the east bank of the Mississippi, about latitude 45° 30´.[255]Means under-ground drummer.[256]Found at Lapointe, Lake Superior.[257]This is a generic term for the eagle family. It is believed the kanieu, or black eagle, is regarded by them as the head of the family. The feathers of the falco furcatus are highly valued by warriors.[258]The meaning is white raven.[259]The term is from dain-da, a bullfrog.[260]This is the prairie grouse of the West.[261]The name is generic for the owl family.[262]This term arises fromadik, a reindeer, andgumaig, waters.[263]Broke instrument.[264]In Europe, the mean annual temperature necessary for the production of certain plants is—For the sugar-cane67°coffee64orange63olive54vine (vitis vinifera)51[265]Below zero.[266]Meteorological journal kept at the Albany Academy for October, 1820.[267]Iha ha [iha-ikiha] are words given as equivalent to laugh,v.in Riggs's Dictionary of the Dakota language, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1852. Ihapi,n., is laughter. The letterh, with a dot, represents a strong guttural, resembling the ArabicKha. Iha, by the same authority, is the lips or cover to anything; it is also an adverb of doubt. The vowelihas the sound ofiin marine, orein me.[268]Most probably this idea arose from the very marked precipices of the coast denominated Pictured Rocks.H. R. S.[269]The Giant's Causeway, on the Coast of Antrim.[270]Mr. Du Ponceau did me the honor, in 1834, to translate these two inquiries on the substantive in full, for the prize paper on the Algonquin, before the National Institute of France.[271]L. forliterally.[272]The double vowel is here employed to indicate the long sound ofi, asiin machine.[273]At the date of this publication, it is known that this metal occurs, both as a constituent of the mass copper in Lake Superior, and is also developed in veins in the stratification.[274]This term is in use by the Algic or Algonquin tribes, particularly by the Chippewas. The Winnebagoes, who have no equivalent for it, are generally acquainted with it, although I am not aware that they have, to any extent, adopted it. It has been supposed to be derived from the Frenchbon jour.[275]Com. Doc. No. 237.[276]The numbers in this column refer to the surface of the water in the Mississippi at the point mentioned, except when otherwise specially expressed.
STANZAS.ON REACHING THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN 1832.I.Ha! truant of western waters! Thou who hastSo long concealed thy very sources—flitting shy,Now here, now there—through spreading mazes vastThou art, at length, discovered to the eyeIn crystal springs, that run, like silver thread,From out their sandy heights, and glittering lieWithin a beauteous basin, fair outspreadHesperian woodlands of the western sky,As if, in Indian myths, a truth there could be read,And these were tears, indeed, by fair Itasca shed.II.To bear the sword, on prancing steed arrayed;To lift the voice admiring Senates own;To tune the lyre, enraptured muses played;Or pierce the starry heavens—the blue unknown—These were the aims of many sons of fame,Who shook the world with glory's golden song.I sought a moral meed of less acclaim,In treading lands remote, and mazes long;And while around aerial voices ring,I quaff the limpid cup at Mississippi's spring.H. R. S.[165]Narrative of an Expedition to Itasca Lake. Harpers. 1834. 1 vol. 8vo. p. 307.[166]Mr. Nicollet, who ascended the same fork in 1836, makes the distance twelve miles more.VideEx., Doc. No. 237.[167]Entire trees are often found imbedded in its rocks of the middle era, as is evidenced by an individual of the juglans nigra, of at least fifty feet long, in the River De Plaine, valley of the Illinois.VideAppendix.[168]Appendix.[169]Kakábik.Abikis a rock. The prefixed syllable,Kak, may be derived fromKukidjewum, a rapid stream.Kais often a prefix of negation in compound words, which has the force of a derogative.[170]From the termIah-pinuniddewin, an emphatic expression for a place of carnage, so called from a secret attack made at this place, in time past, by a party of Sioux, who killed every member of a lodge of Chippewas, and then shockingly mangled their bodies.[171]FromMonominakauning, place of wild rice.[172]Fromocaut, a leg, andkinabic, a snake.[173]Lieut.-Col. James Allen, U. S. A. This officer graduated at West Point in 1825. After passing through various grades, he was promoted to a captaincy of infantry in 1837. He was lieutenant-colonel and commandant of the battalion of Mormon volunteers in the Mexican war, which was raised by his exertions, and died at Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri, on the 23d of August, 1846.[174]Doc. No. 237.[175]From the wordpuka, abrupt phenomenon, and the verbsaugi, outflowing.[176]FromAizhenagozze, countenance, andkozh, a bill of a bird, or snout of an animal. The word is appropriately translatedguelleby the Canadians.[177]Equa, a female; it is not, appropriately, the term of wife, for which the vocabulary has a peculiar term, but is generally employed in the sense of woman.[178]I have observed this to be the universal custom among all the aboriginal females of America. They never part the feet.[179]It is hoped, hereafter, to give further sketches of this interview, and of this chief's life and character.[180]Called by the FrenchCrees.[181]The Fore-standing man. From the verbmaja, to go,ninabow, I stand, andizzee, a person or man.[182]For an account of this transaction,videReports of the Disputes between the Earl of Selkirk and the Northwest Company, at the assizes held at York, Upper Canada, Oct. 1818. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 664. Montreal, Casie & Mower, 1819.[183]Fromininéeg, men, andsugiegan, lake, signs of a war party having been discovered at this place. In this derivative, the usual transition ofntolof the old Algonquin is made.[184]Professor D. B. Douglas.[185]The angle of country above Leaf River, on the Crow-Wing, has been proposed as a refuge for the Menomonee tribe, of Wisconsin, for whom temporary arrangements, at least, are now made, on the head of Fox River, of that State.[186]This river has been assigned as the residence of the Winnebago Indians. It is the present seat of the United States agency, and of the farming and mechanical establishment for that tribe.[187]Mr. J. J. Nicolet pursued this route in 1836, on his visit to the sources of the Mississippi.VideSenate Doc. No. 237. Washington, D. C., 1843.[188]Crow-Wing River.—This stream is the largest tributary of the Mississippi above the falls of St. Anthony. It enters the Mississippi in lat. 46° 15´ 50´´, 180 miles above the latter, and 145 miles below Sandy Lake. Government first explored it, in 1832, from its source in Lake Kaginogumaug to its mouth, and an accurate map of its channel, and its eleven lakes, was made by Lieut. Allen, U. S. A., who accompanied the party as topographer. It is 210 miles in length, to its source in Long Lake. The island, in its mouth, is about three miles long, and covered with hard-wood timber. The whole region is noted for its pine timber; the lands lie in gentle ridges, with much open country; a large part of it is adapted to agriculture, and there is much hydraulic power It is navigable at the lowest stages of water, about 80 miles, and by small boats to its very source.[189]FromNoka, a man's name, andseebi, a river.[190]It was not till some time after my return to St. Mary's that I learned of the overthrow of the chief and his army, and his being taken prisoner at the battle of the Badaxe, on the 14th of August, 1832.[191]United States soldiers are not adapted to travelling in Indian canoes. Comparatively clumsy, formal, and used to the comforts of good quarters and shelter, they flinch under the activities and fatigue of forest life, and particularly of that kind of life and toil, which consists in the management of canoes, and the carrying forward canoes and baggage over bad portages, and conducting these frail vessels over dangerous rapids and around falls. No amount of energy is sufficient on the part of the officers to make them keep up, on these trips, with the gay, light, and athleticvoyageur, who unites the activity and expertness of the Indian with the power of endurance of the white man. Lieut. Allen deserves great credit, as an army officer, for urging his men forward as well as he did on this arduous journey, for they were a perpetual cause of delay and anxiety to me and to him. They were relieved and aided by my men at every practicable point; but, having the responsibility of performing a definite duty, on a fixed sum of money, with many men to feed in the wilderness, it was imperative in me to push on with energy, day in and day out, and to set a manful example of diligence, at every point; and, instead of carping at my rapidity of movement, as he does in his official report of the ascent of the St. Croix, he having every supply within himself, and being, moreover, in a friendly tribe, where there was no danger from Indian hostilities, he should not have evinced a desire to control my encampments, but rather given his men to understand that he could not countenance their dilatoriness.