q 557 I CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS IK MINNESOTA. By ST. H. WINCHELL. The geographical position of Minnesota is such that for the last two hundred years it has been the ultima thule for western travelers and adventurers. Before railroads and highways had made it possible to reach the state from the Atlantic cities easily and quickly, it was the turning- back point for most explorers, traders and adventurers. The route by the great lakes terminated at Fond du Lac, the head of the great system of inland lakes of North America. The route by the Mississippi for canoes either ceased at the Falls of St. Anthony, or, if pushed further, was lost in a labyrinth of small streams and lakes in which the Mississippi has its origin. Westward from the Mississippi, or at least westward from the Red river of the North, and the St. Peter's, extended the boundless prairies of the continent, to cross which, or to enter on which, was, to most travelers, too arduous and too fruitless an enterpiise; and few were hardy enough to penetrate so far as the “Shining Mountains,” which constituted the next ^ natural goal of the explorer’s ambition. Not only the zeal of the mis- * sionary, but the cupidity of the fur-trader —avant coureurs of American civilization—found in Minnesota a long halting-place. Hence a multitude ‘r 7 of published “journals” and “expeditions,” or “visits,” have made Minne- o ^ sota widely known throughout both English and French-speaking countries. Many of these volumes are ignored in the following historical synopsis. 2 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Champlain, 1615 The design has been to note the steps of geographical, as well as geological exploration as authenticated by governmental or semi-official publications. At the conclusion of peace between Great Britain and France, in 1768, the territory which is now embraced within Minnesota was divided by a line running south from the international boundary to the source of the Mississippi river, and thence southward along the Mississippi. France retained that portion lying to the west of the line, and that to the east was declared subject to the British crown. The name Louisiane , which was applied by the French to the lower portions of the Mississippi, was extended northward so as to include all their possessions south of the forty-ninth parallel. That portion-of the state which lies east of the division line ot 1768 became, in 1788, a part ot the original area of the United States, included in the “ Territory northwest of the Ohio river.” In 1808 France ceded the “province of Louisiana” to the United States. Minnesota was admitted into the Union, as a State, in the year 1858. The history ot exploration may lienee be divided into three parts: 1. Period prior to 1788; 2. Period of Territorial Exploration; 8. Period of State Exploration and Survey. I. PERIOD PRIOR TO 1783- The map of Champlain shows the knowledge he obtained ot the western country from the Hurons at the time of his visit to their country in 1615.* This represents the “Grand Lac,” which is the French for Kitchi Gummi, the Chippewa name of lake Superior, with a large stream entering it from the south, called “ La Grande Riviere.” This probably refers to the Mississippi, of which he could have had only a vague idea, and especially since no such stream, commensurate with the importance which he has given this, enters lake Superior from the south. The accident of its being *The pr'ncipal authorities consulted on the earliest geographical explorations in Minnesota are the following Notes pour servir a Vhistoire et a la bibliographic et la cartographic de la N ouvelle-France et des Pays adjacents , 1545-1700: par l’auteur de la Bibliotheca Americana vetustissima, Paris, Librairie Tross, 1872. The Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, four volumes, and the Publications of the Department of American History, of the Minnesota Historical Society Decouvertes et etablissements des Francais dansl'ouest et dans le sud de TAmerique septentrionale; by Pierre Margry, Paris Hennepin’s Louisiana, a translation from the French of Hennepin’s first, or Paris, edition of his work on the Mississippi, by John Gilmary Shea, New York. 1880. Neill’s History of Minnesota from the earliest French explorations to the present time; third edition, i879, Minneapolis History of the discovery and settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, by the great European Powers, Spain, France and Great Britain; by John W. Monette, two volumes, New York, 1848 By the cour¬ tesy of Rev. E. D.. Neill, several manuscript copies of documents in the Ar«hives de la Marine, Paris, and tracings of an- published old maps from the same place, have been consulted. Journal d'un voyage fait par ordre du Roi dans V Amerique septentrionale, par le P De Charlevoix, 1744, 3 tomes, Paris. Memoire sur les Mceurs, Coutumes et Religion des Sauvages de I' Amerique septentrionale par Nicolas Perrot, publiee pour la premiere fois, par le R. P. Tailhan. Historical Collections of Louisiana, 4 vols, B. F. French. Histovre de la Louisiane, par M. Le Page Du Pratz, 1768 The Works and Voyages o Champlain, published in English by the Prince Society, Boston, 1880. The Discovery of the Great West, Francis Parkman 1869. i b* S* Charles raepe 1736 L.Minittie v, Vereiufrye ft 20 / .v uruiniLSOUcn gm. Otc/ul S'tXph - Si 9*1730 /g I *. S l . Pierre WnYMidr-Vf ■ /7J/ —j > ■ i^ails of HainvRiver , . X 0 4 ' /Vvvt Sfasn 'Msf&eg or^X&sssSS Slur go on L. y-~\Long Sturgeon a Isil. ^>onfj v_ Siva my. *ooked L &&fl- on 8 *9^1823 L.Sosau Otcluv. ri3jLt v? r jVasa£%v4£y>- Tieaf Schl. ynr. tli 1679" nn 1680 GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY vjiDesIssSf „ Katliib 1 MINNESOTA Pikrs/StocUHdc- X.tSOS-GS. HISTORICAL CHART SHOWING Till PRIOR TO N 1 C 0 .LLETS MAP OF 18 R r Greal Palls Long 1813 Kit .WINCH ELJ. Saul tie »S l Antoine \llennepi i \ 1680f Calhoun L hong Pepin. I)c L Isle 1700 ! StAuilionv ^, Snofliog ' | tslePelee and F*. Le Sueur •>L ie Sueur 1685 Reumichah ^ty, Luk e Good Help ri fy I'M BcnaubArnoism ■r’T ) Huh/iorl727/W L . tc fs Ptours Hennepin S*. Antoine , jtf.tojrlr i Ciuii^ CrrsfYMit ' train ,, Carrar.i Winter pi i pry Long 186 Wrqmslui w* La butte d itvyennr: a rraneftit PLATE 1. Julius Bien ft. Co.lith. 1659 , Groselliers and Radisson.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 3 represented as flowing north instead of south, is no uncommon error for the early geographers who have mapped the rivers of Minnesota and Manitoba ; and La Salle, in 1682, applies the same name to the Mississippi. Champlain also had knowledge of the mining of copper in the upper waters of the Saguenay (or St. Lawrence), but he seems not to have had definite knowledge whether the mines were on the south shore of lake Superior or on the “ floating island ” (Isle Royale) near the north shore. . The Relations of the Jesuit missionaries, so far as published, cover the period from 1626 to 1679. The adventurous fathers more frequently men¬ tion the savage inhabitants of the country than its geographical features. The Dakotahs are mentioned by Paul le Jeune in 1640, who says they dwelt in the neighborhood of Ouinnipigon (Winnebago), and that they and the Assinipouars (Assiniboines) had been visited by Nicollet, interpreter for the Algonquin and Huron languages for the Messieurs de la Nouvelle France, in their own countries.* The Relation for 1659 thus refers to the Poualak (Assiniboines). “As wood is scarce and very small with them, nature has taught them to burn coal (charbon de terre) in its place, and to cover their wigwams with skins. Some of the more industrious also make cabins of clay (or turf) much in the same way that swallows build their nests.”f GROSELLIERS AND RADISSON. The actual exploration of the state proceeded westward from lake Superior. In the year 1659 two Frenchmen, in the interest of commerce, made the next recorded visit to the Nadouessioux at lake Buade (Mille Lacs), where they spent the winter. Returning to France they endeavored to establish trade with the “ forty Sioux villages ” of that locality, but did f . i not succeed. Groselliers, however, enlisted the English in an expedition through Hudson’s bay to Fort Rupert. He seems to have reached lake Superior from Hudson’s bay, perhaps by way of the Me-me-si-pi, or Pigeon river, on the international boundary, inasmuch as that river, on several ancient maps of the northwest, is styled R. Grossillers. *Neill’s Minnesota , p. 101. fSucli habitations were occupied by the Iowas on the upper Minnesota when the Sioux first came there, and are probably the source of many of the “ mounds ” seen in the state of Minnesota, 4 THE .GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Marquette, 1673. MENARD. To Marquette has been given the honor of the first discovery of the Mississippi at any point north of the Chickasaw bluff; but it appears that an earlier Jesuit missionary reached it by way of the Wisconsin river in 1661, while in pursuit of his labors, in an attempt to preach the gospel to the wandering Huron nation, twelve years before Marquette and Joliet. He descended either the St. Croix or the Wisconsin, and ascended the Black river, on the headwaters of which the Hnrons had chosen a resi¬ dence ; but in making a portage Menard was lost in the wilderness. Marquette descended the Wisconsin and passed down the Mississippi.* allouez. . After the death of Menard, Claude Allouez was appointed, in 1665, to the Mission of the Holy Spirit, at La Pointe. It was probably in 1666 that he visited Fond du Lac Superieur, and there met a number of the Nadoues- sioux from the country to the west and southwest, and learned for the first time of the great river, which, in his Relation, he denominated the Messipi. Allouez, however, never saw the great river of which he heard so much; on the banks of which dwelt the strange race of aborigines who were reported to live in a country of prairies abounding in ail kinds of game, who cultivated tobacco and lived largely on “marsh rice,” spoke a language entirely unknown, used the bow and arrow with great dexterity, and dwelt in cabins covered with deer skins—the Iroquois of the country, as Marquette styled them, j During Marquette's administration the Mission at La Pointe was abandoned on account of the hostility of the Dakotahs, who are described by Marquette as a “certain people called Nadouessi, dreaded by their neighbors; and, although they only use the bow and arrow, they use it with so much skill and dexterity that, in a moment, they fill the air. In the Parthian mode, they turn their heads in flight, and discharge their arrows so rapidly that they are no less to be feared in their retreat than in their attack." Although Marquette traveled over much of the western * Transactions of the Department of American History of the Minnesota Historical Society, E. D. Neill. In French’s Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part IV., it is stated, on the authority of the Jesuit Relation of 1639-40, that Sieur Nicollet, in 163!), probably was the first Frenchman on the Mississippi after the visit of DeSoto. t French expresses the opinion that Allouez visited the Mississippi by way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers in the year 1670. (Jesuit Relation of 1669-70.) Hitt Coll. Louisiana. Ve Tvlorrh-taZ 8 Tvli ss-ilimiickinn-e Jfftse.00^ % \ _7yIo-c au Z-C7lt t 0 tC "sbnai ion; '\T / ° \j JVZichifa.*Mj ijJrFor *Ch*c+r» Out nr. l0K4i*»Hi I ’V 0*taZ* *'Ghmil\t-pt 7 ofl Crevtcoixt-r "'16 T*. . irt£ UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS. PACtE 3 | i 1 '" > -> y UNlVtHSU r uf ILLINOIS. 1678 , Du Luth,] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 5 country south of Minnesota, visiting the Mississippi by way of the Wisconsin in 1673, he. seems not to have prosecuted his discoveries within the area of Minnesota. SIEUR DU LUTH. Under the direction of the Governor of Canada, but probably at the instance of the merchants of Quebec, Daniel Greysolon, the Sieur du Luth, was dispatched with eight men, in 1678, for the purpose of visiting the country to the west of lake Superior, and taking possession of it in the name of the king of France, and securing the trade of the native tribes before the English could reach them. He entered Minnesota in the summer of 1679, having wintered near the falls of the St. Mary’s river. In July he caused the arms of the king of France to be set up in the great Sioux village, Kathio, which he styles the village of the Izatys, which can be no other than the great Nadouessioux settlement at Mille Lacs, to which he gave the name Lac Buade. The next year he reached the Mississippi river by way of the Bois Brule river (in Wisconsin) and the St. Croix, and encountered Hennepin and his companions, as detailed in his report made to the Marquis of Seignelay in 1685, an extract from which is as follows :* EXTRACT FROM DULUTH’S REPORT, MADE IN 1685. On July 2d, 1679, I had the honor to plant his majesty’s arms in the greit village of the Nadoecioux, called Izatys , where never had a Frenchman been, no more than at the Songaskitons and Ilonetbotons, distant six score leagues from the former, where I also planted his majesty’s arms in the same year, 1679. On the 15th of September, having given the Agrenipoulak , as well as all the other northern nations, a rendezvous at the extremity of lake Superior, to induce them to make peace with the Kadouecioux, their common enemy, they were all there, and I was happy enough to gain their esteem and friendship, to unite them together, and in order that the peace might be lasting among them I thought that I could not cement it better than by inducing the nations to make reciprocal marriages with each other. This I could not effect without great expense. The following winter I made them hold meetings in the woods, which I attended, in order that they might hunt together, give banquets, and by this means contract a closer friendship. The presents which it cost me to induce the Indians to go down to Montreal—who had been diverted by the Openagaux and Abenakis , at the instigation of the English and Dutch, who made them believe that the plague raged in the French settlements, and that it had spread as far as Nipissingue, where most of the JNipissiriens had died of it—have also entailed a greater expense. In June, 1680, not being satisfied with having made my discovery by land, I took two canoes with an Indian, who was my interpreter, and four Frenchmen, to seek means to make it by water. With this view I entered a river which empties eight leagues from the extremity of lake Superior, on the south side, when, after having cut some trees, and broken about a hundred beaver dams, I reached the upper waters of the said river; and then I made a portage of half a * Shea’s Translation of Hennepin’s Description of Louisiana. I 0 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Du Luth, 1679 . league to reach a lake, the outlet of which fell into a very fine river which took me down into the Mississippi. Being there I learned from eight cabins of Nadonecioux whom I met, that the Reverend Father Louis Henpin, Recollect, now at the convent of St. Germain, with two other Frenchmen, had been robbed and carried off as slaves for more than three hundred leagues by the Nadouecioux themselves. This intelligence surprised me so much that, without hesitating, I left two Frenchmen with these said eight cabins of Indians, as well as the goods which I had to make presents, and took one of the said Indians, to whom I made a present, to guide me, with my interpreter and two Frenchmen, to where the said Reverend Father Louis was, and as it was a good eighty leagues, I proceeded in canoe two days and two nights, and the next day at ten o’clock in the morning I found him with 1,000 or 1,100 souls. The want of respect which they showed to the said Reverend Father provoked me, and this I showed them, telling them that he was my brother; and I had him placed in my canoe to come with me into the villages of the said Nadouecioux, whither I took him, and in which, a week after our arrival there, I caused a council to be convened, exposing the ill treatment which they had been guilty of, both to the said Reverend Father and to the other two Frenchmen, who were with him, having robbed them and carried them off as slaves, and even taken the priestly vestments of said Reverend Father. I had two calumets which they had danced to them, returned to them, on account of the insult which they had offered them, being what they hold most in esteem among them to appease matters, telling them that I did not take calumets from people, who after they had seen me and received my peace presents, and been for a year always with Frenchmen, robbed them when they went to visit them. Each one in the council endeavored to throw the blame from himself, but their excuses did not prevent my telling the Reverend Father Louis that he would have to come with me toward the Outagamys , as he did, showing him that it would be to strike a blow at the French nation in a new discovery, to suffer an insult of this nature, without manifesting resentment, although my design was to push on to the sea in a west-northwesterly course, which is that which is believed to be the Bed Sea [Gulf of California], whence the Indians who had gone warring 6n that side gave salt to three Frenchmen whom I had sent exploring, and who brought me said salt, having reported to me that the Indians had told them that it was only twenty days’ journey from where they were to find the great lake, of which the waters were worthless to drink.* This has made me believe that it would not be absolutely difficult to find it, if permission would be given to go there. However, I preferred to retrace my steps, manifesting to them the just indignation which I felt against them rather than to remain after the violence which they had done to the Reverend Father and the other two Frenchmen who were with him, whom I put in my canoes and brought them back to Michelimakinak. hennepin’s movements in Minnesota. TJiat portion of Hennepin’s narrative which relates to his movements in Minnesota, and to the natural features of the country, is as follows, as translated from the first, or Paris, edition of his works, by John G. Shea. The river Colbertf runs south-sonthwest and comes from the north-northwest; it runs between two chains of mountains, very small here, which wind with the river, and in some places are pretty far from the banks, so that between the mountains and the river there are large prairies, where you often see herds of wild cattle browsing. In other places these eminences leave semi-circular spots covered with grass or wood. Beyond these mountains you discover vast plains, but the more we approach the northern side ascending, the earth did not appear to us so fertile nor the woods so beautiful as in the Islinois country. This great river is almost everywhere a short league in width, and in some places two leagues; it is divided by a number of islands covered with trees interlaced with so many vines as * There is no such lake in the limits of Minnesota, but this may refer to some of the alkaline lakes oi Dakota [N. II. W.] Mississippi. LiP^m Of I ML UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS. PA OF 4 Seduced fhrthe Geolot/ical and .Natural- llisloiy Survey ofMnnesota. ftvm a tracing of a Slap in the Archives des Alurmrs, in the possession of the Depcertnvavt- of American History, of the Minnesota Historical Society. I679, Du Luth.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 7 to be almost impassable. It receives no considerable river on the western side except that of the Otontenta, and another, which comes from the west-northwest seven or eight leagues from the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua. On the eastern side you meet first an inconsiderable river, and then further on another, called by the Indians Onisconsin , or Misconsin, which comes from the east and east-northeast. Sixty leagues up you leave it and make a portage of half a league, and reach the bay of the Puans by another river which, near its source, meanders most curiously. It is almost as broad as the river Seignelay, or Islinois, and empties into the river Colbert a hundred leagues above the river Seignelay. Twenty-four leagues above you come to the Black river, called by the Nadouessions , or Islati, Chabadeba , or Chabaoudeba. It seems inconsiderable. Thirty leagues further up you find the Lake of Tears,* which we so named because the Indians who had taken us, wishing to kill us, some of them wept the whole night to induce the others to consent to our death. This lake, which is formed by the river Colbert, is seven leagues long and about four wide. There is no considerable current in the middle that we could perceive, but only at its entrance and exit. Half a league below the Lake of Tears, on the south side, is Buffalo river, full of turtles. It is so called by the Indians on account of the numbers of buffalo found there. We followed it for ten or twelve leagues; it empties with rapidity into the river Colbert, but as you ascend it it is always gentle and free from rapids. It is skirted by mountains far enough off in some places to form prairies. The mouth is wooded on both sides and is full as wide as that of the Seignelay. Forty leagues above is a river full of rapids, by which, striking northwest, [northeast] you can proceed to lake Conde as far as Nimissakouat** river, which empties into that lake. This first river is called Tomb river,t because the Issati left there the body of one of their warriors, killed by a rattlesnake, on whom, according to their custom, I put a blanket. This act of humanity gained me much importance by the gratitude displayed by the men of the deceased’s tribe in a great banquet which they gave me in their country, and to which more than a hundred Indians were invited. Continuing to ascend this river ten or twelve leagues more, the navigation is interrupted by a cataract, which I called the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, in gratitude for the favors done me by the Almighty through the intercession of that great saint, whom we had chosen patron and protector of all our enterprises. This cataract is forty or fifty feet high, divided in the middle of its fall by a rocky island of pyramidal form. The high mountains which skirt the river Colbert last only as far as the river Onisconsin , about one hundred and twenty leagues ; at this place it begins to flow from the west and northwest without our having been able to learn from the Indians, who have ascended it very far, the spot where this river rises. They merely told us that twenty or thirty leagues below [above?] there is a second fall,ft at the foot of which are some vil¬ lages of the prairie people called Thinthonka,% who live there a part of the year. Eight leagues above St. Anthony of Padua’s Falls, on the right, you find the river of the Issati , or Nadoussion,XX with a very narrow mouth, which you can ascend to the north for about seventy leagues to lake Buade,? or of the Issati , where it rises. We gave this river the name of St. Francis. This last lake spreads out into great marshes, producing wild rice, like many other places down to the bay of the Puans.II This kind of grain grows in marshy places, without any one sowing it; it resem¬ bles oats, but tastes better, and the stalks are longer as well as the ear. The Indians gather it in due season. The women tie several ears of it together with white wood bark to prevent its being all devoured by the flocks of ducks and teal found there. The Indians lay in a stock for part of the year and to eat out of the hunting season. Lake Buade, or lake of the Issati , is situated about seventy leagues west of lake Conde ; it is impossible to go from one to the other by land on account of the marshy and quaggy nature of the ground; you might go, though with difficulty, on the snow in snowshoes ; by water there are many portages, and it is one hundred and fifty leagues, on account of the many turns to be made. From lake Conde, to go conveniently by canoe, you must pass by Tomb river, where we found only the skeleton of the Indian whom I mentioned above, the bears having eaten the flesh and pulled up the poles which the deceased’s relatives had planted for a monument. One of our boatmen Bay. * Lake Pepin. ** Bois Brule, f St. Croix, ft Little Falls, i Tintonwan Rum river. § Milie Lacs Green 8 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Hennepin, 1680. found a war calumet beside the grave, and an earthen pot upset, in which the Indians had left fat buffalo meat, to assist the departed, as they say, in making his journey to the land of souls. In the neighborhood of lake Buade are many other lakes whence issue several rivers, on the banks of which live the Issati, Nadouessans. Tinthona (which means prairie-men), Ouadebathon* River-people, Chongaskethon, Dog or Wolf tribe (for Chonga among these nations means dog or wolf), and other tribes, all which we comprise under the name Nadouessiou. These Indians number eight or ten thousand warriors, very brave, great runners, and very good bowmen. It was by a part of these tribes that I and our two canoemen were taken in the following way: The map accompanying Hennepin’s work, as published at Paris, is reduced and reproduced in plate-pages 5 and 6. The Mississippi is c-onjectur- ally represented by a dotted line as flowing into the gulf of Mexico. The Illinois river is named Seignelay ; the Wisconsin is called Oisconsins ; above that is the river Noire, or Black river; the next above on the east is R. cles Boeufs; the St. Croix is styled R. du Tombeau, and between it and Rum river, which is denominated the St. Francois, is a water connection of lakes and streams. There is one river above the St. Francis, but unnamed. The Mississippi is represented as having no tributaries from the west, and as * j flowing between two ranges of mountains from the Falls of St. Anthony to some distance below the Wisconsin. These “mountains” are none other than the bluffs of the river valley, made of horizontal strata cut by the river itself. Lake Pepin is named Lac des Fleurs ; Mille Lacs is Lac Buade ; lake Superior is Conde ou Superieur; lake Michigan is L. Dauphin ou Illinois ; lake Huron is L. D’Orleans ou Huron ; lake Erie is Conty ou Erie, and lake Ontario is L. Frontenac. The coat of arms of France (probably as established by Du Luth) is represented at the most northwesterly point on the map, surmounted by a figure of the cross, and underneath it are inscribed these words: Armes du Roy telle quel le sont grauee sur V escorce d’ un Chesne a V endroit margue —A. The unscrupulous Franciscan represents missions of his order estab¬ lished some leagues to the northwest of Mille Lacs, on the lower Mississippi, below the Illinois, as well as on lake Ontario. The gulf of California is named Mer Vermeille, and toward the north further are the Straits of Anian, supposed to lead to the “Northwest Passage,” that phantom of all early explorers of North America. * VV arpetonwan. i68o. La Salle. HISTORICAL SKETCH. 