[192]It is, at this time, a part of the boundary between the State of Wisconsin and the Territory of Minnesota, and is the site of several flourishing towns and villages. On its western head is the town of Stillwater, the seat of justice for Washington County, Minnesota. This town has a population of 1,500 inhabitants, containing a court house, several churches, schools, printing offices, a public land office, and territorial penitentiary, with stores, mills, &c. Hudson is a town seated on its east bank, at Willow River, being the seat of justice for St. Croix County, Wisconsin. It contains a United States land-office, two churches, and 94 dwellings, besides stores and mills. Steamboats freely navigate its waters from the Mississippi.[193]Falls of St. Croix.—A thriving post town is now seated on the Wisconsin side of these falls in Polk County, Wisconsin, which contains several mills, at which it is estimated, four millions of feet of pine lumber are sawed annually. It is at the head of steamboat navigation of St. Croix River.[194]VideOwen's Geological Report, for the first attempt to delineate the order of the various local and general formations. Philada., Lippincott & Co., 1852.[195]Fromnama, a sturgeon, andkagun, a yoke or wier. I explored this stream in 1831, having reached it after ascending the Mauvais or Maskigo of Lake Superior.VidePersonal Memoirs: Lippincott, Grambo, & Co., 1851.[196]Frommukuda, black, andpenaisee, a bird, the name of the rail.[197]Frommisk, red or colored,muscoda, a plain, andauk, a dead standing tree, as a tree burned by fire or lightning. From the French translation of the word, by the phraseBrulé; the Indian meaning is clearly shown to be burnt, scorched, or parched—a term which is applied to metifs of the mixed race.[198]Frommong, a loon, andozid, his foot. The name is in allusion to the track of the bird on the sand.[199]On passing through Lake Superior, I learned from an Indian the first breaking out of Asiatic cholera in the country, in 1832, and the wide alarm it had produced.[200]This is the origin of Major Long's second expedition.[201]Explored by the preceding narrative in 1831-1833.[202]Explored by the preceding narrative in 1831-1833.[203]Galet, in the Canadian patois, means a smooth, flat rock.—H. R. S.[204]A little doubtful.[205]A little doubtful.[206]Or 20´´.[207]This copper rock now (1854) lies in the yard of the War Office at Washington.[208]A locality of serpentine rock has since been discovered at Presque Isle, on Lake Superior.[209]The two geological profiles of the Mississippi Valley and the Lake Basins accompanying the original are here omitted; as, also, most of the illustrative views of scenery which accompanied the original.[210]Pike's Expedition. This observation is corrected by Capt. Douglass to 47° 27´ 10´´; the point of observation being, however, a few miles south.[211]VideNarrative Journal.[212]In 1824, an Indian brought me a specimen of native silver found on this part of the coast. It was imbedded in a boulder of mixed granite and steatite.[213]Ships make the traverse where it is sixty miles wide.[214]The reason of this name I did not learn. It is apparently the same name as that bestowed on a mountain range in Orange and Ulster Counties, New York, lying south of the Catskills, where it is sometimes called, for short, Shongum. The meaning is, evidently, something like South-land-place. The localunkmay be translated hill, island, continent, &c. &c.[215]The name, as pronounced by the Indians, is Mich-en-i-mack-in-ong, meaning Place of Turtle Spirits, a notion of their mythology. It was anciently deemed a sacred spot, or one where Monetoes revealed themselves.[216]Dr. John Bigsby, in a memoir read before the London Geological Society, has described and figured several of these. In a memoir by Charles Stokes, Esq., of London, read before this Society in June, 1837, some of its most striking fossils are figured and described, with references to the prior discoveries of Dr. Bigsby, Captain Bayfield, and Dr. Richardson. Six new species of the Arctinoceras, and five of the Huronia, Ormoceras, and Orthocerata, are figured and described in the most splendid manner. This memoir is essential to all who would understand its fossil history, and that of the North generally.[217]Strong water.[218]Reached somewhere about 1641, by the French missionaries.[219]In 1825, Lieutenant Charles F. Morton, U. S. A., sent to my office a mass of this red sand rock, of about twelve inches diameter, perfectly round and ball-shaped, which he had directed one of the soldiers to pick up, in an excursion among the islands of the lower St. Mary's. This ball was a monument of that physical throe which had originally carried this river through the sandstone pass of St. Mary's, having been manifestly rounded in what geologists have called "a pocket hole" in the rock at the falls, and afterwards carried away, with the disrupted rocks, down the valley.[220]The Indiana call itPauwateeg(water leaping on the rocks), when speaking of the phenomenon, andPawating, when referring to the place of it.[221]During a subsequent residence of eleven years at this point, the excavations made on both sides of the river, in digging wells, canals made by the military, &c., fully demonstrated the truth of this general observation. In these positions, it was evident that some greatly superior force of watery removal, such as does not now exist, had heaped together particles of similar matters, according to laws which govern moving, compacted masses of water, leaving clay to settle according to the laws of diffused clay, sand of sand, and pebbles and boulders of pebbles and boulders. In their change and redeposit, gravity has evidently been the primary cause, modified by compressed currents, attraction, and probably those secret and still undeveloped magnetic and electric influences which exist in connection with astronomical phenomena. That the earth's surface, "standing out of the water and in the water," has been disrupted and preyed upon by oceanic power, no one, at this day of geological illumination, will deny.[222]In 1831, in making some explorations of this rock with gunpowder, I found the serpentine in a crystalline state, of a beautiful deep-green color, but appearing as if the crystallization was pseudomorphous.[223]The extensive iron mines of Marquette County, Upper Michigan, are now worked in this vicinity.[224]Porcupine Mountains. Fromkaug, a porcupine, andwudju, mountain.[225]Videmy view of the lead mines, in the Appendix to "Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mountains."[226]I would also refer, for subsequent information, to my report of the 1st of October, 1822, made in compliance to a resolution of the Senate, and printed in the Executive Documents of that year, No. 365, 17th Congress, 2d session.[227]VideView of the lead mines.[228]Agreeable to barometric observations made in 1836, by Mr. Nicollet, its true altitude is found to be 1,402 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. Its latitude, by the same authority, is 47° 25´ 23´´.[229]Thirty years has made it the centre of the new territory of Minnesota, which has now entered on the career of nations.[230]This object was accomplished by an expedition by Major L. Long, in 1823.[231]This river was explored by me in 1831 and 1832, in two separate expeditions in the public service, accounts of which have been published in 1831 and 1832, of which abstracts are given in the preceding pages.[232]Galenahas subsequently been made the capital of these mines.[233]The subjoined petrifaction of a leaf, apparently a species of betula, was obtained on this river. Seeante, p.206.[234]This metal has subsequently (namely, in 1844) been found to constitute a percentage in the native copper of the Eagle River mines of Lake Superior. Traces of it were found in a mass of native copper found on the shores of Keweena Lake, by Mr. Moliday, in 1826. A mass of pure silver was discovered in a boulder in the drift of Lake Huron, west of White Rock, in 1824. These discoveries induce the belief that this element will be found to be extensively present in the eventual metallurgic operations of the Lake Superior basin.[235]To the Senate of the United States:—In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 8th May last, requesting "information relative to the copper mines on the southern shore of Lake Superior, their number, value, and position, the names of the Indian tribes who claim them, the practicability of extinguishing their titles, and the probable advantage which may result to the Republic from the acquisition and working these mines," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which comprises the information desired in the resolution referred to.JAMES MONROE.Washington, 7th December, 1822.Department of War, 3d December, 1822.The Secretary of War, to whom was referred the resolution of the Senate of the 8th May last, requesting the President of the United States "to communicate to the Senate, at the commencement of the next session of Congress, any information which may be in the possession of the Government, derived from special agents or otherwise, showing the number, value, and position of the copper mines on the south shore of Lake Superior, the names of the Indian tribes who claim them, the practicability of extinguishing their title, and the probable advantage which may result to the Republic from the acquisition and working these mines," has the honor to transmit a report of Henry R. Schoolcraft, Indian agent at the Sault of Ste. Marie, on the copper mines in the region of Lake Superior, which contains all the information in relation to the subject in this department.All which is respectfully submitted.J. C. CALHOUN.To thePresident of the United States.[236]VideJameson's Mineralogy, Parkes's Chemical Catechism, Phillips's Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy.[237]For the different names applied to this tribe of Indians, see Appendix H.[238]Videacts passed at the second session of the 16th Congress of the United States, page 88.[239]Videacts passed at the second session of the 16th Congress, p. 91.[240]Silliman.[241]This fact is not stated in full confidence. I cannot refer to any authorities to prove that they were formally recognized by the United States before this very recent period. By the French and British governments they were known soon after the first settlements at Quebec and Albany (A. D.1608, 1614), and subsequently treated with. A band of warriors from Chegoimegon, on Lake Superior, under the command of Waub Ojeag, or the White Fisher, was present at the taking of Fort Niagara by Sir W. Johnston in 1759.[242]At the time these sketches were written, no geological observations had been made on this field, which has, at subsequent periods, been so elaborately described; nor had the topic itself attracted much attention. I landed at New York, in the ship Arethusa, from New Orleans, in the summer of 1819, and published, in that city, in the fall of that year, an account of the lead-bearing rocks of Missouri, and their supporting white sandstones, which rest, in horizontal deposits, on the primitive formation of the St. Francis; bringing, at the same time, a rich collection of the mineralogy of that region, which soon became known in private cabinets. This became the cause of my employment, by the United States Government, to visit the alleged copper mines on Lake Superior, as a member of the expedition to the sources of the Mississippi. I left Oneida County, in the district remarked on, on the 10th of April of that year, and reached the banks of the Niagara River on the 29th of that month. On returning from the sources of the Mississippi, I entered the same region on the 17th of October, and reached Oneida on the 21st of the same month. Prior to my visit to the Great West, I had dwelt some three years—namely, 1809, '10, '11, '12—in Oneida and Ontario counties. These were the opportunities enjoyed, up to the period, for acquiring a knowledge of the geography and geology of the country. Mr. A. Eaton'sIndex to Geology, published early in 1820, embraces nothing extending to western New York.[243]Appropriately pronounced a "secondary graywacke slate," by Mr. Eaton.[244]Usually written Skenanodoah, but pronounced as above.[245]This formation cannot be called "red sandstone," from its being generally white or gray, but appears to occupy the position of the "horizontal red sandstone" among European rocks.[246]The cornutiferous lime-rock of Mr. Eaton.[247]These tracts bear a valuable growth of pines, which constitute the source of a profitable lumber trade with the Ohio Valley.[248]This mineral oil also occurs in several of the lower tributaries of the Alleghany River, within the coal district.[249]A discovery of coal has been announced in Alleghany County, New York, as these sheets are going through the press, more than thirty years after these lines were penned.[250]This term is superseded, in geological discussions of the present day, by the termsilurian, which embraces all strata of the era between thepalæozoicandtertiaryformations.[251]Public Documents relating to the New York Canals, with an Introduction, &c., by Colonel Haines.[252]Notes on Virginia.[253]The only addition to ornithology which it fell to my lot to make, was in the grosbeck family, and this occurred after I came to return to St. Mary's. Mr. Wm. Cooper has called the new species fringilia vespertina, from the supposition that it sings during the evening. The Chippewas call this species paushkundame, from its thick and penetrating bill.[254]This animal was found grazing the prairies on the east bank of the Mississippi, about latitude 45° 30´.[255]Means under-ground drummer.[256]Found at Lapointe, Lake Superior.[257]This is a generic term for the eagle family. It is believed the kanieu, or black eagle, is regarded by them as the head of the family. The feathers of the falco furcatus are highly valued by warriors.[258]The meaning is white raven.[259]The term is from dain-da, a bullfrog.[260]This is the prairie grouse of the West.[261]The name is generic for the owl family.[262]This term arises fromadik, a reindeer, andgumaig, waters.[263]Broke instrument.[264]In Europe, the mean annual temperature necessary for the production of certain plants is—For the sugar-cane67°coffee64orange63olive54vine (vitis vinifera)51[265]Below zero.[266]Meteorological journal kept at the Albany Academy for October, 1820.[267]Iha ha [iha-ikiha] are words given as equivalent to laugh,v.in Riggs's Dictionary of the Dakota language, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1852. Ihapi,n., is laughter. The letterh, with a dot, represents a strong guttural, resembling the ArabicKha. Iha, by the same authority, is the lips or cover to anything; it is also an adverb of doubt. The vowelihas the sound ofiin marine, orein me.[268]Most probably this idea arose from the very marked precipices of the coast denominated Pictured Rocks.H. R. S.[269]The Giant's Causeway, on the Coast of Antrim.[270]Mr. Du Ponceau did me the honor, in 1834, to translate these two inquiries on the substantive in full, for the prize paper on the Algonquin, before the National Institute of France.[271]L. forliterally.[272]The double vowel is here employed to indicate the long sound ofi, asiin machine.[273]At the date of this publication, it is known that this metal occurs, both as a constituent of the mass copper in Lake Superior, and is also developed in veins in the stratification.[274]This term is in use by the Algic or Algonquin tribes, particularly by the Chippewas. The Winnebagoes, who have no equivalent for it, are generally acquainted with it, although I am not aware that they have, to any extent, adopted it. It has been supposed to be derived from the Frenchbon jour.[275]Com. Doc. No. 237.[276]The numbers in this column refer to the surface of the water in the Mississippi at the point mentioned, except when otherwise specially expressed.