9 As Hennepin’s account of his visit to the Falls.St. Anthony has been much criticised for the exaggeration and the egotism which pervade it, the account of La Salle, who planned and despatched the party, is added. It is very probable that La Salle misrepresents Du Luth, and his travels in the upper Mississippi region. Charlevoix refers to Du Luth as a man of veracity, bravery and honor, and Le Clercq as a man of ability and experience. LA SALLE ON THE DISCOVERY OF THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY. La Salle’s letter from Fort Frontenac, 22nd of August, 16S2, is found in Part II. of Margry’s Decouvertes et etablissements des Francais dans Vouest et dans le sud de VAmerique se'ptentrionale. It contains internal evi¬ dence that, La Salle derived his information of this expedition from Michel Accault, the real leader of the party. Translated into English as follows : v . ' \ ***** The river Colbert , named Gastacha by the Iroquois and Mississipy by the Outaouacs, into which the river of the Islinois , called Teakiki, empties, comes from the northwest. 1 have caused it to be explored by two of my men, one of the name of Michel Accault and the other a Picard,* with whom the R. P. Louis Hennepin was associated, in order not to lose the opportunity to proclaim the gospel to those people who inhabit the upper country who had never heard it. They left Fort Creve Coeur in the afternoon of the 28th of February, with the Peace Calumet, which is a protection against the savages of these countries that they seldom violate. The said Michel Accault was somewhat acquainted with their language and their customs. He knew all their habits, and was a friend of several of those tribes to whom I sent him, where he had been acquainted; also, he is prudent, courageous and cool. They had about one thousand pounds of goods, such as are most valued in those regions, which, combined with the Peace Calumet, are never disregarded by those tribes, since they are nearly destitute of everything. They met at first a number of Islinois , who were ascending their river on a return to their village, who used every effort to induce them to abandon the journey. Michel Accault, who believed he should lose the honor of accomplishing the undertaking, encouraged by the example of the R. P. Louis Hennepin, who desired also to signify his zeal, and wishing to keep his word which he had given me to perish or to succeed, encouraged his comrade who was dispirited by the statements of the savages, and made him believe that the design of the Indians was to profit themselves with their merchandise, and to seize their provisions, and that they should not change the resolution which they had taken. In fact, they continued their journey down the river Theakiki until the 7th of March, 1680, when they fell in with a nation called Tamaroa , or Maroa, about two leagues from the mouth of the river where it reaches the Colbert. This nation numbers two hundred families or thereabout. They desired to conduct them to their village, situated at that time on the west coast of the Grand river, six or seven leagues above the entrance of the Iheakiki. They would not follow them, but arrived, the same day, at the conflu¬ ence of the two rivers, distant about fifty leagues from Fort Creve Coeur and ninety from the village of the Islinois. The river Theakiki is nearly everywhere of equal size throughout these ninety leagues, approaching the size of the Seine, in front of Paris, where it is confined within its own bed; but at various places, as at Pimiteoui, f one league to the east of Creve Coeur, and two or three other times below, it swells out to one or two leagues, over much space, while the two shores which border it below the village of the Islinois , are distant from each other about half a league. The land which they enclose between them is swampy, as well as the bed of the *His real name was Du Gay. fPeoria. 10 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [La Salle, i68o. river, and often inundated, especially after rains, which easily cause the streams to leave their channels, and expand them exceedingly, though often but a little in height. That of the Islinois , from their village to the Grand river, has a very deep and even bed. There is a border of timber nearly its whole length. The low grounds all sustain very large trees of all kinds, the slopes of the shores being generally covered. But immediately after one has crossed that which the river overflows from time to time, and ascended the banks, he finds only beautiful fields spread before his view, interrupted here and there with clumps of trees, which appear to be there only from necessity. These uninhabited plains extend sometimes even to the brink of the river, particu¬ larly about the environs of the village, and at sixty leagues to the east and northeast, where timber can be seen very rarely along the shore of the river; but below it is more generally bordered. The current is hardly perceptible when there has not been a great fall of rain. Although this happens only in the spring, it is perfectly navigable, nevertheless, throughout the year, for large boats as far as to the Islinois , and above that only for canoes, partly on account of the rapidity of the stream, and partly on account of the greater descent and the shoals which destroy its depth. Ice which they encountered in the Grand river stopped them at the mouth of the Islinois till the 12th of March. It washes on the south shore a steep rock, about forty feet high, suitable for the establishment of a fort, and on the opposite side extends a fine prairie, the limit of which cannot be seen, very good for cultivation. This place seems to me very well adapted for settlement, for many reasons which I have not time here to state, and I shall easily be able here to establish myself on my return. Just at and below Pimiteoui the river turns somewhat to the south, so that its embouchure is between 46 and 47 degrees of north latitude, and separated from the gulf of Mexico about 120 or 130 leagues. There are between Quebec and Montreal 43 leagues difference east and west; from Montreal to Fort Frontenac, 61 leagues ; from the fort to Niagara, 65 ; from Niagara to the head of Lake Erie, 122 ; from there to the mouth of the river of the Mi amis, 117; from there to the Islinois , 52; thence to Pimiteoui , or Creve Coeur, 27, and from Creve Coeur to the Mississippi, 18, which makes, altogether, about 500 leagues, or 24 degrees of longitude. The Mississipi appears, in leaving the mouth of the leatiki , to go toward the south and southwest, and above there to come from the north and the northwest. It runs between two ranges of mountains of considerable height—much more than that of Mt. Valerian, which wind about in the same manner as the river, from which presently they fall back a little, leaving between them and its channel a prairie of some width, which is sometimes washed by the water of the river, in such a way that when along one coast it is bordered by the foot of a mountain, on the other is formed a bay, the head of which is terminated by a prairie or by a little patch of woods. The slopes of these shores, which are either of rubbish or of rock, are covered here and there with little oaks, and at other times with very beautiful herbs. The height of these moun¬ tains conceals the plains beyond, which are of rather poor land, quite different from that of the Islinois, though they sustain the same animals. The channel of the great river, although, for the most part of the width of one or two leagues, is entirely intercepted by a number of islands covered with wild timber, in which are so many vines that one can hardly pass through it. These are subject to inundation by the overflow of the river. They conceal generally the other shore of the river from view, so that it is rarely seen because of these islands. The bottom is very uneven, in ascending the river above the mouth of the Islinois. There are often shoals which cross the channel from one side to the other, over which canoes have difficulty in passing. It is true that in the current of the stream there is generally sufficient water to float the largest vessels ; but there the stream is extremely rough and difficult to make headway. The Mississipi does not receive any considerable rivers from the west side, from the river of the Islinois up to the country of the Nadouessioux, where it receives that of the Otoutantas, Paote and Maskoutens , who are) the Nadouessioux of the East, about one hundred leagues from Teakiki. THE WISCONSIN VALLEY AND THE ROUTE TO GREEN BAY. Following the course of the Mississipi, one finds the river Ouisconsing , Misconsing or Mesclietz Odeba, which flows between the bay of the Puans and the Grand river. It runs at first from the north to the south, to about the 45th degree of north latitude, and from there turns to the west and southwest, and after a course of sixty leagues, falls into the Mississipi. It is almost as large as that of the Islinois, navigable up to that bend where a canoe portage is made i68o. La Salle.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 11 across a divide and a swampy prairie to reach the river Kakaling , which falls into the bay of the Puans , and perhaps further. The Misconsing runs between two hill-ranges, which recede from time to time and leave between them and the river prairies of considerable size, and lands untimbered, which are sandy and sterile. At other times the patch which is between these ridges and the river is, in places, more low and marshy; and then it is covered with timber and is flooded by the overflows of the river. The mountains diminish imperceptibly in size as one ascends the river, and at lerfgtli, about three leagues from the portage, the land becomes flat and marshy, open on the side from which the portage sets out, and covered with pines on the other side. The place where the canoes are carried is marked by a tree, on which there are two canoes rudely delineated by the savages; whence, after having walked about half a league, the river Kakaling [Fox] is found, which is only a rivulet rising from a marsh, and which winds about exceedingly, forming little lakes by enlarging itself, and then often becoming narrow. It is followed about 40 leagues, in the course of the bends it makes, and then is found the village of the Outaga- mies. At one-half league from the river, on the north side, before arriving there, the river falls into a lake which may be eight leagues long and three leagues wide; and after passing the village about two leagues are found the Kakaling rapids, which are difficult to descend on account of the swiftness of the water, the frequency of rocks which it encounters, and three waterfalls where it is necessary to carry the canoes and their burden. They continue six leagues. Three leagues below them, at the debouchure of this river into the bay of the Puans , is a house of the Jesuits, who truly have the key to the country of the beaver, where a brother blacksmith whom they have, and two companions, have changed more iron into beaver than the Fathers have of savages into Christians. About 23 or 24 leagues to the north, or northwest, from the mouth of the Ouisconsing [Wis¬ consin], which has also a rocky coast on the south side and a beautiful prairie on the north, near to three beautiful basins or bays of quiet water, is the river Noire [Black], called Chabadeba by the Nadouesioux. This is of inconsiderable size, and at its mouth it is bordered on both sides by alders. Ascending about 30 leagues, all the way in nearly the same direction, we have the river Boeufs [Chippewa], about as large at its mouth as that of the Islinois. It is so called because of the number of these animals which are there found. It was explored ten or twelve leagues, and it remains of the same size and without rapids, bordered by mountains, which are separated farther, occasionally, so as to form prairies. There are several islands at its mouth, and it is lined with woods on both shores. LA SALLE’S OPINION OF DU LUTH. Thirty-eight or forty leagues higher is found the river by which Du Luth descended to the Mississipi. For three years he had been, contrary to orders, with a band of coureurs des bois , in the lake Superior region. He had acted very boldly there, publishing every¬ where that at the head of his braves he did not fear the Grand Prevost , and that he would forcibly make him grant him amnesty. The coureurs des bois , to whom he first had revealed his pretence, have been several times in the settlement, and have returned carrying merchandise and furs, of which they have meantime despoiled lake Superior, from all the approaches to which they have kept out the Outaouac during this year, so that they could not descend to Montreal. During this time and while he w r as at lake Superior, the Nadouesioux, invited by the presents which the late Sieur Randin had made them in behalf of Count Frontenac, and the Sauteurs, who are the savages that bring the most peltries to Montreal, and who dwell at lake Superior, wishing to observe the repeated injunctions of said Frontenac, concluded a peace, which was to unite the nation of the Sauteurs to the French, and to allow them to go in trade to the country of the Nadouesioux , distant about 60 leagues to the west from lake Superior. Du Luth, in order to conceal his desertion, took this occasion to give it some excuse, and causes himself, with two of his fellow-deserters to pass as an envoy of the Count and charged with his orders, for the purpose of negotiating that peace — during which his comrades negotiate for a great number of beaver. He had a number of conferences with the Nadouesioux, and as he had no interpreter, he bribed one of mine, named Faffert, till then a soldier at Fort Frontenac. Finally, the Sauteurs having been several times back and forth to the Nadouesioux , and the Nadouesioux to the Sauteurs , seeing that there was nothing to fear, and that it was possible to increase the number of their beaver, he I 12 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [La Salle, 1680 . sent there this Eaffert, by land, with some Nadouesioux and Sauteurs, who returned in company with him. This young man having made a report on his return of the number of beaver which he might obtain from that direction, he resolved to attempt to go there himself; and under the guidance of a Sauteur and a Nadouesioux , with four Frenchmen, they ascended the Nemitsakouat, whence, by a short portage, he descended into that in which he said he had passed forty leagues of rapids; and having seen that the Nadouesioux were further down with my men and the Father,? having gone down the river from the village of the Nadouesioux where they had already been, he comes on to find them. He returned to the village, whence they all together re-descended and by the way of the river Ouisconsing reached Montreal. There he was considerably elated at having been one of their party, having even insulted the commissaries, and also the Deputy ITocureur, (at present the Procureur-General), named d’Auteuil. Mons. le Comte de Frontenac had him arrested, and took measures to keep him in prison in the bastile at Quebec, intending to send him to France on the certification of the facts by Mons. Plntendant, to the end that the amnesty granted to his coureurs des bois should not result in his discharge. To know who this Du Luth is, it is necessary that you be informed by Mons. Dalera. Meantime he pretends to have made a considerable discovery, and to demand this country as if to the advantage of the Islinois , a proceeding which is quite agreeable, and which he hopes may compensate for his rebellion. Secondly, there are only three routes by which to go there—one is by lake Superior, the second by the bay of the Puans , and the third by the Islinois and the terri¬ tory that is covered by my commission. The first two lie under suspicion, and it will not be necessary to open to him the third to my disadvantage, he not having incurred any expense, and having made great gain without risk, at the same time that I have endured great fatigues, perils and losses. Further, through the Islinois is a detour of three hundred leagues for him. For the greater part of the country of the Nadouesioux is not that which he has discovered. It has been known for a long time, and the R. P. Hennepin and Michel Accault were there before him. Even that one of his fellow-deserters who was there, was one of my soldiers whom he bribed. Further¬ more this country is not habitable, little adapted to cultivation, having only marshes full of wild rice ( folle avoine ) on which the people live; and there can be derived from this discovery no advantage whether it be attributable to my men or to Du Luth, because the streams are not navigable. But the king having granted us the trade in buffalo hides, this would be ruined in going to and coming from the Nadouesioux by any other route than by lake Superior by which Count Frontenac has power to send him there in search for beaver, in pursuance of the authority which he has to grant permits. But if they go by way of the Ouisconsing , where for the present the chase of the buffalo is carried on, and where I have commenced an establishment, they will ruin the trade of which alone I am laying the foundation on account of the great number of buffaloes which are taken there every year, almost beyond belief. LA SALLE’S DESCRIPTION OF THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY. Ascending still the Mississipi, at twenty leagues above this river, are found the falls which those whom I sent, and who passed there first of all, named from St. Anthony. They have the height of thirty or forty feet, and there the river is also narrow. There is an island in the midst of the fall, and the two shores of the river are no longer bordered by mountains, which diminish insensibly up to there ;* but the land on both sides is covered with light timber, ** as we style it, that is to say, oaks and other hard woods, standing far apart, such as' grow only in poor lands. There are also some prairies. Here the canoes are carried about three or four hun¬ dred steps, and eight leagues above is the river of the Nadoesioux , on the westf side. It is narrow at its entrance and drains a poor country covered with shrubs through about fifty leagues, where it terminates in a lake called lake of the Issati , which spreads over a great marsh where grows the wild rice, at the point of its outlet in this river. ♦Hennepin says the mountains extend only to the mouth ot the Wisconsin. g Hennepin. ** Perhaps this bois clairs means deciduous trees. fThis is evidently an error of some copyist, as the river, which is well known as Rum river, is an eastern tribu¬ tary of the Mississippi. i68o, La Salle.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 18 CAPTURE OF ACCAULT AND HIS PARTY. The Mississipi comes from the west, but it was not followed because of the adventure which happened to R. P. Louis, Michel Accault and their comrade. This affair happened in this way. After having pursued the course of the Mississipi till the 11th of April about three o’clock in the afternoon, rowing along the shore on the side of the Islinois, a band of a hundred Nadouesioux warriors who were going to slaughter some of the Tchatchakigona ,* were descending the same river in thirty-three canoes made of birch bark. There were with them three women, and one of those slaves who serve the women, although they are men, whom the Islinois call Ikoueta. They passed along on the other side of some islands, and so several of the canoes had descended below that of the Frenchmen; but descrying it they all gathered together, and those who had gone below* returning with all haste, they easily encom¬ passed it about and closed up the way. There was one party of them on the land, who surrounded them on that side. Michel Accault, who was the leader, presented them the calumet. They accepted it and smoked, after having made a circle on the ground covered with straw where they caused the Frenchmen to sit down. Immediately two of the old men began to weep for the death of those of their kinsmen whom they designed to avenge ; and after having taken some tobacco they made our men embark, and cross over first to the other side of the river. They followed on, after having uttered three cries, and pushed their canoes with all haste. On disembarking Michel Accault presented them with twenty knives and a measure and a half of tobacco, which they accepted. They had already stolen a demi-pique and several other small articles. They then traveled together ten days, without giving any sign of discontent or of evil design ; but on the 22nd of April, having reached the islands where they had slain some Maskoutens, they put the two dead whom they were going to avenge, and whose bones they carried with them, between P. Louis and Michel Accault. This is an ambiguous ceremony which they perform before their friends in order to incite them to compassion, and to cause them to make presents to cover them with, and before their slaves whom they take in war to make them understand that they must expect a treatment like to that which they render to the dead. Michel Accault unfortunately did not understand this nation, and there was not one slave of the other nations whom he did under¬ stand, which hardly ever happens, all the tribes in America having a number of those to whom they have granted life in order to replace their dead, after having sacrificed a great number to satisfy their vengeance. This enables them to understand almost all the tribes, since they become acquainted with three or four languages of those tribes who go farthest in war, such as the Iro¬ quois , the Islinois , the Akonsa , the Nadouesioux and Sauteurs. Accault understood all these except the Nadouesioux ; yet there are among them a number who have been slaves with the others, or who had come from them and have been taken in war, but by chance he did not find one of them in this company to interpret him to the others. It was necessary to give a full case of merchandise, and the next day twenty-four hatchets. At eight leagues below the falls of St. Anthony they determined to go by land to their village, distant about sixty leagues from the place of disembarking, not being willing to carry the goods of our men, nor to conduct them there by water. They made them then give up the rest of their hatchets, which they shared amongst themselves, promising to repay them well at the village; but two days afterward they divided also among themselves two cases of merchandise, and, falling into a quarrel concerning the division both of the merchandise and of the tobacco, each chief claiming to be the master, they sepa¬ rated in jealousy as they led the Frenchmen toward the village, where they promised to make satisfaction with beaver skins which they said they had in great number. THE TARTY AT MlLLE LACS. There they were received well, and at once made a banquet for Accault, who was in a differ¬ ent village from that where the R. P. Louis and the Picard were, but who were there also well received except that, several sportive young men having told the Picard to sing, the fear that he experienced made a coward of him, since only slaves sing on arriving at a village. Accault, who was not there, was not able to prevent it; but they were subjected to no other treatment like that ♦Hennepin says Onlay amis, and Parkman says Miainis. 