STANZAS.ON REACHING THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN 1832.I.Ha! truant of western waters! Thou who hastSo long concealed thy very sources—flitting shy,Now here, now there—through spreading mazes vastThou art, at length, discovered to the eyeIn crystal springs, that run, like silver thread,From out their sandy heights, and glittering lieWithin a beauteous basin, fair outspreadHesperian woodlands of the western sky,As if, in Indian myths, a truth there could be read,And these were tears, indeed, by fair Itasca shed.II.To bear the sword, on prancing steed arrayed;To lift the voice admiring Senates own;To tune the lyre, enraptured muses played;Or pierce the starry heavens—the blue unknown—These were the aims of many sons of fame,Who shook the world with glory's golden song.I sought a moral meed of less acclaim,In treading lands remote, and mazes long;And while around aerial voices ring,I quaff the limpid cup at Mississippi's spring.H. R. S.[165]Narrative of an Expedition to Itasca Lake. Harpers. 1834. 1 vol. 8vo. p. 307.[166]Mr. Nicollet, who ascended the same fork in 1836, makes the distance twelve miles more.VideEx., Doc. No. 237.[167]Entire trees are often found imbedded in its rocks of the middle era, as is evidenced by an individual of the juglans nigra, of at least fifty feet long, in the River De Plaine, valley of the Illinois.VideAppendix.[168]Appendix.[169]Kakábik.Abikis a rock. The prefixed syllable,Kak, may be derived fromKukidjewum, a rapid stream.Kais often a prefix of negation in compound words, which has the force of a derogative.[170]From the termIah-pinuniddewin, an emphatic expression for a place of carnage, so called from a secret attack made at this place, in time past, by a party of Sioux, who killed every member of a lodge of Chippewas, and then shockingly mangled their bodies.[171]FromMonominakauning, place of wild rice.[172]Fromocaut, a leg, andkinabic, a snake.[173]Lieut.-Col. James Allen, U. S. A. This officer graduated at West Point in 1825. After passing through various grades, he was promoted to a captaincy of infantry in 1837. He was lieutenant-colonel and commandant of the battalion of Mormon volunteers in the Mexican war, which was raised by his exertions, and died at Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri, on the 23d of August, 1846.[174]Doc. No. 237.[175]From the wordpuka, abrupt phenomenon, and the verbsaugi, outflowing.[176]FromAizhenagozze, countenance, andkozh, a bill of a bird, or snout of an animal. The word is appropriately translatedguelleby the Canadians.[177]Equa, a female; it is not, appropriately, the term of wife, for which the vocabulary has a peculiar term, but is generally employed in the sense of woman.[178]I have observed this to be the universal custom among all the aboriginal females of America. They never part the feet.[179]It is hoped, hereafter, to give further sketches of this interview, and of this chief's life and character.[180]Called by the FrenchCrees.[181]The Fore-standing man. From the verbmaja, to go,ninabow, I stand, andizzee, a person or man.[182]For an account of this transaction,videReports of the Disputes between the Earl of Selkirk and the Northwest Company, at the assizes held at York, Upper Canada, Oct. 1818. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 664. Montreal, Casie & Mower, 1819.[183]Fromininéeg, men, andsugiegan, lake, signs of a war party having been discovered at this place. In this derivative, the usual transition ofntolof the old Algonquin is made.[184]Professor D. B. Douglas.[185]The angle of country above Leaf River, on the Crow-Wing, has been proposed as a refuge for the Menomonee tribe, of Wisconsin, for whom temporary arrangements, at least, are now made, on the head of Fox River, of that State.[186]This river has been assigned as the residence of the Winnebago Indians. It is the present seat of the United States agency, and of the farming and mechanical establishment for that tribe.[187]Mr. J. J. Nicolet pursued this route in 1836, on his visit to the sources of the Mississippi.VideSenate Doc. No. 237. Washington, D. C., 1843.[188]Crow-Wing River.—This stream is the largest tributary of the Mississippi above the falls of St. Anthony. It enters the Mississippi in lat. 46° 15´ 50´´, 180 miles above the latter, and 145 miles below Sandy Lake. Government first explored it, in 1832, from its source in Lake Kaginogumaug to its mouth, and an accurate map of its channel, and its eleven lakes, was made by Lieut. Allen, U. S. A., who accompanied the party as topographer. It is 210 miles in length, to its source in Long Lake. The island, in its mouth, is about three miles long, and covered with hard-wood timber. The whole region is noted for its pine timber; the lands lie in gentle ridges, with much open country; a large part of it is adapted to agriculture, and there is much hydraulic power It is navigable at the lowest stages of water, about 80 miles, and by small boats to its very source.[189]FromNoka, a man's name, andseebi, a river.[190]It was not till some time after my return to St. Mary's that I learned of the overthrow of the chief and his army, and his being taken prisoner at the battle of the Badaxe, on the 14th of August, 1832.[191]United States soldiers are not adapted to travelling in Indian canoes. Comparatively clumsy, formal, and used to the comforts of good quarters and shelter, they flinch under the activities and fatigue of forest life, and particularly of that kind of life and toil, which consists in the management of canoes, and the carrying forward canoes and baggage over bad portages, and conducting these frail vessels over dangerous rapids and around falls. No amount of energy is sufficient on the part of the officers to make them keep up, on these trips, with the gay, light, and athleticvoyageur, who unites the activity and expertness of the Indian with the power of endurance of the white man. Lieut. Allen deserves great credit, as an army officer, for urging his men forward as well as he did on this arduous journey, for they were a perpetual cause of delay and anxiety to me and to him. They were relieved and aided by my men at every practicable point; but, having the responsibility of performing a definite duty, on a fixed sum of money, with many men to feed in the wilderness, it was imperative in me to push on with energy, day in and day out, and to set a manful example of diligence, at every point; and, instead of carping at my rapidity of movement, as he does in his official report of the ascent of the St. Croix, he having every supply within himself, and being, moreover, in a friendly tribe, where there was no danger from Indian hostilities, he should not have evinced a desire to control my encampments, but rather given his men to understand that he could not countenance their dilatoriness.[192]It is, at this time, a part of the boundary between the State of Wisconsin and the Territory of Minnesota, and is the site of several flourishing towns and villages. On its western head is the town of Stillwater, the seat of justice for Washington County, Minnesota. This town has a population of 1,500 inhabitants, containing a court house, several churches, schools, printing offices, a public land office, and territorial penitentiary, with stores, mills, &c. Hudson is a town seated on its east bank, at Willow River, being the seat of justice for St. Croix County, Wisconsin. It contains a United States land-office, two churches, and 94 dwellings, besides stores and mills. Steamboats freely navigate its waters from the Mississippi.[193]Falls of St. Croix.—A thriving post town is now seated on the Wisconsin side of these falls in Polk County, Wisconsin, which contains several mills, at which it is estimated, four millions of feet of pine lumber are sawed annually. It is at the head of steamboat navigation of St. Croix River.[194]VideOwen's Geological Report, for the first attempt to delineate the order of the various local and general formations. Philada., Lippincott & Co., 1852.[195]Fromnama, a sturgeon, andkagun, a yoke or wier. I explored this stream in 1831, having reached it after ascending the Mauvais or Maskigo of Lake Superior.VidePersonal Memoirs: Lippincott, Grambo, & Co., 1851.[196]Frommukuda, black, andpenaisee, a bird, the name of the rail.[197]Frommisk, red or colored,muscoda, a plain, andauk, a dead standing tree, as a tree burned by fire or lightning. From the French translation of the word, by the phraseBrulé; the Indian meaning is clearly shown to be burnt, scorched, or parched—a term which is applied to metifs of the mixed race.[198]Frommong, a loon, andozid, his foot. The name is in allusion to the track of the bird on the sand.[199]On passing through Lake Superior, I learned from an Indian the first breaking out of Asiatic cholera in the country, in 1832, and the wide alarm it had produced.[200]This is the origin of Major Long's second expedition.[201]Explored by the preceding narrative in 1831-1833.[202]Explored by the preceding narrative in 1831-1833.[203]Galet, in the Canadian patois, means a smooth, flat rock.—H. R. S.[204]A little doubtful.[205]A little doubtful.[206]Or 20´´.[207]This copper rock now (1854) lies in the yard of the War Office at Washington.[208]A locality of serpentine rock has since been discovered at Presque Isle, on Lake Superior.[209]The two geological profiles of the Mississippi Valley and the Lake Basins accompanying the original are here omitted; as, also, most of the illustrative views of scenery which accompanied the original.[210]Pike's Expedition. This observation is corrected by Capt. Douglass to 47° 27´ 10´´; the point of observation being, however, a few miles south.[211]VideNarrative Journal.[212]In 1824, an Indian brought me a specimen of native silver found on this part of the coast. It was imbedded in a boulder of mixed granite and steatite.[213]Ships make the traverse where it is sixty miles wide.[214]The reason of this name I did not learn. It is apparently the same name as that bestowed on a mountain range in Orange and Ulster Counties, New York, lying south of the Catskills, where it is sometimes called, for short, Shongum. The meaning is, evidently, something like South-land-place. The localunkmay be translated hill, island, continent, &c. &c.[215]The name, as pronounced by the Indians, is Mich-en-i-mack-in-ong, meaning Place of Turtle Spirits, a notion of their mythology. It was anciently deemed a sacred spot, or one where Monetoes revealed themselves.[216]Dr. John Bigsby, in a memoir read before the London Geological Society, has described and figured several of these. In a memoir by Charles Stokes, Esq., of London, read before this Society in June, 1837, some of its most striking fossils are figured and described, with references to the prior discoveries of Dr. Bigsby, Captain Bayfield, and Dr. Richardson. Six new species of the Arctinoceras, and five of the Huronia, Ormoceras, and Orthocerata, are figured and described in the most splendid manner. This memoir is essential to all who would understand its fossil history, and that of the North generally.[217]Strong water.[218]Reached somewhere about 1641, by the French missionaries.