14 THE GEOLOGY. OF MINNESOTA. [La Salle, 1680 . which they impose on slaves. They were never tied; and after that, they promised the return of that which their young men had seized, since Accault, who had found some men to whom he could make himself understood, made them comprehend the importance of it, when they imme¬ diately danced two calumets, and offered several beaver skins with which to begin the payment; but as these were too little Accault would not be satisfied. Six weeks afterward, all having returned to the Ouisconsing with the Nadoesioux on a hunt, the R. P. Louis Hennepin and the Picard resolved to go to the mouth of the river where I had promised to send messages, as I had done by six men, -whom the Jesuits deceived, telling them that the R. P. Louis and his fellow travelers had been slain. They allowed them to go there alone, to show them they were not regarded as slaves, and that Du Luth is wrong in boasting of having released them from slavery, since on the journey and as long as their food lasted, the Frenchmen had the best, although they suffered great hunger when the savages were without food. Jealousy was the sole cause of the pillage, because, as they were from different villages, and but few from that where the Frenchmen were to go, they did it in order to secure their portion of the merchandise, of which they feared they would receive none if they once entered the village where the Frenchmen were to go; but the old men blamed greatly the young men, and offered and even began to make the restitution that Accault ought to have. They regarded the French so little as slaves that they gave to R. P. Louis and the Picard a canoe to go in search of my messengers. All that Du Luth can say is, that having come to the place where the Father and the two Frenchmen had gone in a hunt from the village, where, along with them he went for the first time when they returned there, he made it easier for them to return sooner than they would have done, because messengers whom I had sent had been dissuaded from going on; but we should have been in search for them the following spring if we had not learned, as we did in the winter, of their return by way of the Outagamis. Accault found himself so little a slave that he was intending to remain there until he should receive the payment that had been promised him. LA SALLE JUSTIFIES THE EXPEDITION. I do not doubt but several things may be said of this expedition. (1.) That I ought to have sent a man who understood the language. To this it is easy to reply that I did not send Accault to the Nadouesioux but to explore the Grand river, that he understood the language of those who were nearest, such as the Otontanta the Aiounouea, the Kikapou and the Maskoutens Nadouesioux through whom he was to pass first, and to take an interpreter from there for going further on, it being impossible to send those who understood all the languages. « It will be said also that in the first expeditions it was not necessary to go with so much merchandise, which tempts the young men, already under bad subjection to the elders, and leads them to deeds which they would not do if they saw nothing which tempted them. To this I reply that, sending to those nations with whom we had acquaintance through the Islinois , and to whom Accault was a friend, because he had passed two winters and a summer there, during which time he had seen several of the most important of their villages where he was to pass, whom he had won by little presents, there was nothing to fear, at least in all probability—there being no likelihood that they would encounter an army of the Nadouesioux three hundred leagues from that country. (2) These voyages being difficult, those who undertake them do it only through the hope of gain, which they could not accomplish without merchandise. (3) Several of those savages having come to the Islinois while we were there, and having seen the merchan¬ dise which we had there, they would be filled either with anger or jealousy, believing that going into their country with but little would be either from a want of friendship for them or from some evil design. Finally, wishing to attract them to come and buy of our commodities and to make them accustomed to the use of them, it would be necessary to have a somewhat considerable quantity of them. I have thought it proper to give you this account of the adventures of this canoe, because I do not doubt its being spoken of, and if you wish to confer with Father Louis Hennepin, Recol¬ lect, about it, who has returned to France, it is well to know something of it, for he will not fail to exaggerate everything; it is his character; and to me even he has written as if he had been nearly burnt up, although he has not been even in danger of it; but he believes it is honorable in him to act in that way, and he speaks more in accordance with what he wishes than what he knows. LlPveiy ... r- f)> Mr UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS. i PAGE .5 >1 uaumd deS RecrtUcU « Q o i Handotid sur /Eieorce d'vn Ck&dne Oua dcBattcmj ’8 , 40 -d& cnJ de A cu tere Sault def. Anloi/ie de Pa do 'n *ck« ,tdu\P»*tL AS» T * (V- ’/y-it : t&J0 dot* r J? a*ad i •yjtaye 1 ecoiUcid ' fort {Pi-cue i L at* a Lo wisi a TAMGtj^r \ »e^ r* Reduced tor the deal off tea l and /’AGE 6 mil lHstorv .tWr pt'Minnc.vota .) Bleu, Photo, lith.X .Y UNIVERSIfV of ILLINOIS 1688 , La Hontan.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 15 Hennepin’s account of the capture and captivity among the Nadoue- sioux is more circumstantial than that of La Salle, but in the main similar to his. Hennepin, however, recounts various indignities and deprivations to which they were subjected, regarding himself as a prisoner and a slave while at lake Buade. “In the beginning of July” the Frenchmen set out with the Indians on a grand buffalo-hunt down the Mississippi. In four days they reached the mouth of the St. Francis, or Rum river,* where they halted for the purpose of making more canoes; while Hennepin and the Picard proceeded down the Mississippi alone in a poor canoe intending to reach the Wisconsin river, where La Salle had agreed to send messages to them. It is probable, there¬ fore, that Hennepin first saw the Falls of St. Anthony on the 5th day of July, 1680,f in company with the Picard alone. On the 11th they were not far from the Wisconsin, after some adventure and delay. It is plain, also, that Hennepin saw the Falls of St. Anthony before he encountered Du Luth, and may be accredited with the first recorded exam¬ ination of the Mississippi between the Wisconsin river and the Rum river, and Du Luth with the first visit to the St. Croix river, which he prob¬ ably descended from the headwaters of the Bois Brule, known then as the Nemissakouat. (Plate-pages 5 and 6.) LA HONTAN IN MINNESOTA. Baron La Hontan’s work, in which he describes a voyage on the river Long, made by himself in the winter of 1688-89, is largely fictitious. He states that he traveled sixty days in winter on a river 500 miles long, at the mouth of which are many rushes, which entered the Mississippi from the west. Mr. J. N. Nicollet regards the river that La Hontan entered as the Cannon river. It has also been suggested that on ascending this river to its source he passed into the Minnesota river, through some of the canoe routes and lakes which cause the headwaters of the Cannon to interlock with those of the Le Sueur. Keating, the chronicler of Major Long’s expedition to the sources of the St. Peter, supposed that the Root river * On modern maps the name of St. Francis is applied to the next stream above the Rum, and that may have been the l iver to which Hennepin referred in his iournal, since by a portage the route by it to lake Buade is much less than the course of the Rum river, and the Indians may have followed that route. t The Minnesota Historical Society celebrated July'5, 1880. as the Bi-centennial of the discovery of the Falls of St Anthony. 1G THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Le Sueur, 1700 . was the one referred to by La Hontan, while others, with perhaps as good reasons, think* he actually entered the Minnesota river. The very general and vague description which he makes of the physical character of the valley of the Riviere Longe will apply with equal correctness to either of these valleys, hut the direction of the river he says he explored, as represented on his map, can only apply to the Root river. The Root river is less likely to be frozen in winter than either of the others, owing to the fact that it is derived largely from copious springs and subterranean streams that flow from the rocky bluffs between which it runs (see the geology of Fillmore county), and is a larger stream than the Cannon, and further south.* LE SUEUR IN THE MINNESOTA VALLEY. / Although there is mention made in the treatise of Nicholas Perrot, a trader and interpreter, and later an agent of the government in the upper Mississippi region, on the habits, customs and religions of the savages of North America, of the St. Croix and St. Peter’s rivers, there seems to have been no further extension of knowledge of the geography of the region till the •time of Le Sueur. The first accredited exploration of the Minnesota valley was made by Le Sueur, who first visited the upper Mississippi in 1683, with Perrot, in the interests of trade. He built a trading-post on Isle Pelee, a few miles below Hastings, in 1695, and in 1699 received a commission from D’Iberville to visit and examine a copper mine which he claimed to have discovered in the country of the Ioways. In April, 1700, with a single shallop and about twenty-five persons, he started from the settlements on the lower Mississippi for the mouth of the Minnesota river, where he arrived on the 19th of September ; and on the last day of the same month, being stopped by ice forty-four leagues above its union with the Mississippi, he determined to build his fort. His narrator, Penicaut, who was also his carpenter, states that this place was a league up the Green river (now the Blue Earth) on a point of land a quarter of a league distant f rom the ivoods. This river was so called “because it is of that color by reason of a green earth, which, loosening itself from the copper mines, becomes dissolved in it and makes * Coxc in French’s Hist. Col. of Louisiana, Part II., p. 233, says lake Papin was above the “Long” river oi La Hontan. 1701, Ls Sueur.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 17 it green.” Four leagues above the mouth of the St. Croix, at the mouth of a small lake, Le Sueur saw a large mass of copper. “ It is on the edge of the water, in a small ridge of sandy earth, on the west of this lake.”* The blue, or green, earth, which was mistaken for an ore of copper by Le Sueur, was obtained in a mine three-quarters of a league distant from the fort. The fort was named L’Huillier, from one of the chief collectors of the king, who had assayed the ore in Paris in 1696. Having spent the winter at his fort, in the spring of 1701 he descended the Mississippi with a large quantity of the ore, 4,000 pounds of which were sent to France. He intended to return, but in 1703 the garrison left by him arrived at Mobile, in charge of Derague, having been compelled to abandon the post on account of ill treatment by the Indians, and lack of supplies. This, river is further described as being near a range of hills (Keating says mountains) ten leagues long that seemed to be composed of the same substance. Charlevoix says : “ After removing a burnt, black crust, as hard as a rock, the copper could be scraped with a knife.” Penicaut says : “ This mine is situated at the beginning of a very long mountain which is upon the bank of the river, so that boats can go right to the mouth of the mine itself. At this place is the green earth, which is a foot and a half in thickness, and above it is a Jayer of earth as firm and hard as stone, and black and burnt like coal by the exhalation from the mine. The copper is scratched out with a knife. There are no trees upon this mountain. If this mine is good, it will make a great trade, because the mountain contains more than ten leagues running of the same ground. It appears, according to our observations, that in the very finest weather there is continually a fog upon this mountain.”! Mr. W. W. Mather, who accompanied Featherstonhaugh, says that he “ found the green earth, but it contained no copper.” Mr. Featherstonaugh is very positive in his denial of the existence of any copper in that locality, and pronounces the whole account a fabrication by Le Sueur. It is more probable that Le Sueur was honest in his conviction, but was mistaken in the value of the green earth which he mined. Charlevoix, La Harpe and Penicaut agree in the statement of the main facts, and if * Neill’s Minnesota, p 161 . f Translated by A. J Hill, in the Third Volume of the Minnesota Historical Collections. 2 18 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Ochagach, 1730. Le Sueur took a quantity to France for assay, it is not likely that he wilfully falsified the facts as to its origin and nature. There can be no question of the existence of both green and blue earth in that vicinity. The shales of the Cretaceous are common in that part of the state, and N. there is also a clayey deposit, supposed to be of the Cretaceous, found lying unconformably in eroded places in the Cambrian limestones of that valley. The hard, black, burnt crust mentioned, which, on being scraped, exhibited the copper, can be no other than the ironstone incrustation that covers the Cambrian limestones, as seen at Mankato, wherever the Cretaceous clays lie unconformably over them. ochagach’s map. The oldest map of the region west of lake Superior was traced by a chief of the Assiniboines, named Ochagach, for Yerendrye, in 1730, and was taken by Yerendrye to the governor of Canada to induce him to equip an exploring expedition in search of a passage to the western ocean. This map was sent to Paris and deposited in the Archives de la Marine. A reduced transcript of this map is given below (Fig. 1.), derived from a fac¬ simile tracing in the Department of American History of the Minnesota Historical Society, through the courtesy of Mr. Neill. It was reproduced on the margin of Buache’s map of 1754, and its contents are also incor¬ porated in Buache’s general Carte Physique. (Y. Plate 4.) It gave rise to the important and extensive explorations of Sieur Yerendrye and his sons and nephew (Jeremaye), which extended through several years and covered the valleys of the Assiniboine and Saskatchawan, as well as those of the upper Missouri and the Yellowstone, to the “shining mountains.” The water-course rudely represented on this chart, extending westward from lake Superior, is that which afterward became the international boundary. The river marked “R. de fond du L. Superieur” is evidently that which is now known as Yermilion river, north of Yennilion lake, and derived its designation by Ochagach from the fact that it furnished the main route, for east-bound canoes, to the head of lake Superior and the south shore of that lake; and, for a similar reason, that marked “ Missis- sipi ” represents the Big Fork river. The “ Fleuve de l’ouest ” is evidently the present Saskatchawan river, flowing into lake Winnipeg from the west, 1766, Carver.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 19 and rising in the Rocky Mountains. Plate IV however, represents the river of the west as flowing into the Pacific, rising in lake Crochet in the neighborhood of the sources of the Missouri. Cpi i ^ 1 SZfyAfcf SiM-m/yz Grti ru- fejfinC '■Cudf '7X*>Ct*qia4. frjdas pc*u- £/to**c id &?2 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Catlin, 1837 . it. As there is no rock in place around here, conjectures only can he formed upon the nature of the subjacent beds. * * * * * * * The Coteau des r Prairies, about which very little has been known, is a very broad ridge of land dividing the waters tributary to the Missouri from those which dis¬ charge themselves into the St. Peters and into the Red river of lake Win¬ nipeg. Its general direction is about north-northwest and south-southeast, though in places in appears to be irregular. To the south it comes down to the sources of the Makato, whilst to the north it terminates for a while near the sources of the Psee, where a flat country comes in, intersected by the Shyan and the Goose rivers. Lac du Diable is in this area with Turtle river. Here the Coteau rises again, to the north, but it is called the ‘Pembina hills’ by the traders; these extend beyond the Assinaboin river and die away about Flat lake, near seventy miles from lake Winnipeg. East of the Pem¬ bina hills there are salt springs, and from the somewhat vague accounts I received from the Indians, there is coal in their vicinity. A very respectable trader informed me he had once picked up some bituminous coal on the shore of lake Traverse.” GEORGE CATLIN AT THE RED PIPESTONE QUARRY. Although Mr. Catlin is best known as an Indian delineator, he has also left a brief geological description of the pipestone country.* He was the first to carry a sample of the red pipestone away with him, and take measures to have it subjected to chemical examination. Such examination was made by Dr. C. T. Jackson, of Boston, who gave the substance the mineralogical name of catlinite .f Mr. Catlin had plans laid for visiting the pipestone quarry in 1835, when at Fort Snelling, but hearing of the expedition of Mr. Featherston- haugh, under government directon to explore the Coteau des Prairies, he abandoned his project. Subsequently hearing that that gentleman did not * American Journal of Science, First Series, Vol. 38, p. 138. f In the journal of the council of the first legislative assembly of the territory of Minnesota, September 11,1849, is a letter of H. H. Siblev. presenting a sample of this stone to the territory for use in the Washington monument at the city of Washington. Its size was stated to be “ about two and a half feet in length, and a little over one and a half in breadth, and two inches in thickness ” Mr. Sibley objects to the use of the designation catlinite since it seems to have been given on the assumption that Mr. Catlin was the first white man who had visited that region, “whereas it is noto¬ rious that many whites had been there and examined the quarry long before he came to the country This designation therefore is clearly improper and unjust The Sioux term for the stone is E-yan-shah by which I conceive it should be known and classified.” ' Mr. Schoolcraft, in 1854, published for the first time a report on the Geology and Mineralogy of the expedith'ns made by him to the Mississippi region. This appears in the appendix to his “Summary Narrative.” It purnorts to have been written in 1822, and addressed to John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War. In this report the red pipestone of Minnesota is named with the true mineral name opwagonite, which he says is the Algonquin word for calumet stone. If this word had been applied to this mineral as early as 1822, and had been published even as early as 1832, it would antedate Jackson’s name of catlinite. But there is no evidence that it was published—indeed the references of Mr. Schoolcraft to his own early descriptions of the substance do not bear out his implication of such use of the name. 837, Catlin.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 63 visit the quarry, he carried out his design, starting from New York, “a dis¬ tance of 2,400 miles, for which purpose I devoted eight months, traveling at a considerable expense, and for a great part of the way with much fatigue and exhaustion.” Starting on horseback from the falls of St. Anthony, in company with “a young gentleman from England of fine taste and education,” and under the guidance of a faithful Indian, he followed the usual route along the south side of the Minnesota river to the Traverse des Sioux, where he crossed the river; he recrossed it at a point about thirty miles above the mouth of the “Terre Bleue,” near the mouth of the Waraju, and thence, leaving the Minnesota, pursued a course “a little north of west,” steering for the Coteau des Prairies. He represents the vast prairie that he passed over as one of the most beautiful countries in the world, for a distance of one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty miles. It everywhere showed the richest soil, and an abundance of good water which flowed from a thousand living springs. For many miles in the distance before us we had the Coteau in view, which looked like a blue cloud settling down in the horizon ; and when we had arrived at its base, we were scarcely sensible of the fact, from the graceful and almost imperceptible swells with which it commences its eleva¬ tion above the country about it. Over these swells, or terraces, gently rising one above the other, we traveled for a distance of forty or fifty miles, when we at length reached the summit, and also the pipestone quarry, the object of our campaign. From the base of this majestic mound to its top, a distance of forty or fifty miles, there was not a tree or a bush to be seen in any direction. The ground was ever., where covered with a green turf of grass, about five or six inches high ; and we were assured by our Indian guide that it descended to the west, toward the Missouri, with a sim¬ ilar inclination, and for an equal distance, divested of everything save the grass that grows and the animals that walk upon it. On the very top of this mound or ridge, we found the far-famed quarry, or fountain, of the Red Pipe, which is truly an anomaly in nature. The principal and most striking feature of this place is a perpendicular wall of close-grained, compact quartz, of twenty-five or thirty feet in elevation, running nearly north and south, with its face to the west, exhibiting a front of nearly two miles in length, when it disappears at both ends by running under the prairie, which becomes there a little more elevated, and probably covers it for many miles, both to the north and south- The depression of the brow of the ridge at this place has been caused by the wash of a little stream, produced by several springs on the top of the ridge, a little back from the wall, which has gradu¬ ally carried away the superincumbent earth, and having bared the wall for a distance of two miles, is now left to glide for some distance over a perfectly level surface of quartz rock, and then to leap from theiop of the wall into a deep basin below, and from thence to seek its course to the Missouri, forming the extreme source of a noted and powerful tributary called the Big Sioux. This beautiful wall is perfectly stratified in several distinct horizontal layers, of light, gray and rose, or flesh-colored, quartz ; and through the greater part of the way, both on the front of the wall, and over acres of its horizontal surface, it is highly polished, or glazed, as if by ignition. At the base of this wall, and running parallel to it, there is a level prairie of half a mile in width, in any and all parts of which the Indians procure’the red stone for their pipes by digging through the soil and several slaty layers of the red stone to the depth of four or five feet. From the very numerous marks of ancient and modern digging, or excavations, it would appear that this TIIE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. fCatlin, 1837. 