[219]In 1825, Lieutenant Charles F. Morton, U. S. A., sent to my office a mass of this red sand rock, of about twelve inches diameter, perfectly round and ball-shaped, which he had directed one of the soldiers to pick up, in an excursion among the islands of the lower St. Mary's. This ball was a monument of that physical throe which had originally carried this river through the sandstone pass of St. Mary's, having been manifestly rounded in what geologists have called "a pocket hole" in the rock at the falls, and afterwards carried away, with the disrupted rocks, down the valley.[220]The Indiana call itPauwateeg(water leaping on the rocks), when speaking of the phenomenon, andPawating, when referring to the place of it.[221]During a subsequent residence of eleven years at this point, the excavations made on both sides of the river, in digging wells, canals made by the military, &c., fully demonstrated the truth of this general observation. In these positions, it was evident that some greatly superior force of watery removal, such as does not now exist, had heaped together particles of similar matters, according to laws which govern moving, compacted masses of water, leaving clay to settle according to the laws of diffused clay, sand of sand, and pebbles and boulders of pebbles and boulders. In their change and redeposit, gravity has evidently been the primary cause, modified by compressed currents, attraction, and probably those secret and still undeveloped magnetic and electric influences which exist in connection with astronomical phenomena. That the earth's surface, "standing out of the water and in the water," has been disrupted and preyed upon by oceanic power, no one, at this day of geological illumination, will deny.[222]In 1831, in making some explorations of this rock with gunpowder, I found the serpentine in a crystalline state, of a beautiful deep-green color, but appearing as if the crystallization was pseudomorphous.[223]The extensive iron mines of Marquette County, Upper Michigan, are now worked in this vicinity.[224]Porcupine Mountains. Fromkaug, a porcupine, andwudju, mountain.[225]Videmy view of the lead mines, in the Appendix to "Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mountains."[226]I would also refer, for subsequent information, to my report of the 1st of October, 1822, made in compliance to a resolution of the Senate, and printed in the Executive Documents of that year, No. 365, 17th Congress, 2d session.[227]VideView of the lead mines.[228]Agreeable to barometric observations made in 1836, by Mr. Nicollet, its true altitude is found to be 1,402 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. Its latitude, by the same authority, is 47° 25´ 23´´.[229]Thirty years has made it the centre of the new territory of Minnesota, which has now entered on the career of nations.[230]This object was accomplished by an expedition by Major L. Long, in 1823.[231]This river was explored by me in 1831 and 1832, in two separate expeditions in the public service, accounts of which have been published in 1831 and 1832, of which abstracts are given in the preceding pages.[232]Galenahas subsequently been made the capital of these mines.[233]The subjoined petrifaction of a leaf, apparently a species of betula, was obtained on this river. Seeante, p.206.[234]This metal has subsequently (namely, in 1844) been found to constitute a percentage in the native copper of the Eagle River mines of Lake Superior. Traces of it were found in a mass of native copper found on the shores of Keweena Lake, by Mr. Moliday, in 1826. A mass of pure silver was discovered in a boulder in the drift of Lake Huron, west of White Rock, in 1824. These discoveries induce the belief that this element will be found to be extensively present in the eventual metallurgic operations of the Lake Superior basin.[235]To the Senate of the United States:—In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 8th May last, requesting "information relative to the copper mines on the southern shore of Lake Superior, their number, value, and position, the names of the Indian tribes who claim them, the practicability of extinguishing their titles, and the probable advantage which may result to the Republic from the acquisition and working these mines," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which comprises the information desired in the resolution referred to.JAMES MONROE.Washington, 7th December, 1822.Department of War, 3d December, 1822.The Secretary of War, to whom was referred the resolution of the Senate of the 8th May last, requesting the President of the United States "to communicate to the Senate, at the commencement of the next session of Congress, any information which may be in the possession of the Government, derived from special agents or otherwise, showing the number, value, and position of the copper mines on the south shore of Lake Superior, the names of the Indian tribes who claim them, the practicability of extinguishing their title, and the probable advantage which may result to the Republic from the acquisition and working these mines," has the honor to transmit a report of Henry R. Schoolcraft, Indian agent at the Sault of Ste. Marie, on the copper mines in the region of Lake Superior, which contains all the information in relation to the subject in this department.All which is respectfully submitted.J. C. CALHOUN.To thePresident of the United States.[236]VideJameson's Mineralogy, Parkes's Chemical Catechism, Phillips's Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy.[237]For the different names applied to this tribe of Indians, see Appendix H.[238]Videacts passed at the second session of the 16th Congress of the United States, page 88.[239]Videacts passed at the second session of the 16th Congress, p. 91.[240]Silliman.[241]This fact is not stated in full confidence. I cannot refer to any authorities to prove that they were formally recognized by the United States before this very recent period. By the French and British governments they were known soon after the first settlements at Quebec and Albany (A. D.1608, 1614), and subsequently treated with. A band of warriors from Chegoimegon, on Lake Superior, under the command of Waub Ojeag, or the White Fisher, was present at the taking of Fort Niagara by Sir W. Johnston in 1759.[242]At the time these sketches were written, no geological observations had been made on this field, which has, at subsequent periods, been so elaborately described; nor had the topic itself attracted much attention. I landed at New York, in the ship Arethusa, from New Orleans, in the summer of 1819, and published, in that city, in the fall of that year, an account of the lead-bearing rocks of Missouri, and their supporting white sandstones, which rest, in horizontal deposits, on the primitive formation of the St. Francis; bringing, at the same time, a rich collection of the mineralogy of that region, which soon became known in private cabinets. This became the cause of my employment, by the United States Government, to visit the alleged copper mines on Lake Superior, as a member of the expedition to the sources of the Mississippi. I left Oneida County, in the district remarked on, on the 10th of April of that year, and reached the banks of the Niagara River on the 29th of that month. On returning from the sources of the Mississippi, I entered the same region on the 17th of October, and reached Oneida on the 21st of the same month. Prior to my visit to the Great West, I had dwelt some three years—namely, 1809, '10, '11, '12—in Oneida and Ontario counties. These were the opportunities enjoyed, up to the period, for acquiring a knowledge of the geography and geology of the country. Mr. A. Eaton'sIndex to Geology, published early in 1820, embraces nothing extending to western New York.[243]Appropriately pronounced a "secondary graywacke slate," by Mr. Eaton.[244]Usually written Skenanodoah, but pronounced as above.[245]This formation cannot be called "red sandstone," from its being generally white or gray, but appears to occupy the position of the "horizontal red sandstone" among European rocks.[246]The cornutiferous lime-rock of Mr. Eaton.[247]These tracts bear a valuable growth of pines, which constitute the source of a profitable lumber trade with the Ohio Valley.[248]This mineral oil also occurs in several of the lower tributaries of the Alleghany River, within the coal district.[249]A discovery of coal has been announced in Alleghany County, New York, as these sheets are going through the press, more than thirty years after these lines were penned.[250]This term is superseded, in geological discussions of the present day, by the termsilurian, which embraces all strata of the era between thepalæozoicandtertiaryformations.[251]Public Documents relating to the New York Canals, with an Introduction, &c., by Colonel Haines.[252]Notes on Virginia.[253]The only addition to ornithology which it fell to my lot to make, was in the grosbeck family, and this occurred after I came to return to St. Mary's. Mr. Wm. Cooper has called the new species fringilia vespertina, from the supposition that it sings during the evening. The Chippewas call this species paushkundame, from its thick and penetrating bill.[254]This animal was found grazing the prairies on the east bank of the Mississippi, about latitude 45° 30´.[255]Means under-ground drummer.[256]Found at Lapointe, Lake Superior.[257]This is a generic term for the eagle family. It is believed the kanieu, or black eagle, is regarded by them as the head of the family. The feathers of the falco furcatus are highly valued by warriors.[258]The meaning is white raven.[259]The term is from dain-da, a bullfrog.[260]This is the prairie grouse of the West.[261]The name is generic for the owl family.[262]This term arises fromadik, a reindeer, andgumaig, waters.[263]Broke instrument.[264]In Europe, the mean annual temperature necessary for the production of certain plants is—For the sugar-cane67°coffee64orange63olive54vine (vitis vinifera)51[265]Below zero.[266]Meteorological journal kept at the Albany Academy for October, 1820.[267]Iha ha [iha-ikiha] are words given as equivalent to laugh,v.in Riggs's Dictionary of the Dakota language, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1852. Ihapi,n., is laughter. The letterh, with a dot, represents a strong guttural, resembling the ArabicKha. Iha, by the same authority, is the lips or cover to anything; it is also an adverb of doubt. The vowelihas the sound ofiin marine, orein me.[268]Most probably this idea arose from the very marked precipices of the coast denominated Pictured Rocks.H. R. S.[269]The Giant's Causeway, on the Coast of Antrim.[270]Mr. Du Ponceau did me the honor, in 1834, to translate these two inquiries on the substantive in full, for the prize paper on the Algonquin, before the National Institute of France.[271]L. forliterally.[272]The double vowel is here employed to indicate the long sound ofi, asiin machine.[273]At the date of this publication, it is known that this metal occurs, both as a constituent of the mass copper in Lake Superior, and is also developed in veins in the stratification.[274]This term is in use by the Algic or Algonquin tribes, particularly by the Chippewas. The Winnebagoes, who have no equivalent for it, are generally acquainted with it, although I am not aware that they have, to any extent, adopted it. It has been supposed to be derived from the Frenchbon jour.[275]Com. Doc. No. 237.[276]The numbers in this column refer to the surface of the water in the Mississippi at the point mentioned, except when otherwise specially expressed.
STANZAS.ON REACHING THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN 1832.I.Ha! truant of western waters! Thou who hastSo long concealed thy very sources—flitting shy,Now here, now there—through spreading mazes vastThou art, at length, discovered to the eyeIn crystal springs, that run, like silver thread,From out their sandy heights, and glittering lieWithin a beauteous basin, fair outspreadHesperian woodlands of the western sky,As if, in Indian myths, a truth there could be read,And these were tears, indeed, by fair Itasca shed.II.To bear the sword, on prancing steed arrayed;To lift the voice admiring Senates own;To tune the lyre, enraptured muses played;Or pierce the starry heavens—the blue unknown—These were the aims of many sons of fame,Who shook the world with glory's golden song.I sought a moral meed of less acclaim,In treading lands remote, and mazes long;And while around aerial voices ring,I quaff the limpid cup at Mississippi's spring.H. R. S.
STANZAS.ON REACHING THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN 1832.
STANZAS.
ON REACHING THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN 1832.
I.
I.
Ha! truant of western waters! Thou who hastSo long concealed thy very sources—flitting shy,Now here, now there—through spreading mazes vastThou art, at length, discovered to the eyeIn crystal springs, that run, like silver thread,From out their sandy heights, and glittering lieWithin a beauteous basin, fair outspreadHesperian woodlands of the western sky,As if, in Indian myths, a truth there could be read,And these were tears, indeed, by fair Itasca shed.
Ha! truant of western waters! Thou who hast
So long concealed thy very sources—flitting shy,
Now here, now there—through spreading mazes vast
Thou art, at length, discovered to the eye
In crystal springs, that run, like silver thread,
From out their sandy heights, and glittering lie
Within a beauteous basin, fair outspread
Hesperian woodlands of the western sky,
As if, in Indian myths, a truth there could be read,
And these were tears, indeed, by fair Itasca shed.
II.To bear the sword, on prancing steed arrayed;To lift the voice admiring Senates own;To tune the lyre, enraptured muses played;Or pierce the starry heavens—the blue unknown—These were the aims of many sons of fame,Who shook the world with glory's golden song.I sought a moral meed of less acclaim,In treading lands remote, and mazes long;And while around aerial voices ring,I quaff the limpid cup at Mississippi's spring.
II.
To bear the sword, on prancing steed arrayed;
To lift the voice admiring Senates own;
To tune the lyre, enraptured muses played;
Or pierce the starry heavens—the blue unknown—
These were the aims of many sons of fame,
Who shook the world with glory's golden song.
I sought a moral meed of less acclaim,
In treading lands remote, and mazes long;
And while around aerial voices ring,
I quaff the limpid cup at Mississippi's spring.
H. R. S.
H. R. S.
[165]Narrative of an Expedition to Itasca Lake. Harpers. 1834. 1 vol. 8vo. p. 307.
[166]Mr. Nicollet, who ascended the same fork in 1836, makes the distance twelve miles more.VideEx., Doc. No. 237.
[167]Entire trees are often found imbedded in its rocks of the middle era, as is evidenced by an individual of the juglans nigra, of at least fifty feet long, in the River De Plaine, valley of the Illinois.VideAppendix.
[168]Appendix.
[169]Kakábik.Abikis a rock. The prefixed syllable,Kak, may be derived fromKukidjewum, a rapid stream.Kais often a prefix of negation in compound words, which has the force of a derogative.
[170]From the termIah-pinuniddewin, an emphatic expression for a place of carnage, so called from a secret attack made at this place, in time past, by a party of Sioux, who killed every member of a lodge of Chippewas, and then shockingly mangled their bodies.
[171]FromMonominakauning, place of wild rice.
[172]Fromocaut, a leg, andkinabic, a snake.
[173]Lieut.-Col. James Allen, U. S. A. This officer graduated at West Point in 1825. After passing through various grades, he was promoted to a captaincy of infantry in 1837. He was lieutenant-colonel and commandant of the battalion of Mormon volunteers in the Mexican war, which was raised by his exertions, and died at Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri, on the 23d of August, 1846.
[174]Doc. No. 237.
[175]From the wordpuka, abrupt phenomenon, and the verbsaugi, outflowing.
[176]FromAizhenagozze, countenance, andkozh, a bill of a bird, or snout of an animal. The word is appropriately translatedguelleby the Canadians.
[177]Equa, a female; it is not, appropriately, the term of wife, for which the vocabulary has a peculiar term, but is generally employed in the sense of woman.
[178]I have observed this to be the universal custom among all the aboriginal females of America. They never part the feet.
[179]It is hoped, hereafter, to give further sketches of this interview, and of this chief's life and character.
[180]Called by the FrenchCrees.
[181]The Fore-standing man. From the verbmaja, to go,ninabow, I stand, andizzee, a person or man.
[182]For an account of this transaction,videReports of the Disputes between the Earl of Selkirk and the Northwest Company, at the assizes held at York, Upper Canada, Oct. 1818. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 664. Montreal, Casie & Mower, 1819.
[183]Fromininéeg, men, andsugiegan, lake, signs of a war party having been discovered at this place. In this derivative, the usual transition ofntolof the old Algonquin is made.
[184]Professor D. B. Douglas.
[185]The angle of country above Leaf River, on the Crow-Wing, has been proposed as a refuge for the Menomonee tribe, of Wisconsin, for whom temporary arrangements, at least, are now made, on the head of Fox River, of that State.
[186]This river has been assigned as the residence of the Winnebago Indians. It is the present seat of the United States agency, and of the farming and mechanical establishment for that tribe.
[187]Mr. J. J. Nicolet pursued this route in 1836, on his visit to the sources of the Mississippi.VideSenate Doc. No. 237. Washington, D. C., 1843.