64 place has been, for many centuries, resorted to for the red stone, and from the great number of graves and remains of ancient fortifications in the vicinity (as well as from their actual traditions) it would seem that the Indian tribes have long held this place in high superstitious estimation, and also that it has been the resort of different tribes, who have made their regular pilgrimages here to renew their pipes. It is evident that these people set an extraordinary value on the red stone, independently of the fact that it is more easily carved and makes better pipes than any other stone ; hut whenever an Indian presents a pipe made of it, lie gives it as something from the Great Spirit; and some of the tribes have a tradition that the red men Avere all created from the red stone, and that it thereby is “ a part of their flesh.” Such was the superstition of the Sioux on this subject, that we had great difficulty in approaching it, being stopped by several hundred of them, who ordered us back and threatened us very hard, saying that no white man had ever been to it. and that none should ever go. The red pipe-stone will, I suppose, take its place, amongst interesting minerals; and the “ Coteau des Prairies,” will become hereafter an important theme for geologists, not merely from the fact that it is the only known locality of that mineral, but from other phenomena relating to it. The single fact of such a table of quartz resting in perfectly horizontal strata on this elevated plateau is of itself, as I conceive, a very interesting subject for investigation, and one which calls upon the scientific world for a correct theory with regard to the time when, and the manner in which, this formation was produced. That it is a secondary and sedimentary deposit, seems evident; and that it has withstood the force of the diluvial current, while the great valley of the Missouri, from this very wall of rocks to the Kocky mountains, has been excavated and its debris carried to the ocean, I confidently infer from the following remarkable fact. At the base of the wall, and within a few rods of it, and on the very ground where the Indians dig for the red stone, rests a group of five stupendous boulders of gneiss leaning against each other, the smallest of which is twelve or fifteen feet, and the largest twenty-five feet in diam¬ eter, weighing, unquestionably, several hundred tons. These blocks are composed chiefly of feldspar and mica, of an exceedingly coarse grain (the feldspar often occurring in crystals of an inch in diameter). The surface of these boulders is in every part covered with a gray moss, which gives them an extremely ancient and venerable appearance, while their sides and angles are rounded by attrition to the shape and character of most other erratic stones which are found throughout the country. That these five immense blocks, of precisely the same character, and differing materially from all other specimens of boulders which I have seen in the great valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri, should have been hurled some hundreds of miles from their native bed, and lodged in so singular a group on this elevated ridge, is truly matter of surprise for the scientific world, as well as for the poor Indian, whose superstitous veneration for them is such that not a spear of grass is broken or bent by his feet within three or four rods of the group ; where he stops, and in humble supplication, by throwing plugs of tobacco to them, solicits their permission (as the guar¬ dian spirit of the place) to dig and carry away the red stone for his pipes. The surface of the boulders I found in every part entire and unscratched by anything, and even the moss was every¬ where unbroken, which undoubtedly remains so at this time, except where I applied the hammer to obtain some small specimens, which I brought away with me.* The fact alone that these blocks differ in character from all other specimens which I have seen in my travels, amongst the thousands of boulders which are strewed over the great valley of the Missouri and Mississippi, from the Yellowstone almost to the gulf of Mexico, raises in my mind an unanswerable question as regards the location of their native bed, and the means by which they have reached their isolated position like five brothers, leaning against and supporting each other, without the existence of another boulder of any description within fifty miles of them. There are thousands and tens of thousands of boulders scattered over the prairies, at the base of the Coteau on either side, and so throughout the valley of the St. PeterYand Mississippi, which are also subjects of very great interest and importance to science, inasmuch as they present to the Avorld a vast variety of characters, and each one, although strayed from its original position, bears incontestible proof of the character of its native bed. The tract of country lying betAveen the * In a specimen with which we are favored by Mr. Catlin, the feldspar is in distinct crystals, is tinted red, and greatly abounds; the quartz is gray and white, and the mica black, while the moss covers nearly half the mast.— Eds. 1837, Catlin.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 65 St. Peter’s river and the Coteau, over which we passed, presents innumerable specimens of the kind, and near the base of the Coteau, they are strewed over the prairie in countless numbers, presenting almost an incredible variety of rich and beautiful colors, and undoubtedly traceable (if they can be traced,) to separate and distinct beds. Amongst these beautiful groups it was sometimes a very easy matter to sit on my horse and count within my sight some twenty or thirty different varieties of quartz and granite in rounded boulders, of every hue and color, from snow white to intense red and yellow and blue, and almost to a jet black, each one well characterized and evidently from a distinct quarry. With the beautiful hues and almost endless characters of these blocks, I became completely surprised and charmed, and I resolved to procure specimens of every variety, which I did with success by dismounting from my horse and breaking small bits from them with my hammer, until I had something like a hundred different varieties containing all the tints and colors of the painter’s pallet. These I at length threw away, as I had on several former occasions other minerals and fossils, which I had collected and lugged along from day to day, and sometimes from week to week. Whether these varieties of quartz and granite can all be traced to their native beds, or whether they all have originals at this time exposed above the earth’s surface, are generally matters of much doubt in my mind. I believe that the geologist may take the varieties which he may gather at the base of the Coteau in one hour, and travel the continent of North America all over without being able to put them all in place ; coming at last to the unavoidable conclusion that numerous chains or beds of primitive rocks have reared their heads on this continent, the summits of which have been swept away by the force of the diluvial currents; and their fragments jostled together and strewed about, like foreigners in a strange land, over the great valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri, where they will ever remain and be gazed upon by the traveler as the only remaining evidence of their native ledges, which have again been submerged or covered with diluvial deposits. There seems not to be, either on the Coteau, or in the great valleys on either side, so far as I have traveled, any slaty or other formation exposed above the surface, on which grooves or scratches can be seen, to establish the direction of the diluvial currents in those regions; yet I think the fact is pretty clearly established by the general shapes of the valleys, and the courses of the mountain ridges which wall them in on their sides. The Coteau des Prairies is the dividing ridge between the St. Peter’s and the Missouri rivers; its southern termination or slope is about in the latitude of the falls of St. Anthony, and it stands equi-distant between the two rivers, its general course bearing two or three degrees west of north, for the distance of two or three hundred miles, when it gradually slopes again to the north, throwing out from its base the headwaters and tributaries of the St. Peter’s on the east; the Red river and other streams which empty into the Hudson’s bay on the north; “ La Riviere Jacques ” and several tributaries to the Missouri on the west; and the Red Cedar, the Ioway and the Des Moines on the south. This wonderful anomaly in nature, which is several hundred miles in length, and varying from fifty to an hundred in width, is undoubtedly the noblest mound of its kind in the world. It gradually and gracefully rises on each side, by swell after swell, without tree, or bush, or rocks (save what are to be seen at the pipestone quarry), and is everywhere covered with green grass, affording the traveler, from its highest elevations, the most unbounded and sublime views of— nothing at all, save the blue and boundless ocean of prairies that lie beneath and all around him, vanishing into azure in the distance, without a speck or spot to break their softness. The direction of this ridge clearly establishes the course of the diluvial current in this region, and the erratic stones which are distributed along the base I attribute to an origin several hundred miles northwest from the Coteau. I have not myself traced the Coteau to its highest points, nor to its northern extremity, but on this subject I have closely questioned a number of travelers who have traversed every mile of it with their carts, and from thence to lake Winnipec on the north, who uniformly tell me that there is no range of primitive rocks to be crossed in traveling the whole distance, which is one connected and continuous prairie. The surface of the sides and the top of the Coteau is everywhere strewed over with granitic sand and pebbles, which, together with the fact of five boulders resting at the pipestone quarry, shows clearly that every part of the ridge has been subject to the action of these currents, which could not have run counter to it without having disfigured or deranged its beautiful symmetiy. 66 TIIE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. fl.ea, 1836. The glazed or polished surface of the quartz rocks at the pipestone quarry, I consider a very interesting subject, and one which will hereafter produce a variety of theories as to the manner in which it has been formed and the causes which have led to such singular results. The quartz is of a close grain and exceedingly hard, eliciting the most brilliant sparks from steel, and in most places where it is exposed to the sun and air, its surface has a high polish, entirely beyond any result which could have been produced by diluvial action, being perfectly glazed as if by ignition. I was not sufficiently particular in my examination to ascei’tain whether any parts of the surface of these rocks under the ground, and not exposed to the action of the air, were thus affected, which would afford an important argument in forming a correct theory with regard to it; and it may also be a fact of similar importance that the polish does not extend over the whole wall or area, but is distributed over it in sections, often disappearing suddenly and reappearing again, even where the character and exposure of the rock are the same and unbroken. In general, the points and parts most projecting and exposed, bear the highest polish ; which would naturally be the case, whether it was produced by ignition or by the action of the air and sun. It would seem almost an impossibility that the air in passing these projections for centuries, could have produced so high a polish on so hard a substance, and, in the total absence of all igneous matter, it seems equally unaccountable that this effect could have been produced by fire. I have broken off speci¬ mens and brought them home, which have as high a polish and luster on the surface as a piece of melted glass; and then as these rocks have certainly been formed where they now lie, it must be admitted that this strange effect has been produced either by the action of the air or by igneous influence, and if by the latter cause, we can come to no other conclusion than that these results are volcanic ;* that this wall has once formed the side of an extinguished crater, and that the pipestone, lying in horizontal strata, was formed by the lava which issued from it. I am strongly inclined to believe, however, that the former supposition is the correct one, and that the pipestone, which dif¬ fers from all known specimens of lava and steatite, will prove to be a subject of great interest, and worthy of careful analysis. The first plate-page is designed to show at a glance the history of geo- % graphical exploration in Minnesota, from the time of the earliest French exploration to the date of Gatlin’s visit to the pipestone quarry. Plate-page No. 2 is a reduced copy of Franquelin’s map of 1688, being the oldest known map of the region west of lake Superior. LIEUT. ALBERT M. LEA ON THE BLACK HAWK PURCHASE. Lieut. A. M. Lea’s map, accompanying his report on the “Black Hawk purchase,” entitled “Notes on the Iowa District of Wisconsin Territory,” 1886, shows the southern and southeastern counties of Minnesota, and the tributaries of the Mississippi river as far north as the foot of lake Pepin. The Whitewater river, by this map, joins the Embarras river just before the latter reaches the Mississippi. A tributary of the Whitewater from the south is named Swallow creek. Lake Albert Lea is there styled Fox lake. Fountain lake he styled Chapeau lake. A branch of the Blue Earth river is represented, and Council lake as one of its tributaries. This is probably Walnut lake, of Faribault county. The head of Lime creek is ♦These smoothed surfaces are due to the polishing effect of sand and dust driven by the high winds.—N. H. W. 0 * ( UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS. x ‘■''o- n _ 3 r k ■ \ *sra^ 'w**' — 1836, Nicollet.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. G7 Trail lake, with a smaller one flowing into it from the northwest. North¬ west from Chapeau lake, and between its two affluents from the northwest is “Paradise Prairie.” A “trading house” is represented at Red Wing’s village, at the foot of lake Pepin. Lieut. Lea’s brief general notes pertain wholly to the region south of Minnesota, though his return trail passes through our southern counties. JEAN N. NICOLLET. From 1886 to 1848, Mr. Jean N. Nicollet prosecuted the geographical exploration of the upper Mississippi. He died while his report, intended to show the result of his labors, was undergoing print and revision.* It is accompanied by a map, which, up to that time, was the most complete and correct of the upper Mississippi region. It covered not only the whole ol Minnesota hut also Iowa, about one-lialf of Missouri and much of Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois. It has been pronounced by high authority! “one of the greatest contributions ever made to American geography.” That part of his map covering Minnesota, where the greater part of his time was spent, and where he brought out the most interesting and matured results, is reproduced in plate-page No. 7. He not only expresses the names ol streams and lakes, but gives the first representation of the striking topo- graphical features of the western and northern portions of the state. Without any just idea of the origin of the immense “erratic deposite” which charac¬ terizes the western and northern part of the state, he has, with tolerable correctness, delineated the course of a series of knolls and hills, made up of drift, under the names, Plateau clu Coteau des Prairies , Coteau du Grand Bois, Hi (/id of Land, Missabay Hights , which extend through Minnesota and mark the continuous limit of the ice-slieet at the time of the last glacial epoch. He aims to locate correctly, by astronomical observations, the numerous streams and lakes, and the main geographical features of the state, filling in by eye-sketching, and by pacing, the intermediate objects. His methods, allowing for the imperfection of his appliances, and the meagerness of his outfit and supplies, were established on the same principles as the most approved geodetic surveys of the present day. It would, perhaps, have been * Report intended to illustrate a Map of the Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi river , made by J. N. Nicollet, while in employ under the Bureau of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. Feb. 16, 1*41, Washington. Senate docu¬ ment No. 237. 26th Congress, 2d Session. +Gen. G. K. Warren, Pac. R. R. Reports. Vol. XI., p. 41. 68 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Nicollet, 1839 . well if the methods of Nicollet could have been adhered to in the further surveying and mapping of the western territories. Their geography would have been less rapidly developed, but it would have been done more cor¬ rectly. Nicollet’s map embraces a multitude of names, including many new ones, which he applied to lakes and streams. These are not represented on the general historical map, hut may be seen on referring to Nicollet’s map as reproduced. Mr. Nicollet makes hut few references to the geology and natural history of the region he surveyed, his main purpose being geographical information. Lieut. J. C. Fremont was his principal aid. He also employed Mr. Charles Geyer as a practical botanist, whose collections were named by Prof. John Torrey. His fossils were named by himself, or by the assistance of Yanuxem and Conrad of the New York Geological Survey, then lately instituted. MR. NICOLLET ON THE COTEAU DES PRAIRIES. The basin of the upper Mississippi is separated in a great part of its extent from that of the Missouri, by an elevated plain, the appearance of which, seen from the plain of the St. Peter’s, or that of the river Jacques, looming as it were a distant shore , has suggested for it the name of Coteau des Prairies. Its more appropriate designation would be that of plateau , which means something more than is conveyed to the mind by the expression, a plain. Its northern extremity is in latitude 46°, extending to 43°; after which it loses its distinctive elevation above the surrounding plains, and passes into rolling prairies. Its length is about two hundred miles, and its general direction N. N. W.and S. S. E. Its northern termination, (called Tele du Coteau , in consequence of its peculiar configuration,) is not more than fifteen to twenty miles across; its elevation above the level of the Big Stone lake is 890 feet, and above the ocean 1916 feet. Starting from this extremity (that is, the head of the Coteau,) the surface of the plateau is undulating, forming many dividing ridges which separate the waters flowing into the St. Peter’s and the Mississippi from those of the Missouri. Under the forty-fourth degree of latitude, the breadth of the Coteau is about forty miles, and its mean elevation is here reduced to 1450 feet above the sea. Within this space its two slopes are rather abrupt, crowned with verdure and scolloped by deep ravines thickly shaded with bushes, forming the beds of rivulets that water the subjacent plains. The Coteau itself is isolated, in the midst of boundless and fertile prairies, extending to the west, to the north, and into the valley of the St. Peter’s. The plain at its northern extremity is a most beautiful tract of land, diversified by hills, dales, woodlands and lakes, the last abounding in fish. This region of country is probably the most elevated between the gulf of Mexico and Hudson’s bay. From its summit, proceeding from its western to its eastern limits, grand views are afforded. 'At its eastern border, particularly, the prospect is magnificent beyond description, extending over the immense green turf that forms the basin of the Bed river of the North, the forest-capped summits of the hauteurs des terres that surround the sources of the Mississippi, the granitic valley of the upper St. Peter’s, and the depressions in which are lake Traverse and the Big Stone lake. There can be no doubt that in future times this region will be the summer resort of the wealthy of the land. * * The other portions of the Coteau, ascending from the lower latitudes, present pretty much the same characters. This difference, however, is remarkable: that the woodlands become 1838 , Nicollet. J HISTORICAL SKETCH. G9 scarcer, whilst the open prairies increase in extent. It is very rarely only that groves are met with, to which the Ndakotalis , or Sioux, have given the name of Tchan Wit ah, or Wood islands. When these groves are surrounded by water they assume some resemblance to oases, and hence I have assigned this name to some of them on my map. These oases, possessed of a good soil, well wooded, offering an abundance of game, and waters teeming with fish, offer inducements for permanent settlements. In this region there are frequent instances of a marsh, or lake, furnishing waters to different hydrographical basins—a fact observed by the Sioux, and which they express, in the compound word of their dialect, mini akipan kaduza; from mini , water, akipan , division, share, and kaduza , to flow, to run out. There are, besides, other fine lakes, that would furnish, on their borders, eligible sites for such villages as were formerly occupied by some of the Ndakotah tribes, previous to the war of extermination waged against them by the Sac and Fox Indians. Among them may be numbered the series of lakes designated as the Shetek, Benton, Titan-kahi, Poinsett, Abert, Spirit, and Tizaptonan lakes. Whatever people may fix their abode in this region must, necessarily, become agriculturists and shepherds, drawing all their resources from the soil. They must not only raise the usual agricultural products for feeding, as is now but too generally done in some parts of the west, but they will have to turn their attention to other rural occupations, such as tending sheep for their wool; which would greatly add to their resources, as well as finally bring about a more extended application of the industrial arts among them. ***** The plateau of the Coteau des Prairies is composed in a great measure, of the materials belonging to what I have named the erratic deposite, as is evidenced by the nature of the soils, the physiognomy of the ridges and hillocks that diversify its surface, the deep ravines by which it is flanked, and the innumerable erratic blocks strewed over the borders of its lakes. We have no data by which to determine the inferior limits of this deposite ; still there is reason to think that it rests upon such primary rocks as show themselves along the line of rapids of the upper St. Peter’s, consisting of granite, sienite and other metamorphic rocks. Nevertheless, over the vast extent of this plateau, there is, apparently, but one spot where the subjacent rock makes its appearance, and this is at the Indian red pipestone quarry, so-called. NICOLLET AT THE RED PIPESTONE QUARRY. The Indians of all the surrounding nations make a regular annual pilgrimage to it unless prevented by their wars or dissensions. The quarry is on the lands of the Sissiton tribe of Sioux. The idea of the young Indians, who are very fond of the marvellous, is, that it has been opened by the Great Spirit, and that whenever it is visited by them, they are saluted by lightning and thunder. We may cite as a coincidence, our own experience in confirmation of this tradition. Short of half a mile from the valley, we were met by a severe thunder-storm, during which the wind blew with so much force as to threaten the overthrowing of Mr. Renville’s wagon; and we were obliged to stop for a few minutes during the short descent into the valley. If this mode of reception was at first to be interpreted as an indication of anger on the part of the Great Spirit for our intrusion, we may add that he was soon reconciled to our presence ; for the sun soon after made his appearance, drying both the valley and our baggage. The rest of the day was spent in pitching our tent on the supposed consecrated ground, and in admiring the beautiful effects of lights and shadows produced by the western sun as it illumined the several parts of the bluff, composed of red rock of different shades, extending a league in length, and presenting the appearance of the ruins of some ancient city built of marble and porphyry. The night was calm and temperate, of which we took advantage to make astronomical observations. ********** The valley of the “ Red Pipestone” extends from N. N. W. to S. S. E. in the form of an ellipsis, being about three miles in length, with a breadth at its smaller axis of half a mile. It is cradle¬ shaped, and its slope to the east is a smooth sward, without trees and without rocks. Its slope to the west is rugged, presenting a surface of rocks throughout its whole length, that form a very picturesque appearance, and would deserve a special description if this were the place to do so. But I am now more particularly interested in defining its geological features. 70 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Nicollet, 1838. The principal rock that strikes the attention of the observer in this remarkable inland bluff, is an indurated (metamorphic) sandrock, or quarteyte, the red color of which diminishes in intensity from the base to the summit. It is distinctly stratified; the upper beds being very much weather-worn and disintegrated into large and small cubic fragments. The whole thickness of this quartzyte, which immediately overlies the bed of the red pipe- stone is 261 feet. Its strata appear to have a small dip to the N. E. The floor of the valley, which is higher than the red pipestone, is formed by the inferior strata of the quartzyte, and in the spring of the year is most generally under water; the action of which upon the rock is apparent in the great quantity of fragments strewed over the valley, so as to render it uncomfortable to walk over them. The creek by which the valley is drained, feeds in its course three distinct small basins at different elevations, that penetrate down as far as the red pipestone. This red pipestone, not more interesting to the Indian than it is to the man of science, by its unique character, deserves a particular description. In the quarry of it which I had opened, the thickness of the bed is one foot and a half; the upper portion of which separates in thin slabs, whilst the lower onoe are more compact. As a mineralogical species it may be described as fol¬ lows: compact; structure slaty; receiving a dull polish; having a red streak; color blood-red, with dots of a fainter shade of the same color ; fracture rough ; sectile; feel somewhat greasy; hardness not yielding to the nail; not scratched by selenite, but easily by calcareous spar; specific gravity 2.90. The acids have no action upon it; before the blowpipe it is infusible per se, but with borax gives a green glass. According to Prof. Jackson, of Boston, who has analyzed and applied to it the name of catlinite, after Mr. Catlin, it is composed of— Water. 