[188]Crow-Wing River.—This stream is the largest tributary of the Mississippi above the falls of St. Anthony. It enters the Mississippi in lat. 46° 15´ 50´´, 180 miles above the latter, and 145 miles below Sandy Lake. Government first explored it, in 1832, from its source in Lake Kaginogumaug to its mouth, and an accurate map of its channel, and its eleven lakes, was made by Lieut. Allen, U. S. A., who accompanied the party as topographer. It is 210 miles in length, to its source in Long Lake. The island, in its mouth, is about three miles long, and covered with hard-wood timber. The whole region is noted for its pine timber; the lands lie in gentle ridges, with much open country; a large part of it is adapted to agriculture, and there is much hydraulic power It is navigable at the lowest stages of water, about 80 miles, and by small boats to its very source.
[189]FromNoka, a man's name, andseebi, a river.
[190]It was not till some time after my return to St. Mary's that I learned of the overthrow of the chief and his army, and his being taken prisoner at the battle of the Badaxe, on the 14th of August, 1832.
[191]United States soldiers are not adapted to travelling in Indian canoes. Comparatively clumsy, formal, and used to the comforts of good quarters and shelter, they flinch under the activities and fatigue of forest life, and particularly of that kind of life and toil, which consists in the management of canoes, and the carrying forward canoes and baggage over bad portages, and conducting these frail vessels over dangerous rapids and around falls. No amount of energy is sufficient on the part of the officers to make them keep up, on these trips, with the gay, light, and athleticvoyageur, who unites the activity and expertness of the Indian with the power of endurance of the white man. Lieut. Allen deserves great credit, as an army officer, for urging his men forward as well as he did on this arduous journey, for they were a perpetual cause of delay and anxiety to me and to him. They were relieved and aided by my men at every practicable point; but, having the responsibility of performing a definite duty, on a fixed sum of money, with many men to feed in the wilderness, it was imperative in me to push on with energy, day in and day out, and to set a manful example of diligence, at every point; and, instead of carping at my rapidity of movement, as he does in his official report of the ascent of the St. Croix, he having every supply within himself, and being, moreover, in a friendly tribe, where there was no danger from Indian hostilities, he should not have evinced a desire to control my encampments, but rather given his men to understand that he could not countenance their dilatoriness.
[192]It is, at this time, a part of the boundary between the State of Wisconsin and the Territory of Minnesota, and is the site of several flourishing towns and villages. On its western head is the town of Stillwater, the seat of justice for Washington County, Minnesota. This town has a population of 1,500 inhabitants, containing a court house, several churches, schools, printing offices, a public land office, and territorial penitentiary, with stores, mills, &c. Hudson is a town seated on its east bank, at Willow River, being the seat of justice for St. Croix County, Wisconsin. It contains a United States land-office, two churches, and 94 dwellings, besides stores and mills. Steamboats freely navigate its waters from the Mississippi.
[193]Falls of St. Croix.—A thriving post town is now seated on the Wisconsin side of these falls in Polk County, Wisconsin, which contains several mills, at which it is estimated, four millions of feet of pine lumber are sawed annually. It is at the head of steamboat navigation of St. Croix River.
[194]VideOwen's Geological Report, for the first attempt to delineate the order of the various local and general formations. Philada., Lippincott & Co., 1852.
[195]Fromnama, a sturgeon, andkagun, a yoke or wier. I explored this stream in 1831, having reached it after ascending the Mauvais or Maskigo of Lake Superior.VidePersonal Memoirs: Lippincott, Grambo, & Co., 1851.
[196]Frommukuda, black, andpenaisee, a bird, the name of the rail.
[197]Frommisk, red or colored,muscoda, a plain, andauk, a dead standing tree, as a tree burned by fire or lightning. From the French translation of the word, by the phraseBrulé; the Indian meaning is clearly shown to be burnt, scorched, or parched—a term which is applied to metifs of the mixed race.
[198]Frommong, a loon, andozid, his foot. The name is in allusion to the track of the bird on the sand.
[199]On passing through Lake Superior, I learned from an Indian the first breaking out of Asiatic cholera in the country, in 1832, and the wide alarm it had produced.
[200]This is the origin of Major Long's second expedition.
[201]Explored by the preceding narrative in 1831-1833.
[202]Explored by the preceding narrative in 1831-1833.
[203]Galet, in the Canadian patois, means a smooth, flat rock.—H. R. S.
[204]A little doubtful.
[205]A little doubtful.
[206]Or 20´´.
[207]This copper rock now (1854) lies in the yard of the War Office at Washington.
[208]A locality of serpentine rock has since been discovered at Presque Isle, on Lake Superior.
[209]The two geological profiles of the Mississippi Valley and the Lake Basins accompanying the original are here omitted; as, also, most of the illustrative views of scenery which accompanied the original.
[210]Pike's Expedition. This observation is corrected by Capt. Douglass to 47° 27´ 10´´; the point of observation being, however, a few miles south.
[211]VideNarrative Journal.
[212]In 1824, an Indian brought me a specimen of native silver found on this part of the coast. It was imbedded in a boulder of mixed granite and steatite.
[213]Ships make the traverse where it is sixty miles wide.
[214]The reason of this name I did not learn. It is apparently the same name as that bestowed on a mountain range in Orange and Ulster Counties, New York, lying south of the Catskills, where it is sometimes called, for short, Shongum. The meaning is, evidently, something like South-land-place. The localunkmay be translated hill, island, continent, &c. &c.
[215]The name, as pronounced by the Indians, is Mich-en-i-mack-in-ong, meaning Place of Turtle Spirits, a notion of their mythology. It was anciently deemed a sacred spot, or one where Monetoes revealed themselves.
[216]Dr. John Bigsby, in a memoir read before the London Geological Society, has described and figured several of these. In a memoir by Charles Stokes, Esq., of London, read before this Society in June, 1837, some of its most striking fossils are figured and described, with references to the prior discoveries of Dr. Bigsby, Captain Bayfield, and Dr. Richardson. Six new species of the Arctinoceras, and five of the Huronia, Ormoceras, and Orthocerata, are figured and described in the most splendid manner. This memoir is essential to all who would understand its fossil history, and that of the North generally.
[217]Strong water.
[218]Reached somewhere about 1641, by the French missionaries.
[219]In 1825, Lieutenant Charles F. Morton, U. S. A., sent to my office a mass of this red sand rock, of about twelve inches diameter, perfectly round and ball-shaped, which he had directed one of the soldiers to pick up, in an excursion among the islands of the lower St. Mary's. This ball was a monument of that physical throe which had originally carried this river through the sandstone pass of St. Mary's, having been manifestly rounded in what geologists have called "a pocket hole" in the rock at the falls, and afterwards carried away, with the disrupted rocks, down the valley.
[220]The Indiana call itPauwateeg(water leaping on the rocks), when speaking of the phenomenon, andPawating, when referring to the place of it.
[221]During a subsequent residence of eleven years at this point, the excavations made on both sides of the river, in digging wells, canals made by the military, &c., fully demonstrated the truth of this general observation. In these positions, it was evident that some greatly superior force of watery removal, such as does not now exist, had heaped together particles of similar matters, according to laws which govern moving, compacted masses of water, leaving clay to settle according to the laws of diffused clay, sand of sand, and pebbles and boulders of pebbles and boulders. In their change and redeposit, gravity has evidently been the primary cause, modified by compressed currents, attraction, and probably those secret and still undeveloped magnetic and electric influences which exist in connection with astronomical phenomena. That the earth's surface, "standing out of the water and in the water," has been disrupted and preyed upon by oceanic power, no one, at this day of geological illumination, will deny.
[222]In 1831, in making some explorations of this rock with gunpowder, I found the serpentine in a crystalline state, of a beautiful deep-green color, but appearing as if the crystallization was pseudomorphous.
[223]The extensive iron mines of Marquette County, Upper Michigan, are now worked in this vicinity.
[224]Porcupine Mountains. Fromkaug, a porcupine, andwudju, mountain.
[225]Videmy view of the lead mines, in the Appendix to "Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mountains."