8.4 Silica. 48.2 Alumina.28.2 Magnesia. 6.0 Peroxide of iron. 5.0 Oxide of Manganese. 0.6 Carbonate of lime. 2.6 Loss (probably magnesia). 1.0 Total. 100.0 But Prof. Jackson assimilates it to the agalmatolite, from which it differs, however, very materially by its general aspect, its conduct before the blowpipe, and its total insolubility in sul¬ phuric acid.* ' Another feature of the Bed Pipestone valley is the occurrence of granitic boulders of larger size than any I had previously met. One of these measured about sixty feet in circumference, and was from ten to twelve feet thick. They are strewed over the valley, in which it is remark¬ able that there are no pebbles. The name of Mr. Nicollet, and the initials of his companions, are hand¬ somely cut in the hard quartzyte at the top of the ledge near the Leaping Rock, a little north of where the creek passes over the brow of the escarp¬ ment, as here represented and arranged, viz : J. N. Nicollet. C. F. 2- m c X C. A. G. ~o -* 0 J. L. oj 2 : J. E. F. 00 =f: ■ 0 J. R. 3 1 he red pipestone is also found on the upper part of the Mishkwagokag, or Red Cedar river, which falls into the Chippeway river that empties itself into the Mississippi river below lake Pepin. 1838, Nicollet.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 71 THE UNDINE REGION. I shall now proceed to give a short account of some of the regions of country adjoining the Coteau des Prairies, omitting those which have already found a place in the geography of the United States, so as to be more particular concerning such as are but little or not at all known. Among these, that which appeared to me the most favorable, is the one watered by the bold Man¬ kato or Blue Earth river, and to which I have given the name of Undine reqion. The great number of the navigable tributaries of the Mankato, spreading themselves out in the shape of a fan; the group of lakes surrounded by well-wooded hills; some wide-spreading prairies with fertile soil; others apparently less favored, but open to improvement;—the whole together bestow upon this region a most picturesque appearance. It was while on a visit to lakes Okamanpidan and Tchanhassan (Little Heron and Maplewood lakes), that ii occurred tome to give it the name that I have adopted, derived from that of an interesting and romantic German tale, the heroine of which belonged to the extensive race of water-spirits living in the brooks and rivers and lakes, whose father was a mighty prince. She was, moreover, the niece of a great brook (the Mankato) who lived in the midst of forests, and was beloved by all the many great streams of the surrounding country, etc., etc. I do not know why I fancied an analogy between the ideal country described in the tale, and that of the one before me ; but I involuntarily, as it were, adopted the name.* The limit of this region is the 1ST. E. prong of the Coteau des Prairies, which takes in the sources of the Mankato and of the La Hontan rivers, subdividing itself into undulations whence proceed the waters of the Wazioju, or Pine river, Miniska , or White Water river, Okali , or Heron run, &c., &c., all emptying into the Mississippi. The Mankato becomes navigable with boats within a few miles of its sources. It is deep, with a moderate current along a great portion of its course, but becomes very rapid on its approach to the St. Peter’s. Its bed is narrowly walled up by banks rising to an elevation of from sixty to eighty feet, and reaching up to the uplands through which the river flows. These banks are frequently cliffs, or vertical escarpments, such as the one called by the Sioux Manya kichaksa, or cleft elevation. The breadth of the river is pretty uniformly from 80 to 120 feet wide; and the average breadth of the valley through which it flows scarcely a quarter of a mile. The latter, as well as the high grounds, are well-wooded; the timber beginning to spread out 011 both shores, especially since they have become less frequented by the Sioux hunters, and are not so often flred. But the crossings of the river are hard to find, requiring to be pointed out by an experienced guide. I have laid down on the map my route over the Undine region, and the geographical posi¬ tions of the crossing places will be fonnd in the table at the end of the report. On the left bank of the Mankato, six miles from its mouth, in a rocky bluff composed of sandstone and limestone, are found cavitives in which the famed blue or green earth, used by the Sioux as their principal pigment, is obtained. This material is nearly exhausted, and it is not likely that this is the spot where a Mr. Le Sueur (who is mentioned in the narrative of Major Long’s Second Expedition, as also by Mr. Featherstonhaugh) could, in his third voyage during the year 1700, have collected his four thousand pounds of copper earth sent by him to France. I have reason to believe that Le Sueur’s location is on the river to which I have affixed his name, and which empties into the Mankato three quarters of a league above Fort L’Huillier, built by him, and where he spent a winter. This location corresponds precisely with that given by Charlevoix, while it is totally inap¬ plicable to the former. Here the blue earth is abundant in the steep and elevated hills at the mouth of this river, which hills form a broken country on the right side of the Mankato. Mr. Fremont and myself have verified this fact—he during his visit to Le Sueur river; and I upon the locality designated by Mr. Featherstonhaugh, where the Ndakotahs formerly assembled in * The beautiful poetic conceit of Nicollet in applying the name of Undine to this region should be perpetuated. Undine was a water-sprite, that had control of the waters so as to accomplish her designs. Her uncle, Kuhleborn, who possessed a great stream, was influential over many, and caused sudden Hoods to stop travel, and to intercept fugitives. His passage from province to province was often subterranean, and brought him into numerous lakes, He made his realm obedient to Undine, and aided her ambitious design to captivate a rich and noble knight. The story is one of the eighteenth century, written by Fouque, The multiplicity of streams, springs, and lakes in this region, with occasional subterranean channels (see Geology of Blue Earth County ,) greatly in contrast with the monotonous, treeless prairies on either side, make it an image of the domain of Kuhleborn, and suggest that it is the habitation of Undine, and her associate water-nymphs. The valleys, and some of the uplands, in this region, are wooded and the streams sometimes run in deep, rock-bound gorges. 72 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Nicollet, 1838 . great numbers to collect it, but to which they now seldom resort, as it is now comparatively scarce—at least so I was told by Sleepy Eye , the chief of the Sissitons, who accompanied me during this excursion. As I did in the case of the red pipestone described above, I will state the mineralogical character of the Indian blue earth or clay. It is massive, somewhat plastic, emits an argillaceous odor when breathed upon; color bluish green; easily scratched with the nail, when formed into hardened balls. The acids have no action upon it; it is infusible before the blowpipe, but loses its color and becomes brown. This color is due to the peroxide of iron which it contains in the proportion of ten per cent, at least. It contains no potash and but a small proportion of lime. It is a very different mineral from that described by Dr. Thompson under the name of pipe-clay. Next comes the region of country between the St. Peter’s and the upper portions of La Hontan and Le Sueur rivers, above referred to. This is an extensive district, thickly set in forests amidst which there are reported to be many large lakes. The French give to the forests the name of Bois-francs, or Bois-forts , whenever they are not composed principally of trees belonging to the family of the Coniferce. To complete an account of the physical geography of the country, including the Undine region with the last mentioned, I will now enumerate some of the most important trees, shrubs and plants that characterize its sylva and flora. The whole country embraced by the lower St. Peter’s and the Undine region exceeds any land of the Mississippi above Wisconsin river, as well in the quality and quantity of its timber as the fertility of its soil. The forests of the valley on the right bank are connected by groves and small wooded streams of the adjoining prairies with the forest called Bois francs, and they extend so far southwest as to include the lands of the upper waters of the Mankato river. The forest trees, as reported to me by Mr. Geyer, are chiefly soft maple, American and red elm, black walnut, the nettle tree, basswood, red and white ash; the undergrowth, the common hawthorn, prickly ash, high cranberry, red root, gray dogwood, fox grapes, horse-briar and moon- seed. Among the herbs are the wild and bristly sarsaparilla, Indian turnip, the gay orchis and others; rushes and the flowering ferns are abundant along the low banks of the rivers. The valley prairies are rich in pasture grasses and leguminous and orcliideous plants, such as the yellow lady’s slipper, American and tufted vetch, and others. The lowest parts near the borders of the woods, and those subject to inundations, are filled with the high weeds common to such r places—as the ragged cup, tall thistle, great bitterweed, the tuberous sunflower, and others. Swamps are frequent, and some of them contain extensive tracts of tamarack pines. Cedars grow, intermixed with red birch, on the rocky declivities of the lower Mankato river. Red and bur oak, with hazel, red-root, peter’s-wort, and the wild rose, are the trees and shrubs of the uplands. There are, besides, thickets of the poplar birch that are frequent in the elevated prairies near the river. The prairies are very luxuriant, and generally somewhat level and depressed; the gum- plant and button snake-root are their most abundant and conspicuous herbs. To give animation to the Undine region, and to the valley of the St. Peter’s, as well as to develop trade between the British possessions, the territory of Iowa and the state of Missouri, it would be necessary for government to open routes of communication between St. Peter’s and the Travese des Sioux, through the Bois francs mentioned above; between St. Peter’s and the Prairie du Chien; between Dubuque and the Lac-qui-parle ; through the Undine region, with a fork in the direction of the Traverse des Sioux, passing by Fremont* and Okoman\ lakes, (which latter is at the headwaters of La Hontan river,) and in other directions that would naturally suggest themselves. The geological formation that characterizes the Undine region as well as the St. Peter’s, as far nearly as the mouth of the Waraju, is the same as that of Fort Snelling which I shall describe further on. It consists mainly in a thick stratum of friable sandstone as the basis, succeeded by a deposite of limestone, which is sometimes magnesian, and occasionally contains fossils; the whole covered by what I have called the erratic deposite. The sandstone forms the Little rapids of the St. Peter’s, and, reappearing at the Traverse des Sioux, determines other rapids that are observed in a beautiful streamj two miles northeast of * Probably Clear Lake, near Waseca, f Lake Elysian. X Moon creek, now caUed Cherry ereek, at Ottawa. 1838, Nicollet.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 73 the trading-post in this place. . At other intermediate localities the sandstone and limestone both appear; but further on the limestone disappears altogether; because it goes thinning out as the western limits of the formation are approached. This may be observed near the Waraju, and toward the upper parts of the Mankato, where the limestone, and indeed the sandstone, are replaced by beds of clay or of calcareous marl. In the argillaceous deposits last referred to there are red ochre, other ferruginous minerals, and lignites. Between the sandstone and the limestone there is a bed of whitish clay, enclosing nodules of the blue earth; and sometimes, between the strata of limestone, bands of argillaceous iron ore, intermixed with siliceous and calcareous incrustions. The account given above applies equally to the rocky cliffs on the upper part of the La Hontan river, and especially to the interesting locality* at the entrance of its south fork, which is four miles to the east of lake Ti-tanka-tanninan .f * LA HONTAN’S RIVIERE LONGUE. Those who have read the travels of Baron La Hontan, in which he mentions his discovery of a certain long river coming from the west, and falling into the Mississippi, may, perhaps, think that, by giving his name to a river upon my map, I meant to clear up the doubt which has existed, for more than 150 years, as regards the veracity of this officer. Such was not originally my intention ; but I am forced into it after terminating my explora¬ tion of the Undine region. Having afterward procured a copy of La Hontan’s book, in which there is a roughly made map of his Long river, I was struck with the resemblance of its course, as laid down, with that of Cannon river; which I had previously sketched in my own field-book. I soon convinced myself that the principal statements of the Baron, in reference to the country, and the few details he gives of the physical character of the river, coincided remarkably with what I had laid down as belonging to the Cannon river. Thus the lakes and swamps corresponded ; traces of Indian villages mentioned by him might be found in the growth of a certain grass that propagates itself around all old Indian settlements. Some of the names which he assigns to them may be referred to dialects of the Sioux tongue; and even his account of the feasting of his men on the large number of the American hare which he found there, is substantiated by the voyageurs. His account, too, of the mouth of the river, is particularly accurate. The most scrupulous geographer, describing it at this time, would have but little to alter. As this locality is in the way of travelers going to St. Peter’s, I will quote from the text of La Hontan, so that they may judge of the truth of my assertion. “ We entered,” he says, “ the mouth of this long river, which is a sort of large lake filled with canebrakes (/ones); in the midst of which we discovered a narrow channel, which we followed up,” &c. I do not pretend, however, to justify his gross exaggeration of the length of the river; of the numerous population on its banks; and his pretended information respecting the nations inhabiting the more remote regions. This sort of exaggeration seems to have belonged to the period ; but there is apparently a more serious objection to be made to his narrative—namely, that it appears, from his text, he traveled during the months of November and December; at which period of the year the rivers in these parts are mostly frozen over, and the voyage there¬ fore impracticable. But the received opinion, on the other hand, is, that it is one of the last to freeze, and is the last resort of the wild fowl. The Sioux are said to congregate, in consequence upon its banks in large numbers ; relying on this resource, whilst they are otherwise collecting their peltries, insomuch that the American Fur Department at St. Peter’s has always kept up this post for the purpose of securing the advantages of this trade. Besides, this river is fed by a great number of springs ; and the upper portion of its course is in a remarkable manner pro¬ tected from sudden changes of temperature by high rocky banks and thick forests that cover them. Under all these circumstances I have thought proper to notice these facts, that seem to possess sufficient interest in the history of the geography of the west; I have stated what appeared to me the true facts in the case; and I may add, in conclusion, that if La Hontan’s claims to dis¬ coveries are mere fables, he has had the good fortune or the sagacity to have come near the truth. * The vicinity of Faribault, t Cannon lake, in Rice county. 74 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Nicollet, 1838 . Further, in reference to La Hontan river: when the French were in possession of the country it was known by the name Riviere aux Canots or Canoe river, as it was there that the traders were in the habit of concealing their canoes. Its present name of Cannon river is evidently a corruption of the French one. The one which it bore among the Sioux in 1700, when Le Sueur ascended the Mississippi (and which it still bears) was Inyan-bosndata , or Standing Rock. CASTLE ROCK, LONE ROCK AND CHIMNEY ROCK. This Indian name (Inyan-bosndata) is that of a natural obelisk which occurs on alow and sandy plain four miles to the north of the crossing place, on the “north fork of La Hontan river.”* This heap of disintegrated sandstone rock is thirty-six feet high. It is a curious specimen of the weatheiing of the sandstone of the west, that may be compared to the earth pillars left behind by workmen to mark the extent of their excavations, and is possibly a relic of the thickness of the formation previous to the devastating agency of the elements, that has altered the original level of the surface of the country. My friend, the Viscomte de Montmort (then an attache to the French legation at Washington, who accompanied me in this excursion), has furnished me with an admirable drawing of it, as well as of the natural monument next to be mentioned. Twelve miles north of the natural obelisk which I have just described, near the crossing place of the Vermilion river, there are other evidencesfof the great denudation of the surface that has taken place in this region. One of them is also remarkable by its symmetrical outlines, bearing the appearance of a dilapidated castle of feudal times, such as are seen in the Alps and other places; hence its name. I have thought it of sufficient importance to indicate their situa¬ tions on my map. These natural monuments are mentioned by Mr. Featherstonhaugh upon infor¬ mation received from others, but he did not visit them. THE DES MOINES CONNECTED WITH THE MINNESOTA. Mr. Nicollet called attention to the hydrographical relations of the Des Moines river with the Blue Earth, the Minnesota and the Mississippi rivers. The point of geographical interest is found in latitude 48° 45', lon¬ gitude 95° 12', where there is a lake very near the Des Moines, called Tchan shetcha or Dry Wood lake. The Blue Earth river, by means of its tributary, the Watonwan, has one of its sources in this lake, and the land separating it from the Des Moines is not more than a mile or a mile and a half in width. Thus a short canal would bring the Des Moines into communica¬ tion with the Minnesota. This interesting fact was formerly taken advan¬ tage of by the Indian fur traders, who, after spending the winter on the headwaters of the Des Moines, found it convenient to bring their peltries by water communication through the Watonwan valley and the Blue Earth to the mouth of the Minnesota river. * Chub creek in Dakota county, t Lone rock and Chimney rock. >836, Nicollet.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 75 NICOLLET ASCENDS THE MISSISSIPPI. In July, 1S36, Mr. Nicollet ascended the Mississippi to its source in Itasca lake. He says that above the falls of St. Anthony the rocky formations assume another type, “being the several varieties ol greenstone, and finally passing into talcose slate.” as seen at the falls of the Wabezi, or Swan river, and the Omoshkos, or Elk river. Along with Schoolcraft, he mentions, among other trees, the walnut, as one of those native to the Mississippi valley above the falls of St. Anthony. He mentions, as a prominent geological feature ot the country, the outcrop of syenitic rock on the east side of the river, a little below the Pikwabik, with a flesh-colored feldspar, extending a mile in length, with a breadth of half a mile, and an elevation of eighty feet, known as little rock* At the foot of Knife rapids,f higher up, on the same side of the river, “there are sources that transport a very fine, brilliant and bluish sand, accompanied by a soft and unctuous matter. This appears to be the result of a decomposition of a steaschist, probably interposed between the sienitic rocks previously mentioned. The same thing is observed at the mouths of Wabezi and Omoshkos .” From Crow Wing river Mr. Nicollet pursued a new route to Itasca lake. At a distance of three miles from its mouth he ascended Gayashk, or Gull river, and the lake having the same name. Then portaging northeast, he reached Pine river and visited Whitefish lake. Ascending the east fork of Pine river, he reached Kwiwisens, or Little Boy river. This he descended through a succession of lakes and over small rapids, as far as Leech lake, where he spent a week, and was befriended from the Indians in an emergency, by Rev. Mr. Boutwell, who had accom¬ panied Mr. Schoolcraft in 1832. From Leech lake he passed westward, through lake Kabekonang and Kabekonang river, and made a portage of five miles to the La Place river, which is the same that Mr. Schoolcraft called the East Fork of the Mississippi , in 1832. He ascended this to lake Assawa^ where he found an old camp of Mr. Schoolcraft. The last portage, one of six miles, to Itasca lake, was found to he very arduous, being across numerous sloughs, with low intervening ridges. The soil was found to be sandy and gravelly, overspread with erratic blocks, with a great variety of evergreens. The last of the series of ridges, being also the highest, is 120 feet above the waters of lake Itasca. * The same as Schoolcraft’s peace rock, situated in See 27, Watab, Benton county, f Pike Rapids. 76 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Nicollet, 1836- NICOLLET AT THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI. The Mississippi holds its own from its very origin; for it is not necessary to suppose, as has been done, that lake Itasca may be supplied with invisible sources, to justify the character of a remarkable stream, which it assumes at its issue from this lake. There are five creeks that fall into it, formed by innumerable streamlets oozing from the clay-beds at the bases of the hills, that consist of an accumulation of sand, gravel and clay, intermixed with erratic fragments; being a more prominent portion of the erratic deposite previously described, and which here is known by the name of Hauteurs des Torres , higlits of land. These elevations are commonly flat at top, varying in hight from eighty-five to one hundred feet above the level of the surrounding waters. They are covered with thick forests in which the coniferous plants predominate. South of Itasca lake they form a semi-circular region, with a boggy bottom, extending to the southwest a distance of several miles; thence these Hauteurs des Terres ascend to the northwest and north, and then stretching to the northeast and east, through the zone between 47° and 48° of latitude, make the dividing ridge between the waters that empty into Hudson bay and those which discharge themselves into the gulf of Mexico. The principal group of these Hauteurs des Terres is subdivided into several ramifications, varying in extent, elevation and course, so as to determine the hydrographical basins of all the innumerable lakes and rivers that so peculiarly characterize this region of country. One of these ramificationa extends in a southerly direction under the name Coteau du Grand Bois; and it is this which separates the Mississippi streams from those of the Red river of the North. The waters supplied by the north flank of these liights of land, still on the south side of lake Itasca, give origin to the five creeks of which I have spoken above. These are the waters which I consider to be the utmost sources of the Mississippi. Those that flow from the southern side of the same liights, and empty themselves into Elbow lake, are the utmost sources of the Red river of the North; so that the most remote feeders of Hudson bay and the gulf of Mexico are closely approximated to each other. Now, of the five creeks that empty into Itasca lake (the Omoshkos Sagaigon , of the Chippe- ways, or the Lac a la Biche, of the French, or the Elk lake of the British) one empties into the east bay of the lake; the four others into the west bay. I visited the whole of them; and among the latter there is one remarkable above the others, inasmuch as its course is longer and its waters more abundant; so that, in obedience to the geographical rule “that the sources of a river are those which are most distant from its mouth,” this creek is truly the infant Mississippi; all others below, its feeders and tributaries. The day on which I explored this principal creek, (Aug. 29, 1836) I judged that, at its entrance into Itasca lake, its bed was from fifteen to twenty feet wide, and the depth of water from two to three feet. I stemmed its pretty brisk current during ten or twenty minutes; but the obstructions occasioned by the fall of trees compelled us to abandon the canoe, and seek its springs on foot, along the hills. After a walk of three miles, during which we took care not to lose sight of the Mississippi, my guides informed me that it was better to descend into the trough of the valley; when, accordingly, we found numerous streamlets oozing from the bases of the hills. The temperature obtained at a great number of places, by plunging the thermometer in the mud whence these springs arose, was always between 43° 5' and 44° 2’ Fah.; that of the air being between 63° and 70°. Having taken great pains in determining the temperature, I have a right to believe that it represents pretty accurately the mean annual temperature of the country under examination. As a further description of these headwaters, I may add that they unite at a small distance from the hills whence they originate, and form a small lake, from which the Mississippi flows with a breadth of a foot and a half, and a depth of one foot. At no great distance, however, this rivulet, uniting itself with other streamlets, coming from other directions, supplies a second minor lake, the waters of which have already acquired a temperature of 48°. From this lake issues a rivulet, necessarily of increased importance—a cradled Hercules, giving promise of the strength of his maturity; for its velocity has increased; it transports the smaller branches of trees; it begins to form sand-bars ; its bends are more decided, until it subsides again into the basin of a 1836, Nicollet.] HISTORICAL SKETCH 77 third lake somewhat larger than the two preceding. Having here acquired renewed vigor, and tried its consequence upon an additional length of two or three miles, it finally empties itself into Itasca lake, which is the principal reservoir of all the sources, to which it owes all its subsequent majesty. The stream which Messrs. Schoolcraft and Allen have designated as the East Fork of the Mississippi, and which I have named after the illustrious La Place (on which there is a lake that I have called after the celebrated translator of the Mechanique Celeste , Mr. Bowditch), has its source, perhaps, as distant as that to which I have exclusively perserved the name of Mississippi; but as it is less important, from having less water, I have considered it only a tributary to that to which it unites itself. The honor of having first explored the sources of the Mississippi, and introduced a knowledge of them in physical geography, belongs to Mr. Schoolcraft and Lieut. Allen. I come only after these gentlemen; but I may be permitted to claim some merit for having completed what was wanting for a full geographical account of these sources. Moreover, I am, I believe, the first traveler, who has carried with him astronomical instruments and put them to profitable account along the whole course of the Mississippi, from its mouth to its sources. Mr. Nicollet returned from lake Itasca by way of lake Pemidji, the Metoswa rapids, and Cass and Leech lakes, stopping again with Rev. Mr. Bout- well. Of this last lake he says that its name, both in English and Chippe- way, implies that “its waters contain a remarkable number of leeches.” The Pokegama falls (“rapids”) are said to have a fall of nine feet in the distance of eighty yards. The rock over which the water passes is styled a gray quartzyte, seen in the banks and bed of the river. He parallelizes it with the rocks on the St. Louis river, “ where are found calciferous and argillaceous steachists, conglomerates formed of quartz pebbles, and bound together by steachist, containing sulphuret of iron, and a sandstone which may be possibly referred to the ‘old red sandstone.’ ” THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI COUNTRY. Over the whole route which I traversed after leaving Crow Wing river, the country has a different aspect from that which the banks of the Mississippi above the falls of St. Anthony present. The forests are denser and more varied; the soil, which is alternately sandy, gravelly, clayey and loamy, is, generally speaking, lighter, excepting on the shores of some of the larger lakes. The uplands are covered with white and yellow pines, spruce and birch, and the wet low lands by the American larch and the willow. On the slopes of sandy hills, the American aspen, the canoe birch, with a species of birch of dwarfish growth, the alder and wild rose, extend to the very margin of the river. On the borders of the larger lakes, where the soil is generally, better, we find the sugar maple, the black and bur oaks (also named over-cup white oak, but differing from the white oak), the elm, ash, lime tree, &c. Generally speaking, however, this woodland does not extend back farther than a mile from the lakes. The white cedar, the hemlock,* spruce pine, and fir, are occasionally found; but the red cedar is scarce throughout this region, and none, perhaps, is to be seen, except on islands of those lakes called by the Indians Red Cedar lakes. The shrubbery consists principally of the wild rose, hawthorn, and wild plum; and raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and cranberries are abundant. The aspect of the country is greatly varied by hills, dales, copses, small prairies, and a great number of lakes; the whole of which I do not pretend to have laid down 011 my map. The *Tlie hemlock, Abies Canadensis, does not grow in the state of Minnesota. —N. H. W. 78 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Nicollet. 1856 natural beauties of the country are, however, impressed with a character of sternness and melan¬ choly ; the silence and solitude of which are interrupted or revived only by the water-fowl that congregate about its waters to nestle amidst and fatten upon the wild rice. The naturalist, however, has still an endless field of observations, in the insect world ; for everywhere life mani¬ fests itself in some form or other. It is, indeed, remarkable that the more we advance to the north (to within a certain extent, nevertheless), the more the mosquito appears to be abundant, as every voyageur knows by sad experience. The lakes to which I have just alluded are distributed in separate groups, or are arranged in prolonged chains along the rivers, and not unfrequently attached to each other by gentle rapids. It has seemed to me that they diminish in extent, on both sides of the Mississippi, as we proceed southwardly, as far as 43° of north latitude; and this observation extends to the arctic region, commencing at Bear’s lake, or Slave lake, Winnipeg lake, &c. It may be further remarked that the basins of these lakes have a sufficient depth to leave no doubt that they will remain charac¬ teristic features of the country for a long time to come. Several species of fish abound in them. The white-fish (Corregonus albus) is found in all the deep lakes west of the Mississippi, and indeed from lake Erie to the Polar sea. That which is taken in Leech lake is said by amateurs to be more highly flavored than even that of lake Superior, and weighs from three to ten pounds. There is another species of this white-fish, called by the Indians tuliby or otluniby (the Corregonus artedi ) which resembles it, but is much less esteemed. Both species furnish a wholesome and palatable food. Among the other species of fish that inhabit these waters, are the mashkinonge , or mashkilonge; the pike or jack-fish ; the pickerel or gilt carp ; the sucker or true carp ; the perch ; a species of trout called by the Chippeways namogus , &c., &c. These lakes, which are somewhat deep, swarm with leeches; and among the amphibious reptiles there are several species of terrapin and turtle, of which Mr. Say has described three of each kind in the appendix to the second expe¬ dition of Major Long. • FOSSILS COLLECTED BY MR. NICOLLET. Appendix C of Mr. Nicollet’s report contains names of fossils collected at different points in Iowa, Missouri, Dakota, and the following at the falls of St. Anthony in Minnesota : Strophonrena, allied to S. alternata. Strophomena, new species. Orthis testudinaria ? (Murch. Sil. Syst. pi. 20, fig. 10). Orthis polygramma ? (Murch. Sil. Syst. pi. 21, fig. 4 a ). ' Orthis (three new species). Steriocisma (resembling Terehratula schlothrimi, Dal.) Atrypa (new species). Pleurotomaria (new species—numerous). Euomphalus, allied to Maclurites magna (Des.) Euomphalus , resembling E. sculptus (Sowerby). Phragmolites, same as in the Trenton limestone in N. Y. Phragmolites, new species. Bellerophon hilohatus. Orthoceras (two species, undetermined). 1844, Allen.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 79 Crinoidal remains of peculiar forms, one resembling Lipocrinifes. Turbinolopsis bina? (Sil. Syst. pi. 16 bis, fig. 5.) Favosites lycoperdon (Say). Trenton limestone fossil. Favosites (two new species). Fucoides (obscure). Cyathophyllum cerafifes ? Turritella. Of the list of plants determined by Dr. Torrey for Mr. Nicollet, the greater part were collected in Dakota or in Missouri, out fifty-six species being assigned to Minnesota. CAPT. J. ALLEN’S EXPEDITION TO THE SOURCE OF THE DES MOINES IN 1S44. This expedition reached a lake which was found by observations of the sun with a small sextant to be in lat. 43° 57' 32". This was probably what is now known as lake Shetek, which is somewhat above 44° of latitude.* This lake he named lake of the Oaks. He described it as remarkable for a singular arrangement of the peninsulas running into it from all sides, and for a heavy growth of timber that covers these peninsulas and the borders of the lake. He explored the country north from this lake thirty- seven miles, and thence eastward to the St. Peter’s river. Returning to lake Shetek he traveled westward to the Big Sioux river which he followed to its mouth. ELK AND BUFFAL'6 ON THE DES MOINES IN 1S45. “ From Lizard creek of the Des Moines to the source of the Des Moines, and thence east to the St. Peter’s, is a range for elk and common deer, but principally elk. We saw a great many of the elk on our route and killed many of them ; they were sometimes seen in droves of hundreds, but were always difficult to approach, and very difficult to overtake in chase, except with a fleet horse and over good ground. No dependence could be placed upon this game in this country for the subsistence of troops marching through it. “ Twenty-five miles west of the source of the Des Moines we struck the range of the buffalo and continued in it to the Big Sioux river, and down * Ex. Docs., First Session, 29th Congress, 1845-’6, Vol. VI. No. 168. 80 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Alleu, 1844. that river about eighty-six miles. Below that we could not see any recent signs of them. We found antelope in the same range with the buffalo, but no elk, and very seldom a common deer. While among the buffalo we killed as many as we wanted, and without trouble.” THE UPPER DES MOINES RIVER. Upon approaching the region of the boundary line between Iowa and Minnesota he became penned among numerous lakes, and was compelled to cross a narrow strait by swimming 200 yards. This was probably across a narrow spot in Swan lake, in Emmett county, Iowa. From there he sent a party to examine the country toward the east. This party reached Iowa lake (on the boundary line) and explored its outlet toward the east and into the East Chain of lakes, reaching the conclusion that the water was tribu¬ tary to the Blue Earth, “ or of an unknown tributary of the Big Cedar.” IIo passed by Eagle lake, and Independence lake, camping at each, and arrived in the vicinity of Windom where he describes the country as a “ wonderfully broken surface, rising and falling in high knobs and deep ravines, with numerous little lakes in the deep valleys, some of them clear and pretty and others grassy.” A party which visited the Blue mounds, near Windom, found an artificial mound of stone on the highest peak. He visited Talcott lake, where he rested his men in camp, ^nd himself visited lake Shetek, which he pronounced the highest source of the Des Moines worth noticing as such, though he also mentions an inlet from the north¬ ward, “but of no size or character.” He crossed the Cottonwood nearly north from lake Shetek, also the Redwood, river still further north, and the latter again near Redwood falls. From the mouth of the Redwood he explored the south shore of the Minnesota several miles up and down, and returned to lake Shetek. He crossed the Coteau des Prairies in Cottonwood county, styling it the “ Big Prairie.” He reached the Big Sioux river without finding any such stream as that which had been shown on the maps as “ Floyd’s river.” capt. e. v. sumner’s expedition in 1845. The expedition of Capt. E. Y. Sumner* seems to have been made more ♦Executive Documents, 1st Sess., 29th Congress, 1815-46. No. 2. p. 217. HISTORICAL SKETCH. 81 1850, Owen. for the purpose of impressing the Indians with the power of the government and the necessity of committing no depredations on the settlers, than for the purpose of learning the nature of the country. He left Fort Atkinson, June 3d, and arrived at “Traverse des Sioux” June 22d, having met Lieut. Allen June 13th, about midway between Fort Atkinson and the St. Peter’s river. The companies continued together from that time. From Traverse des Sioux they marched to Lac qui Parle, where Capt. Sumner had an important conference with the Warpeton Sioux, whom he distinguishes as the “ upper Sioux.” He reached Big Stone lake on the 5th of July, where he met in council a large band of Sissitons. He reached “ Devil’s lake” on the forty-eighth degree of north latitude, on July 18th, where he had a conference with a party of the Winnipeg half-breeds, numbering about one hundred and eighty. He reached Traverse des Sioux on his return, the 7th of August; whence he repaired to Fort Atkinson on the 11th, Capt. Allen returning to Fort Des Moines. THE SURVEY OF D. D. OWEN, 1847-1850. * The fine quarto volume which resulted from Dr. Owen’s survey of Wis¬ consin, Iowa and Minnesota, was a report made in pursuance of instructions from the Treasury Department, Washington, addressed to Hon. J. Butter- field, Commissioner of the General Land Office, and was published by Lip- cott, Grambo & Co., Philadelphia, in 1852. While it was not the first of the scientific reports published by the U. S. government relating to the geology of the territories, it was the first of note conducted and published by other than the Department ol War. It has proved to be the worthy sire of a numerous progeny, the initiation and exemplar of a series of scientific publi¬ cations by the U. S. government, partly under the War Department and partly by the Department of the Interior, which have caused American science to illumine the whole world. The work of Owen was continued by Foster and Whitney, and revived and extended by Hayden. Dr. Owen's field extended from St. Louis to the British line, and from the west shore of lake Michigan to the Missouri river. Its primary object was to derive information for the removal of such lands as were valuable for their min¬ eral resources from sale, in the land office at Washington. Such an inquiry 6 82 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Owen, 1850. necessarily embraced many geological and chemical questions, and required at least a preliminary geological survey. The earlier reconnoissances of Majors Long and Pike, and Mr. Schoolcraft, embraced many isolated impor¬ tant facts hearing on the geology and natural history of Minnesota, made incidentally along the routes they took, but Dr. Owen's survey was more comprehensive and more detailed. Its primary object being an examination of the country and not a military reconnoissance, it did not contend with the difficulties incident to rapid marching, complained of by Keating and Beltrami. His report throws the first real light, derived from the system¬ atized science of modern times, on the geology and the present fauna and flora of Minnesota. The work was sufficiently prolonged to enable the naturalists who co-operated with him to gather reliable facts enough to lay down correctly the ground-work of a vast extent of scientific research. His report not only corrected prevalent errors, but established on correct • 1 paleontological evidence the age of most of the bedded rocks of Minnesota, and disseminated information concerning its topography and soil.* *Dr. Owen’s corps consisted of the following gentlemen: J. G. Norwood, Assistant Geologist; J. Evans. B. F. Shumard, B. C, Macy, C. Whittlesey, A. Litton, It. Owen, heads of sub-corps; G. Warren, H. Pratten, F. B. Meek, J. Beal, sub assistants. Dr. Owen’s own report, covering the first 206 pages of the volume, is divided into six chapters. He gives a brief history of the explorations of the various corps, sketches the difficulties and adventures that befell them, and names the salient points of interest in the progress, and the results of the survey, in the Introduction The chapters are as follows : 1. Formations of the upper Mississippi and its tributaries, belonging to the Silurian Period. 2. Formations of the Cedar, and part of the lower Iowa river, belonging to the Devonian Period. 3. Carboniferous rocks of southern and western Iowa. 4. Formations of the interior of Wisconsin and Minnesota. 5. Formations of lake Superior. C. Incidental observations on the Missouri river, and on the Mauvaises Terres (Bad Lands). Dr. Norwood’s report on some portions of the country adjacent to lake Superior consists of— 1 . Boundaries and topographical notices. 2. Descriptive catalogue of the rocks referred to in his report. 3. Narrative of the-explorations made in 1847, between La Pointe and St. Louis river, and between Fond du Lac and the falls of St. Anthony, and on the St Croix river. 4. Physical structure and geology of the northwestern and western portions of the valley of lake Superior. Col. ( lias. Whittlesey’s report pertains to that portion of Wisconsin bordering on the south shore of lake Superior, with the following chapters: 1 . General description and geology ot the Bail river country, and of that between the Bad river and the Bride ; with descriptions and detailed sections of rocks like those which in Michigan are copper-bearing; and accounts of the magnetic-iron beds of the Penokie Iron range, and of “ Iron Ridge’ . in Dodge county, Wisconsin. 2 . Description of the country between the Wisconsin and Menomonie rivers; with a discussion of the general geology, and its relations to other parts of the Northwest. 3 . Red clay and drift of Green bay and Wisconsin. 4. Barometrical and tliermometrical observations. 5 . Lumbering on the waters of Green bay. Dr. B. F Sliumard’s report pertains to local and detailed observations in the valleys ot the Minnesota, Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers, as follows: 1. Detailed observations of the St. Peter’s and its tributaries 2. Local sections on the upper Mississippi 3. Local sections on the Wisconsin and Baraboo rivers. 4. Observations on Snake. Kettle, and Rush rivers. Dr. J. Leidy furnished for the volume a memoir on the remains of extinct Mammalia and Chelonia, from Nebraska territory. The Appendix embraces— 1 . Descriptions of new and imperfectly known genera and species of organic remains collected during the geo¬ logical surveys ot Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. By D. D. Owen. • 2. Descriptions of one new genus and twenty-two new species of Orinoidea from the Subearboniferous limestone of Iowa. By D. D. Owen and B. F. Shumard. 3. Summary of the distribution of orders, genera and species in the Northwest. By I). D. Owen and B. F. Shumard. 4. Additional chemical examinations. By D. D. Owen. 5. Systematic catalogue of plants of Wisconsin and Minnesota. By C. C. Parry. 6 . Table of stratigraphieal and geological distribution of genera and species in the Northwest. The volume is illustrated with twenty-six plates of fossils, twenty maps and large plates of geological sections, and a general geological map of the whole country reported on; the whole constituting at that time one of the largest and most expensive scientific publications of the United States government, and a monument at once to the learning, the zeal and wise management of Dr. Owen. 1850, Owen.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 83 The survey of Owen, so far as it threw light on the stqte ot Minnesota, served for a reoonnoissance, and indicated within certain broad limits the general topography and geology. It first established the Lower Silurian age of the rocks outcropping along the upper Mississippi valley, and especially of that forming the brink of the falls of St. Anthony which had generally been regarded as Carboniferous. Under the general term “pro- tozoic rocks,” he describes the “lower sandstone of the upper Mississippi,” which he says may be seen in the lower portions of the bluffs of the river, and in the sandstones of the Minnesota valley above Shakopee. In the upper portions of this great formation he brought to light an interest¬ ing and very important series of organic remains, and in its lower portions he found beds charged with Lingulae and Orbiculce. He enumerates six horizons that hold trilobites, the uppermost separated from the lowest by an interval of about 500 feet, though it is highly probable that some of these trilobite beds are contemporary, and that the actual thickness of this forma¬ tion is somewhat less than 500 feet, as developed on the upper Mississippi. Nowhere in his report does Dr. Owen parallelize these beds with the Pots¬ dam sandstone of New York, but seems to believe that the “palaeozoic base” of the Mississippi as seen on the St. Croix river, is from seventy - five to one hundred feet lower than the parallel of the “ Lingula beds” of the New York 1 Potsdam, which, up to that time, had been regarded as the lowest fossil- iferous base in the United States (page 50). But in the appendix (p. 634) are tables of the equivalency of the geological formations, and of the strati- graphidal distribution of genera of fossils, in which, presumably constructed by Dr. Owen, this formation is parallelized with the Potsdam of New York state.* Under the term “protozoic rocks” he not only includes the lowest sandstones but also the rest of the Lower and Upper Silurian. He separates the limestones of the Northwest into Lower and Upper Magnesian, the former being that which still retains that name, though by him and his corps always confounded with the Shakopee limestone of Minnesota, in the same manner as he confounds the outcrops of the Jordan sandstone with the “lowest sandstone”. In the latter he has included the Galena of the Lower Silurian and the Niagara of the Upper Silurian, having failed to *See also Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil. 1852. p. 190. 84 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Owen, 1850. observe any thing that represented the Maqnoketa shales, which separate them in Iowa. The Galena he makes the equivalent of the Utica slate and Hudson River group, which latter also seems to include the Maquoketa shales. He recognized the Devonian formation near the southern boundary of the state along the Cedar river, but he made no note of the Cretaceous within the state. Its exposures are referred by his assistant, Dr. B. F. Shu- mard, either to the Lower Silurian or to the epoch of the drift. Fragments of lignite found in the valley of the “ Mankato” river were supposed by him not to have come from the rock in situ within Minnesota, but to have been transported with the drift from the north, perhaps from the beds reported by Dr. Richardson to contain coal on the shore of Great Bear lake, “or from the Cretaceous or super-Cretaceous lignite formations which were observed by Nicollet and others, off toward the Missouri and Rocky mountains.” That part of the report which is most valuable to Minnesota was written by Dr. J. G. Norwood. It is also the most voluminous.