[226]I would also refer, for subsequent information, to my report of the 1st of October, 1822, made in compliance to a resolution of the Senate, and printed in the Executive Documents of that year, No. 365, 17th Congress, 2d session.
[227]VideView of the lead mines.
[228]Agreeable to barometric observations made in 1836, by Mr. Nicollet, its true altitude is found to be 1,402 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. Its latitude, by the same authority, is 47° 25´ 23´´.
[229]Thirty years has made it the centre of the new territory of Minnesota, which has now entered on the career of nations.
[230]This object was accomplished by an expedition by Major L. Long, in 1823.
[231]This river was explored by me in 1831 and 1832, in two separate expeditions in the public service, accounts of which have been published in 1831 and 1832, of which abstracts are given in the preceding pages.
[232]Galenahas subsequently been made the capital of these mines.
[233]The subjoined petrifaction of a leaf, apparently a species of betula, was obtained on this river. Seeante, p.206.
[234]This metal has subsequently (namely, in 1844) been found to constitute a percentage in the native copper of the Eagle River mines of Lake Superior. Traces of it were found in a mass of native copper found on the shores of Keweena Lake, by Mr. Moliday, in 1826. A mass of pure silver was discovered in a boulder in the drift of Lake Huron, west of White Rock, in 1824. These discoveries induce the belief that this element will be found to be extensively present in the eventual metallurgic operations of the Lake Superior basin.
[235]To the Senate of the United States:—
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 8th May last, requesting "information relative to the copper mines on the southern shore of Lake Superior, their number, value, and position, the names of the Indian tribes who claim them, the practicability of extinguishing their titles, and the probable advantage which may result to the Republic from the acquisition and working these mines," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which comprises the information desired in the resolution referred to.
JAMES MONROE.
Washington, 7th December, 1822.
Department of War, 3d December, 1822.
The Secretary of War, to whom was referred the resolution of the Senate of the 8th May last, requesting the President of the United States "to communicate to the Senate, at the commencement of the next session of Congress, any information which may be in the possession of the Government, derived from special agents or otherwise, showing the number, value, and position of the copper mines on the south shore of Lake Superior, the names of the Indian tribes who claim them, the practicability of extinguishing their title, and the probable advantage which may result to the Republic from the acquisition and working these mines," has the honor to transmit a report of Henry R. Schoolcraft, Indian agent at the Sault of Ste. Marie, on the copper mines in the region of Lake Superior, which contains all the information in relation to the subject in this department.
All which is respectfully submitted.
J. C. CALHOUN.
To thePresident of the United States.
[236]VideJameson's Mineralogy, Parkes's Chemical Catechism, Phillips's Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy.
[237]For the different names applied to this tribe of Indians, see Appendix H.
[238]Videacts passed at the second session of the 16th Congress of the United States, page 88.
[239]Videacts passed at the second session of the 16th Congress, p. 91.
[240]Silliman.
[241]This fact is not stated in full confidence. I cannot refer to any authorities to prove that they were formally recognized by the United States before this very recent period. By the French and British governments they were known soon after the first settlements at Quebec and Albany (A. D.1608, 1614), and subsequently treated with. A band of warriors from Chegoimegon, on Lake Superior, under the command of Waub Ojeag, or the White Fisher, was present at the taking of Fort Niagara by Sir W. Johnston in 1759.
[242]At the time these sketches were written, no geological observations had been made on this field, which has, at subsequent periods, been so elaborately described; nor had the topic itself attracted much attention. I landed at New York, in the ship Arethusa, from New Orleans, in the summer of 1819, and published, in that city, in the fall of that year, an account of the lead-bearing rocks of Missouri, and their supporting white sandstones, which rest, in horizontal deposits, on the primitive formation of the St. Francis; bringing, at the same time, a rich collection of the mineralogy of that region, which soon became known in private cabinets. This became the cause of my employment, by the United States Government, to visit the alleged copper mines on Lake Superior, as a member of the expedition to the sources of the Mississippi. I left Oneida County, in the district remarked on, on the 10th of April of that year, and reached the banks of the Niagara River on the 29th of that month. On returning from the sources of the Mississippi, I entered the same region on the 17th of October, and reached Oneida on the 21st of the same month. Prior to my visit to the Great West, I had dwelt some three years—namely, 1809, '10, '11, '12—in Oneida and Ontario counties. These were the opportunities enjoyed, up to the period, for acquiring a knowledge of the geography and geology of the country. Mr. A. Eaton'sIndex to Geology, published early in 1820, embraces nothing extending to western New York.
[243]Appropriately pronounced a "secondary graywacke slate," by Mr. Eaton.
[244]Usually written Skenanodoah, but pronounced as above.
[245]This formation cannot be called "red sandstone," from its being generally white or gray, but appears to occupy the position of the "horizontal red sandstone" among European rocks.
[246]The cornutiferous lime-rock of Mr. Eaton.
[247]These tracts bear a valuable growth of pines, which constitute the source of a profitable lumber trade with the Ohio Valley.
[248]This mineral oil also occurs in several of the lower tributaries of the Alleghany River, within the coal district.
[249]A discovery of coal has been announced in Alleghany County, New York, as these sheets are going through the press, more than thirty years after these lines were penned.
[250]This term is superseded, in geological discussions of the present day, by the termsilurian, which embraces all strata of the era between thepalæozoicandtertiaryformations.
[251]Public Documents relating to the New York Canals, with an Introduction, &c., by Colonel Haines.
[252]Notes on Virginia.
[253]The only addition to ornithology which it fell to my lot to make, was in the grosbeck family, and this occurred after I came to return to St. Mary's. Mr. Wm. Cooper has called the new species fringilia vespertina, from the supposition that it sings during the evening. The Chippewas call this species paushkundame, from its thick and penetrating bill.
[254]This animal was found grazing the prairies on the east bank of the Mississippi, about latitude 45° 30´.
[255]Means under-ground drummer.
[256]Found at Lapointe, Lake Superior.
[257]This is a generic term for the eagle family. It is believed the kanieu, or black eagle, is regarded by them as the head of the family. The feathers of the falco furcatus are highly valued by warriors.
[258]The meaning is white raven.
[259]The term is from dain-da, a bullfrog.
[260]This is the prairie grouse of the West.
[261]The name is generic for the owl family.
[262]This term arises fromadik, a reindeer, andgumaig, waters.
[263]Broke instrument.
[264]In Europe, the mean annual temperature necessary for the production of certain plants is—
[265]Below zero.
[266]Meteorological journal kept at the Albany Academy for October, 1820.
[267]Iha ha [iha-ikiha] are words given as equivalent to laugh,v.in Riggs's Dictionary of the Dakota language, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1852. Ihapi,n., is laughter. The letterh, with a dot, represents a strong guttural, resembling the ArabicKha. Iha, by the same authority, is the lips or cover to anything; it is also an adverb of doubt. The vowelihas the sound ofiin marine, orein me.
[268]Most probably this idea arose from the very marked precipices of the coast denominated Pictured Rocks.H. R. S.
[269]The Giant's Causeway, on the Coast of Antrim.
[270]Mr. Du Ponceau did me the honor, in 1834, to translate these two inquiries on the substantive in full, for the prize paper on the Algonquin, before the National Institute of France.
[271]L. forliterally.
[272]The double vowel is here employed to indicate the long sound ofi, asiin machine.
[273]At the date of this publication, it is known that this metal occurs, both as a constituent of the mass copper in Lake Superior, and is also developed in veins in the stratification.
[274]This term is in use by the Algic or Algonquin tribes, particularly by the Chippewas. The Winnebagoes, who have no equivalent for it, are generally acquainted with it, although I am not aware that they have, to any extent, adopted it. It has been supposed to be derived from the Frenchbon jour.
[275]Com. Doc. No. 237.
[276]The numbers in this column refer to the surface of the water in the Mississippi at the point mentioned, except when otherwise specially expressed.