* The rock speci¬ mens collected by him, numbered up to 680, are described with care and discrimination, and were probably deposited in the Smithsonian Insti¬ tution at Washington. They were obtained in the northern and eastern pdrtions of the state, and illustrate specially the northwest shore of lake Superior. The report on the north shore of lake Superior is remarkable for the minuteness of the description of the topography of numerous valleys, and for the correctness of the general views of itsr geology. Its numerous illustrations are graphic, and, although sometimes aided by idealization, are essentially correct. They show vividly the interstratification of the igneous and sedimentary rocks, and depict numerous remarkably picturesque spots at which both the artist and the geologist willingly linger. His views of the metamorphism of the sedimentary beds by the action of the igneous, were in accord with the current interpretation of crystalline rocks of his day, and were in confirmation of the views of Mr. Mather of the New York state survey, in opposition to those of Mr. Emmons, on the Taconic controversy, although the bearing of his report on that controversy was not mentioned by Dr. Norwood. The frequency and importance of the action of the igne- *This valuable report is not mentioned by Dr, T. S. Hunt in his resume of the literature[of the crystalline rocks ot America for the second Pennsylvania Survey (Rep. E.) fin the ninth annual report of the Smithsonian Institution, where the collections of Dr. Owen are catalogued, together with those of Jackson, Locke, Foster and Whitney, no mention is made of those of Norwood. 1850, Owen.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 85 ous rocks on the sedimentary is prominently brought out in the report. This complicates the geology and renders the identification of the rocks both difficult and sometimes erroneous. In conclusion he remarks “that there is perhaps no extinct volcanic region in the world where trap and other igneous intrusions can be studied to better advantage than in the country bordering on the northwest shore of lake Superior. Not only are the vertical dykes numerous and conspicuous, but there are abundant examples of overflows, as well as interlaminated insinuations producing all degrees of metamorphosis on the adjacent strata, graduating from mere induration of the beds to complete obliteration of stratification and sedimentary origin, so that the beds of deposition become confounded with the igneous masses that have invaded them and produced such extraordinary changes.” Dr. B. F. Shumard made the only examination of the valley of the Minnesota; which he ascended as far as the mouth of the Redwood river. At that point he was attacked with pleurisy, and was compelled to return hastily to Traverse des Sioux and Fort Snelling. His report exhibits the first attempt ever made to parallelize the rocks of the valley with those of the rest of the state, or to determine their age by reference to a known standard of nomenclature. He recognized Dr. Owen’s Nos. 2C and 3A, at the mouth of the river in the Fort Snelling bluff, i. e. the Trenton and Black River limestones, and the St. Peter sandstone. At Shakopee, and thence to Little rapids (near Carver) he notes the Lower Magnesian. The sandstone at the last place he regards as belonging to a formation several hundred fefet below the white sandstone of the Fort Snelling bluff,* and probably to the sandstones of Formation 1. The limestone and sandstone exposed at intervals from Shakopee to Man¬ kato, forming the immediate bluffs of the river, and constituting several islands, he refers to the Lower Magnesian and the sandstones of Formation 1. Ascending the Blue Earth river six or eight miles, and observing the same geological horizon as far as he went, he notes subsequently two or three exposures of Formation 1, before reaching the mouth of the Waraju (Cot¬ tonwood) river, one being two miles below the mouth of that stream. The red quartzyte opposite the mouth of the Waraju he regards as the lower beds *It is the Jordan Sandstone, and lies about seventy-five feet below the sandstone of the Fort Snelling bluff, the Sha¬ kopee limestone separating them. 86 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Woods, 1849. of Formation 1, more or less altered by metamorphism “where they abut upon the igneous rocks.” He also notes conglomerate and granite outcrops about a mile in a straight line above the mouth of the Waraju. He mentions granite at La Petite Roche, and at frequent other points before reaching the Redwood river. He describes an interesting exposure two or three miles below the mouth of this river, probably the same as that described by Keating and by Reltrami. Mr. Shumard also gives the details of local sections on the upper Mis¬ sissippi in Minnesota and Wisconsin, beginning with the falls of St. Anthony, and on the Wisconsin and Baraboo rivers, as well as observations on the sandstones, conglomerates and trap-rocks of Snake and Kettle rivers. On the Snake and Kettle rivers he made collections of a peculiar green mineral from the amygdaloids, which at first was soft as tallow but on exposure became brittle. It was analyzed by Dr. Owen and regarded as new,* but resembling phillipsite from Iceland, being really a “ magnesian harmotome.” MAJOR woods’ EXPEDITION TO PEMBINA. I 11 the summer of 1849, Major S. Woods was despatched by the Secre¬ tary of War to the Pembina settlement for the purpose of selecting a site for a military post. His reportf is not accompanied by any map, although Capt. John Pope states he prepared a map of the route. He proceeded from Fort Snelling to Sauk Rapids, along the east side of the Mississippi, a route well known and traveled at that time every summer by large “trains” of carts from the Red River settlements. Passing up the Sauk valley, on the north side of the river, the expedition crossed it at the great bend, and reached lake David, which is described as having a length north and south and draining into a branch of Crow river, twelve miles west of the great bend of the Sauk river. Seven or eight miles from lake David is lake Henrie, of about the same size. Lightning lake, is about seven miles from the point at which the trail crossed the branch of Crow river, so named from the incident of a terriflic thunder-storm in which Lieut. Nelson’s life was nearly lost by lightning striking his tent-pole. Fourteen miles further *Jour. Phil. Acad. Science , (2), II. 183. tHouse Ex. Doc. No. 51, 1st Sess. 31st Cong. 1850 , Pope.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 87 was White Bear lake, with an average width of two miles, and a length of perhaps eight or ten miles east and west, seventy-five miles from Sauk Rapids. “The heavily timbered highlands that range parallel with the Mississippi and back some distance from it, edge upon this lake. * * * On the north of the lake the prairie is broken and irregular, hut the east, west and south borders lie handsomely for cultivation.” The lakes are all described as having abundance of excellent fish. Fourteen miles from White Bear lake he reached Pike lake, and twelve miles further crossed the main branch of the Chippewa river. After passing Elk and Elbow lakes he came to Rabbit river, then Otter-tail Lake river flowing south of west. At the ford of the latter stream he states the bottom of the river is “rocky”, the banks are good, water two to three feet deep and some fifty yards wide. Twenty-two miles further he crossed the Red river again, ten or fifteen miles below the mouth of the Bois des Sioux river. The rest of his journey was in Dakota, and he returned by the same route. Respecting the country west of the Red river he says it is “a level, marshy region back about thirty miles to Pembina mountain, which rises into a high peak near the forty- ninth parallel and ranges off nearly south, forming the western border of the valley of the Red river, and connects with the highlands extending out from lake Traverse near the headwaters of the St. Peter’s river.” CAPT. pope’s REPORT OF THE PEMBINA EXPEDITION. Capt. Pope’s report of the same expedition was addressed to Col. J. J. Abert, of the corps of topographical engineers, and was dated February 5, 1850, transmitted from St. Louis, Missouri, and printed by order of the Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 42, 31st Congress, first session. Instead of returning to Fort Snelling by the route by which the expedition went out, Capt. Pope organ¬ ized a party which ascended the Red river of the North from Pembina to Otter-tail lake in canoes, and thence reached the Mississippi by Leaf and Crow Wing rivers, for the purpose of further exploration of the country. He places the head of navigation at a point in the vicinity of the mouth of the Sioux Wood river, distant forty miles from the St. Peter’s. ThePomme de Terre river he mentions under the name Tipsenah, or Potato river. “ The valley of the Red river is entirely alluvial in its formation, no 88 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Pope, 1850. rocks in place being found in its entire length within the territories ol the United States. It abounds with boulders or erratic blocks of granite, which in all cases are very much rounded by the action of water. They are most abundant upon the highest ridges of the prairies, and cause all the rapids in the small streams tributary to the Red river, the St. Peter’s and Mississ¬ ippi. About seventy miles north of our frontier (at Pembina) a secondary limestone appears at the falls of the Red river, which is unquestionably the basis of the whole valley, but at what depth below the surface at different points it is impossible to say. There are no rocks in place found west of the Mississippi along the route pursued by the expedition to the Red river of the North, and the geological features of the banks of the Mississippi have been given in the report of Mr. Nicollet, published in the year 1842.” Capt. Pope states that there were three routes by which to reach the valley of the Red river of the North, used by the traders and trappers in their annual pilgrimages to the Mississippi with their peltries. The most southern follows the valley of the St. Peter’s, and descends into the plains of the Red river near lake Traverse. The middle route leaves the Missis¬ sippi at Sauk Rapids, seventy-six miles above the mouth of the St. Peter’s, and intersects the Red river near its most southern point. This is the route pursued by the expedition. The northern route follows for some distance the valley of Crow Wing river, and turning the northern extremity of Otter Tail lake, descends into the valley of the Red river near the mouth of Buffalo river. These routes were mere trails, and followed as far as possible the open prairie. The further geographical facts which his report contains can be sum¬ marized as follows: Between Pembina and the mouth of the Red Lake river he passed successively the Two rivers, Park river, “ Riviere au Marais No. 1,” from the east; Big Salt river and “Riviere au Marais No. 2,” frqm the west; Turtle river, and “Riviere au Marais No. 3” from the east, and a small stream called “ Coulee* de 1’Anglais.” The largest of these were the “ Riviere au Marais No. 1,” and the Park, Big Salt and Turtle rivers, which were about eighteen yards wide and six feet deep, the Red Lake river itself being about fifty yards wide near its mouth and fourteen feet deep, and with a ♦Coulee is often anglicized 10 couXey or coulie. It signifies a deep ravine, and was in common use among the eh voyageurs. 1850, Pope.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 89 more rapid current than the Red river of the North. Above the mouth of the Sioux Wood river the Red river takes the name of Otter-tail Lake river, and, with a constant depth of water of four feet, becomes much more tortuous in its course. GBN. POPE’S DESCRIPTION OF THE PARK REGION. As we approached the western and northwestern slope of the Leaf mountain at the point where the river debouches from it into the level plains to the north, the current becomes sensibly more rapid, and the water clearer, until at about fifteen miles east of the crossing of the land route we found it necessary to use the cordelle. The banks become also much higher, with a tract of level, swampy land three-fourths of a mile in width between them, the river running from side to side through the swamp in the most serpentine manner. Small islands begin to be numerous, and the steep banks are perforated, in a thousand places, with clear cold springs. The woods along the banks also become much larger and more dense, oak being the more common tree. At about thirty miles above the mouth of the Sioux Wood river the rapids commence, and are almost continuous to Otter-tail lake. There are two and a half and three feet of water over them, and in the intervening pools of still water about three and a half feet. The bed of the river is filled with loose boulders of all sizes, and the deep water assumes an exceedingly crooked channel among them. Every hour of our advance toward the east increased the amount of heavy timber on the banks, and we began also to perceive, at various distances on each side, large groves of heavy timber upon the borders of numerous lakes, which I have described as forming so peculiar a fea¬ ture of the country between the Mississippi and St. Peter’s. We had thus again entered the second general division of country I have made in a pre¬ vious part of this report, and as we progressed toward the east the lakes became much more numerous, and the timber much heavier and more abundant. From Otter-tail lake to its entrance into Leaf mountain, the river passes through a number of beautiful lakes surrounded by rolling country, heavily timbered, with a depth of water from nine to twenty feet, and filled with the most luxuriant growth of wild rice. The largest and most beautiful of these is lake Gardiner, which is within eight miles of Otter-tail lake. On the 14th of September we reached the mouth of Little Pelican river, which, at its confluence with Otter-tail river, is about twenty yards wide, and about three feet deep. On the morning of the 17th we arrived at Olter-tail lake, and encamped near its northeast¬ ern extremity, at the remains of several small trading houses. Upon entering this lake from the southwest, the woods to the northeast, although very large, are not visible, and it is by far the largest sheet of water we had yet seen. It is about ten miles in length from southwest to north¬ east, and four or five miles in width, filled with fish, with clear pure water, with a depth of twenty feet, and no islands. The fish are white, and said to be the same known as the white-fish of the lakes, so celebrated for their flavor. To the west, northwest and northeast, the whole country is heavily timbered with oak, elm, ash, maple, birch, bass, &c., &c. Of these the sugar maple is probably the most valuable, and in the vicinity of Otter-tail lake large quantities of maple sugar are manufactured by the Indians. The wild rice, which exists in these lakes in the most lavish profusion, constitutes a most necessary article of food with the Indians, and is gathered in large quantities in the months of September and October. To the east the banks of the lake are fringed with heavy oak and elm timber to the width of one mile. The whole region of country for fifty miles in all directions around this lake, is among the most beautiful and fertile in the world. The fine scenery of lakes and open groves of oak timber, of winding streams connecting them, and beautifully rolling country on all sides, renders this portion of Minnesota the garden spot of the Northwest. It is impossible in a report of this character to describe the feelings of admiration and astonishment with which we first beheld the charming country in the vicinity of this lake, and were I to give expression to m> own feelings and opinions in reference to it, I fear they would be considered the ravings of a visionary or an enthusiast. * 90 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Reno, 1853. On the 19th of September we made a portage of one mile toward the east, to a small round lake about one and a half mile in diameter. This lake is completely isolated, having no apparent outlet or inlet. From the dip of the land, and the evident marks of an artificial obstruction (said to be a beaver dam) I am quite satisfied that this lake at one time discharged its waters into Otter- tail lake. The evidences of this kind of obstruction are numerous throughout this region of country, and, whatever may be the theory as to the original extent of the waters, it is quite certain that the larg¬ est of the lakes has been divided into several smaller ones by the occurrence of these artificial dams. The small lake on which we again embarked in our canoe is about ten feet deep, the water very clear, and no doubt containing abundance of fish. A second portage of about twenty yards, over a dam of the same character, brought us to another lake of about the same size; a third portage of about half a mile through dwarf oak, brought us at the western extremity of Leaf lake, the source of Leaf river, which is a tributary of the Crow Wing. We had thus, in two hours, passed with our boat and baggage from the waters of the Red river of the North, which flow into the Hudson’s bay, to the waters pouring into the gulf of Mexico. The tributaries of the Red river of the North, and those of the Mississippi overlap each other to such an extent that I suppose there are a thousand places where a portage even shorter would have enabled us to pass from the waters of one into those of the other. CAPT. RENO’S ROAD FROM THE BIG SIOUX RIVER TO MENDOTA. In 1853 Capt. J. L. Reno executed a survey for a military road from the mouth of the Big Sioux river to Mendota. The carefully prepared and very full map transmitted with his report, seems not to have been published. After crossing the Des Moines river and traveling ten miles further, he entered Minnesota. This was in the vicinity of lakes which he names Spirit, Okamanpidan, and Omanhu, being, as he supposed, in the Undine region of Nicollet. He crossed the Chaniushkah and Perch rivers, the former a branch of the Blue Earth and the latter of the Watonwan. The route chosen lay along the west side of the Blue Earth to its union with the Minnesota, thence to Mankato, and thence on the Shakopee stony terrace to Babcock’s mill near Kasota. Here the road left the river and ascended to the table-land, nearly 300 feet above the Minnesota, and entered the “ Big Woods,” owing to the discontinuance of the “second bottom.” Opposite Traverse des Sioux Capt. Reno encountered Capt. Dodd of Minnesota, who had antici¬ pated the government and had recently constructed a road from St. Paul to Rockbend (a short distance above Traverse des Sioux), thus much aiding Capt. Reno in getting through the unexplored labyrinth of lakes and marshes which there characterize the Big Woods. Passing by way of Eagle lake, Lakeville and the western border of the Vermilion prairie to the Mendota and Cannon river road, he followed it for six miles into Mendota. 1858, Daniel?.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 91 GOVERNMENT ROADS IN MINNESOTA. According to the report of Capt. J. H. Simpson,* dated September 20th, 1855, the following territorial roads were in course of construction at that time by the general government, viz., from Point Douglas to the mouth of the St. Louis river; from Point Douglas to Fort Ripley; from Wabasha to Mendota ; from Mendota to the mouth of the Big Sioux river ; from the mouth of Swan river to Long Prairie ; from Fort Ripley to Pembina, and from St. Anthony falls to Fort Ridgely.f PACIFIC RAILROAD SURVEY. The reports of explorations and surveys to ascertain the most practi¬ cable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, made in 1853, 1854 and 1855, contain a few articles relating to the natural features of Minnesota. Such are found in Yol. I., pp. 39-55, on the Route near the 4:7th and 49th parallels of north latitude; Vol. II., p. 45, on a Railroad from Puget sound via Smith pass to the Mississippi river, by Fred. W. Lander; Yol. XII., Parts I. and II., wholly devoted to the Northern Pacific route, containing a Final Report and Narrative, by Gov. J. J. Stevens; and reports on Botany and Zoology, by Drs. Cooper, Gray, Suckley, and others. The Botanical Report embraces pp. 7-76, and six plates; the Zoological Report has 1-399 pages, and seventy-six plates. These Natural History papers, how¬ ever, refer almost exclusively to the western portion of the route, f PERIOD OF STATE EXPLORATION AND SURVEY, 1858-1881. The first legislature that met after the admission of the State into the Union, gave due consideration to the subject of a geological survey. Although burdened with the legislation incident to the organization of the various institutions of a new state, the evident importance of some scheme for ascertaining the natural resources of the state, as the first step toward *Ex. Docs. 1855-6. First Sess. 34th Congress. Vol. 1. Part II., p. 468. tThe report and map of Capt. Sully, of a recoimoissance from Fort Ridgely to Fort Pierre in 1856, have not been published. Capt. Sully determined the source of the Big Sioux river to be in lake Katnpeska (Warren.) 92 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Wheelock, i 860 . their full development, was felt; and although no general survey was insti¬ tuted, a law was passed ordering at once a reprint of portions of the geo¬ logical report of Wisconsin,* by Prof. Daniels, for the years 1854 and 1858. This was printed in 1860, and contained Dr. D. F. Weinland’s “ sketch of the lead region,” with notes on the evidences of iron ore, which closed with a statement of the “objects of a geological and natural history survey,” embracing thirty-four pages, dated Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 27, 1857. It also embraced a paper read before the American Geographical and Statistical Society, in 1856, by Mr. A. S. Hewitt, on the “ statistics and history of the production of iron.” JOSEPH A. WHEELOCK. [First Annual Report of the Commissioner of Statistics, or the year ending January 1st, I860.] The second legislature enacted, in February, 1860, a law establishing a bureau of statistics, and creating a Commissioner of statistics. Jlr. Wheelock was appointed ; and such was his indefatigable industry and his knowledge of the state, that on July 1st of the same year he rendered a voluminous report “for the year ending January 1st, 1860.” This was the first official presentation of her natural capabilities on the part of the new state of Minnesota; and it is not saying too much to assert that it has been one of the most powerful instruments in recommending the state to eastern capitalists and farmers, and in hastening, as well as directing, the almost unprecedented growth that she has maintained from that time. This docu¬ ment deals not with the discovery of new facts, or the description of new regions, or the establishment ot new principles, but it is a forcible presenta¬ tion, in easy grouping, of those known natural features and resources of the state, in a harmonious and terse yet comprehensive review, which give the state a commanding pre-eminence in the Union in point of agriculture, and promise for it a corresponding position in respect of population, manufac¬ tures, wealth and general intelligence. The statistics proper, presented by the Commissioner, are preceded by an able essay on the geographical posi- i tion, physical geography, agricultural capabilities and climatology of the state. Chapters are also added on the condition and progress of agriculture, commerce, railroads, manufactures and public lands. “Minnesota was formely embraced in the territory of Wisconsin. 1861, Anderson and Clark.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 98 Mr. Wheelock’s second report as Commissioner of statistics, rendered December 1st, 1861, is very similar in scope and character to that of 1860, with the added value of the U. S. census returns for 1860. ANDERSON AND CLARK. The second legislature also passed, March 10th, 1860, a concurrent resolu¬ tion providing for “Commissioners” to report on the geology of the state, and to submit a plan for a thorough geological survey of the state. The commissioners appointed were Charles L. Anderson and Thomas Clark. These gentlemen submitted separate reports under the date of January 25th, 1861, making an octavo pamphlet of twenty-six pages. It embraces a .4 . ( • ' • V V * t chapter on the general geological features of Minnesota, and one on a plan for a geological survey, by Mr. Anderson; also one by Mr. Clark on some general climatic, topographical and geological features of the north¬ eastern portion of the state. Governor Ramsey discouraged the inaugura¬ tion of a geological survey at that time, knowing that the cost is not only always great, but always greater than was expected, and believing that the actual material advantages to a state from such surveys are commonly t overrated.* He considered that the new state had a sufficient burden in the establishment and support of its charitable and educational institutions, but hoped that when the state had reached that point when she “ could expend fifty or a hundred thousand dollars in this one department ol science,” such a survey would be undertaken. He also recommended the commencement of a collection of state minerals at the seat of govern¬ ment, as an index to the extent of its mineral wealth and resources, which would thus become a matter for investigation. Mr. Anderson’s report summarizes briefly some of the chapters of Dr. Owen’s report on Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, and closes with some very pertinent remarks regarding the plan, object and cost ol a geological survey. The objects of a geological survey may be stated very briefly, as follows : It consists in placing before the people of the state, in the most available and intelligible form, all the information that can be obtained in regard to the rocks, minerals and soils. Also to this might be added informa¬ tion, especially of a practical character, in regard to the vegetables and animals peculiar to the state. ^Message communicating to the House of Representatives the reports of Anderson and Clark. 1)4 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Hanchett and Clark, 1864. Whatever part of the survey is undertaken and reported on, should be of the most substantial kind. All that is possible for human knowledge to accomplish should be accomplished. There should be no slighting of the work — no necessity for tearing down and building up again. There is a vast accum illation of experience before us. We have the history of surveys in other states. If we are wise we can profit by what has been in many instances their loss. We can see where they have made gross mistakes in the management of their affairs. It would be useless to enumerate their errors. One, however, that I would not be doing my duty to pass in silence, is that of allowing party prejudices to interfere in any manner with a survey of this kind. I might mention some of our neighboring states, that have had sad experience in this respect. But that would be personal and might give offence. I may be permitted to say, however, that rewarding a political leader with the office of state geologist, and a liberal yearly salary, when he is totally incompetent for the task, is a thing that has been , but I trust will net be again. As to the cost of such a survey, the strictest economy, consistent with the attainment of the object sought, should be rigidly pursued. If such were the course adopted, after the first year the survey, instead of being an expense, would be remunerative, at least indirectly so. Attention would be called to our mineral resources, and the erection of manufactories,—it may be of iron, copper or lead.—would soon engage the attention of capitalists, and an inflow of population would be the result, more than enough to repay the state the small appropriation made each year for the survey. But let us look at the subject in a more general way. When we reflect on the amount of money that goes out of our state each year for articles that, with a little encouragement, might just as well be manufactured at home, it is no wonder that we hear so continuously the cry of “ hard times.” With as good iron ore as the world can produce, the United States still imports three million dollars worth of that article; Minnesota receiving her share. Copper is sent from lake Superior to England, there to be manufactured, and returned to us at a cost of more than two hundred per cent. With a deposit of coal in North America twenty times the area of all the known deposits of the eastern continent, and almost thirty-five times as large an area in the United States as Great Britain’s coal area, yet the Atlantic cities import annually 285,869 tons; and all these things because our home resources are not opened up, and because there is not sufficient encouragement to our own enterprise. What might be said of the United States, or any one of the states, in this respect, might also be said of Minnesota. So much in regard to “counting the cost.” Instead of the survey, if properly conducted, running the state in debt, it will be a means most potent in relieving her of financial embarrassment, and causing a feeling of independence, in being able to exist by her own internal richness. HANCHETT AND CLARK. Nothing seems to have been done, after the publication of the report of Anderson and Clark, respecting a geological survey of the state, till the meeting of the sixth legislature (1804), when the subject was revived, and resulted in the passage of a resolution authorizing the Governor to appoint and direct a state geologist. Dr. Aug. H. Hanchett was appointed, and Thomas Clark was his assistant. The report of Dr. Hanchett, dated New York, November 13th, 1864, covers eight pages, and embraces little of value to the state. He seems to have visited the shore of lake Superior, and coasted as tar as Pigeon river, but to little purpose. Mr. Clark, who accompanied him, was much more industrious in gath¬ ering facts and making observations. His report is valuable; it contains seventy pages, with chapters on— 1865, Karnes.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 95 The Physical Geography of the district embraced in that portion of the state bordering on lake Superior. A large share of the geological report of Dr. Owen is devoted to this district; the maps accompanying that report were constructed previous to the linear surveys ; Mr. Clark locates many of the points of interest, giving their section, township and range, especially the entrance of rivers, and prominent points or bays of the coast. Meteorology of the district, embracing the carefully reduced results of one full year’s observations, and of several concurrent and parallel months. A list of plants and trees of the district, observed mainly between St. Paul and lake Superior, on the meridian 16° west from Washington ; the northern and southern limits of species being noted. H. H. EAMES. The following year, under direction of Governor Miller, Mr. H. H. Eames continued the prosecution of the geological survey of the state, and his first report, without date, was printed in 1866. Mr. Eames’ labor was essentially “ prospecting.” All other objects but a vigorous hunt for “mineral,” were ignored. His first report is a pamphlet of twenty-three pages, and throughout it bears evidence that the writer was convinced, a priori , that the state of Minnesota was one of the richest mineral countries in the world. He discovered gold and silver, but could not yet state the 1 “angle” at which veins containing them occur, but had the “impression that it wojild be found to be about 85°.” These “discoveries” led to a gold¬ mining fever, centering 011 Vermilion lake, in the northern part of the state, in which many hundreds of thousands of dollars were squandered in the next two years. Several companies began mining, hauling their machinery and supplies from Duluth at great expense. Unscrupulous, “assayers,” “prospectors” and “geologists” fostered the excitement. A town of mushroom growth sprang up near the south side of the lake. A would-be geologist and “spiritualist,” who subsequently aspired to the position of “peat-commissioner” to the state of Minnesota, located the precious lodes at Vermilion lake by the necromancy of spiritualistic medi¬ ums. The fever spread. The state geologist himself was chief owner and operator of one of the mines. The whole thing very soon collapsed, and 96 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Eames, 1866. in a few years thereafter but one white man, a government officer, could he found in the whole region. Respecting the lignites of southwestern Minne¬ sota, Mr. Eames says that he has no hesitation in recording his conviction that large deposits of good coal will be found there, “the stratum having a course southeast of the Big Cottonwood river, thence northwest to the Redwood river, crossing the Minnesota river at or near that point, also west of the Cottonwood, and having a hearing west of north. The out¬ crop of the formation can only be seen at a few points, as it has many local upheavals, and corresponding depressions.” Mr. Eames mentioned the iron ore at Vermilion lake, in the vicinity ot the stream known as Two rivers. He describes it as lying in two ridges, nearly parallel, one being of haematite with jasperoid, quartzose and serpentine rocks, and the other of magetite of very good quality, the latter being north of the former. The iron is said to he exposed at two or three points, between fifty and sixty feet in thickness, presenting quite a mural face. Passing down the lake Superior shore as far as Temperance river, he has a few words concerning the metalliferous character of the rocks at numerous places. Mr. Eames’ second report purports to give “reconnoissance in detail, of the northern, middle and other counties in Minnesota,” comprising fifty-eight octavo pages. After presenting a brief outline of the different formations or systems of rocks that form the crust of the earth, he adds remarks on the igneous, the coal-bearing and the sandstone and limestone rocks of the state; also on peat; on mineral and fissure veins; on agricultural chemistry; on a geological reconnoissance “in detail”, of the counties of St. Louis, Lake, Itasca, Cass, Todd, Otter Tail, Douglas, Stearns, Morrison, Benton, Sher¬ burne, Redwood, Cottonwood, Ramsey and Washington, together with results of assays and thermometrical and barometrical observations in the months of June, July and August. He describes Pokegama falls as formed by an exposure of Potsdam sandstone (quartzyte), or the lowest of the Lower Silurian rocks. It presents a mural exposure of twenty feet above the level of the stream, and one-eighth of a mile in length, having a course 15° south of west. A similar fall is described on Prairie river, six or seven HISTORICAL SKETCH. 97 1865 , Hall.] miles above its point of union with the Mississippi, where he notes an uplift of igneous and metamorphosed rocks, consisting of granite, coarse and fine, “quartzyte or Potsdam sandstone,” and iron ore, the water falling from twelve to fifteen feet. This iron ore occurs also on the west side of the river. At several places above these falls the same rocks are noted in place, particularly at the second falls and in a ridge near the head of the lake about a sixth of a mile from the south shore. The iron ores here seen, he found to afford from fifty to sixty per cent, metallic iron. He reports the same kind of drift limestone fragments on the upper Mississippi, about Pokegama falls, and on the St. Louis river, as in Otter Tail county and the Red river valley. Mr. Richard M. Eames, his assistant, makes further statements concern¬ ing the quartz veins at Vermilion lake and their ramifications through the talcose slates, concluding with the statement that he helives that the “ hid¬ den sources of wealth, lying buried in the strata, would justify the invest¬ ment of capital.” Mr. Eames’ survey soon fell into disrepute, and further appropriations were not made by the legislature. JAMES HALL IN MINNESOTA. In 1865 the state legislature appropriated two thousand dollars to Mr. N. C. D. Taylor for the exploration of the mineral lands in the valley of the St. Croix river, lying in the state of Minnesota. A report of this work was rendered to the governor January 27th, 1866. It consists of about one page octavo, and states that he had found indications ot copper on what is known as the “ Kettle river trap range,” having expended a con¬ siderable sum in examinations sufficient to show it to be “ very promising for a rich paying vein.” He also mentions a copper vein crossing the St. Croix river below the mouth of Kettle river, and one on Snake river; also one at Taylor’s Falls, on which he had sunk a shaft, about forty feet in depth, and a second one three or four hundred feet from the first about twenty-two feet in depth. The most of the rock of the St. Croix valley above Taylor’s Falls, he found to consist of different kinds of trap rocks, with belts oi conglomerate running through them from northeast to south- 7 98 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Hall, 1865. west, the conglomerate being particularly abundant on the Kettle river range. As corroborative of his own opinions, ]\£r. Taylor incorporates the views of Prof. James Hall who was, presumably, employed to make a reconnoissance of the region in 1865. Prof. Hall is reported as saying that the Taylor’s Falls vein is a very distinct vein, quite equal, in what it shows, to many of the best paying veins of lake Superior; and of the Kettle river vein, that so far as can be seen of it, it is even more promising than the one at Taylor’s Falls, or the most promising that has been found in the country. He regarded the whole St. Croix region as worthy of further exploration for this metal.* In the same year Prof. Hall visited the southwestern part of the state, his object being to ascertain the age of the coal that was then being explored on the Waraju river. The next year an interesting paper was published by him “ On the geology of some portions of Minnesota from St. Paul to the western part of the state.” It is to be found in the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. The following points are made in this paper: 1. The Lower Magnesian and the Potsdam are seen in the bluffs of the river to Mankato. 2. A small portion of the St. Peter sandstone was seen at St. Peter, still preserved above the Lower Magnesian. 3. The rock at Pipestone he regards as Huronian. 4. At Redwood falls, and at other places, he mentions the “steatitic or glauconitic” beds resulting from the decomposition of the granite under the Cretaceous. 5. The limestone and green marls at NewUlm he regards Cretaceous. 6. The red marls and sandstone underlying, he thinks “are not older than the Triassic.” 7. He suggests the former probable continuity of the western and east¬ ern Cretaceous areas with the southern prolongation of the same rocks up the Mississippi valley. 8. Suggests the parallelism of the red marls and ferruginous sandstones *A hasty statement has been made by Prof. R. D Irving in the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol VIII, that this copper region had not been recognized by the Minnesota geologists, but was first brought to light by himself. Dr. Shumard describes the same rocks, and Chas. Whittlesey says they are the “dying out in that direction of the great Kewenaw range.” 1864, Whittlesey.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 99 at Winkelmann’s, near New Ulm, with the gypsiferous deposits in the valley of the Des Moines. 9. Regards the Coteau des Prairies as made by a broad synclinal in the quartzyte outcropping at Redstone, and illustrates it by a diagram.* CHARLES WHITTLESEY IN NORTHERN MINNESOTA. Mr. Whittlesey, who had been employed on the survey of Dr. Owen, made further examinations in the state for private parties in 1859 and 1864, and his geological notes, with illustrations, were printed at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1866, by order of the legislature of Minnesota. This little pamphlet contains much information concerning the northern part of the state, not to be found in any earlier publication. His ascent of the Big Fork river was made in com¬ pany with Dr. Norwood, when engaged on the survey of Dr. Owen, in Sep¬ tember, 1848, and his description of that stream has but little that is not found in the report of Norwood. Mr. Whittlesey was the first to make observations on the drift-deposits under the guide of any adequate conception or theory of their origin. Dr. Owen’s survey ignored this subject entirely, or incidentally grouped the phenomena under the head of “agricultural capabilities”,! while Mr. Eames was too much engaged in a mineral hunt to give them any consideration, except as impediments to “prospecting.” Whittlesey’s grouping of “glacial etchings” proves the direction of the glacial movement in the northern part of the state to have been from the northeast, and he unhesitatingly ascribes all the phenomena in North America to the agency of glaciers, placing the southern limit of the movement in New Jersey, northern Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa.J The correctness of this early prognostication has been strikingly verified by late explorations in several of the states named. He could see no reason to suppose that any changes of level of the country have taken place since the era of the drift. *It is singular that this theoretical explanation of the Coteau should have been incorporated on the late geological map of the United States, by Profs. Hitchcock and Blake, accompanying the ninth United States census report, rather than the positive statements of all other observers who have crossed it, to the effect that no rocky outcrops are to be found If the Huronian rocks underlie the Coteau, they would certainly appear at the surface at a great many places. Prof. Hind visited this ridge near the 49th parallel; so did Dr. Owen ; Mr. Peatherstonhaugh had described it; Keating had given us information concerning it; Nicollet’s opinions were on record. These all testify that it is made up of drift. Probably the basis rock is Cretaceous, as that formation appears on both sides in the adjoining streams. The examina¬ tions of the survey have established the “erratic” nature of the whole range. Compare Bulletins of the Minnesota Acad my, Vol. I. p. 100. fCompare Owen’s description of the “southern confines of the Coteau.” Introduction, pp. xxxv. and xxxvi. ^Compare Fresh-water glacial drift of the Northwestern states. Smithsonian Contributions, May, 1864. 100 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Warren, 1868. The lake Superior trap rocks, carrying native copper, he assigned to the age of the Potsdam.* Those carrying the sulphurets of copper, he placed in a different, and older system, the Huronian, after the generaliza¬ tion of Bigsby and Logan. The quartzyte at Pokegama falls, he styled Potsdam. With the exception of occasional misapprehensions of minerals, Mr. Whittlesey’s brief notes, with the accompanying rough illustrations, consti¬ tute a valuable and correct geological epitome of the northern part of Min¬ nesota, from Encampment river on the east to the Grande Fourche, or Big Fork river, on the west. It embraces also short chapters on the general geology, the phenomena of the drift period, general elevations in Minne¬ sota, fluctuations in the level of the lakes, the climate, and the cost of mining copper. GENERAL G. K. WARREN ON THE MINNESOTA VALLEY. The United States government detailed General Warren in 1866, for the survey of the upper Mississippi, Minnesota and Wisconsin rivers with a view to the improvement of navigation and the construction of bridges ♦ which should afford the least possible obstruction to navigation. The work on the Minnesota was continued in 1867 and 1868. In the annual report of the Chief of Engineers for 1868, is found General Warren’s first published general expression of his views concerning the physical features of the Minnesota valley, although they were in part presented in Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 58, 39th Congress, 2nd Session, dated January 21, 1867. His final report, in extenso, was not rendered till 1874, owing to the inter¬ vention of other duties, and is to be found in the appendix to the report of the Chief of Engineers for that year.f Part II of this report is an essay concerning important physical features exhibited in the valley of the Minnesota river , and upon their signification. This is illustrated by several maps, plates and diagrams, and accompanied by a detailed description of the valley by his assistant, Mr. C. E. Davis. The main points brought out in this essay are ; 1st, that the Minnesota valley was formerly the course of a great river; 2nd, that this river *On page 7 Mr. Whittlesey makes the following remark concerning the rocks of the Mesabi: “ In many cases the syenite and granite appear to be more recent than the metamorphic slates, having all the appearance of intrusive rocks.” fSee also the American Naturalist, November 1868, for a summary of a paper read by Gen. Warren before the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 1868, Warren.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 101 drained the valley of lake Winnipeg; 3rd, that lake Winnipeg for¬ merly had a great extension southward, according to the opinion ol Prof. Henry Youle Hind ;* and 4th, that the most plausible hypothesis to account for the former drainage of the Winnipeg basin along the valley of the Mississippi, and for the change to the present outlet by Nelson river, is a subsidence of the northern part ot the valley and an elevation of the southern part, extending through a vast period of time, and probably still going on. He refers to the hypothesis that as the glacial epoch tempered off gradually into the present epoch, there might have been a long time when the glaciers had sufficient extension southward to close the outlet to Hudson’s bay, which on the further recession of the ice, would be opened and the lake drained off toward the north. This hypothesis he regards as “ unsupported, and barren of any fruit.” He thinks it does not explain any phenomena presented by other lake-basins and water-courses in North America, nor enable us to predict what probable results we should find in other pegions, and thus intelligently direct further investigation. He then mentions topographic features reported at numerous points in the United States and in the British possessions in America which seem to confirm the former hypothesis; and closes with a map showing a restoration of the ancient basin of the Mississippi. In this the source is shown to be a stream joining lake Winnipeg from the northwest. Lake Winnipeg is enlarged to exceed the area of lake Superior, extending to Big Stone lake, having its outlet by way of the Minnesota into the Mississippi; while at the same time an arm of the gulf of Mexico brings salt water up the great valley as far as the parallel on which Chicago lies, and farther still up the Missouri valley, the Ohio itself being an eastward extension from this arm nearly to Pittsburg. In the proper place this subject will be fully discussed. It is only necessary to say here that the investigations of the survey, while sustain¬ ing all Gen. Warren’s observations respecting the extension of a lake for¬ merly occupying the Winnipeg and Red river valley, and the large size of the ancient Minnesota, warrant the hypothesis which he rejects, rather than the one which he adopts. *Narrative of the Canadian Red river exploring expedition of 1857, and of the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan exploring expedition of 1858. By Henry Youle Hind. Two volumes. 102 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Hurlbut, 1871. HURLBUT ON THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTHERN MINNESOTA. In 1S71 Mr. W. I). Hurlbut, of Rochester, Minnesota, contributed a series of papers to the Minnesota Teacher on the geology of southern Minnesota, which were subsequently issued together as a pamphlet. These papers supply a lack, which was a conspicuous and remarkable one, in the geologi¬ cal literature of the state—considering the general accuracy and fullness ot Owen’s report—since no geologist had before penetrated this part of Min¬ nesota, and nobody had called attention to its marked topography or to its geology. Owen’s parties passed around it. They ascended the Mississippi, the Minnesota and the Des Moines, but the valleys of the Root and the Zumbro were not examined. It is in these valleys, and particularly on the upper tributaries, that the upper parts of the Silurian and the Devonian are found exposed. Taking the Mississippi river, and the measurements and descriptions ot Dr. Owen, as initial points, Mr. Hurlbut follows up the streams coming from the west, across the strike of the formations, noting the changes as they occur in the strata, and stating their main characteristics and thicknesses. He thus makes out the Potsdam, the Lower Magnesian, St. Peter sandstone, Trenton limestone flags, Hudson River shales, argillaceous shales which he regards of the age of the Clinton, and the Devonian. He also outlines their geographical extent, and states some of their topographic features. His identifications, being the first recorded attempt to parallelize those strata with any recognized base of nomenclature in the state of Minnesota, and dependent for the greater part on lithological features, were subject to such changes as a study of the fossils might require. His Hudson River shales were restricted to the very base of the rocks of that formation, and desig¬ nated “ Hudson River oil shales,” having a maximum thickness of fifteen feet. They are the “ Green shales” of the early reports of progress of the survey, and probably belong to the Hudson River group. His shaly limestone (Clin¬ ton) is the upper part of the Hudson River, becoming in some places a very calcareous member almost without shales. His Devonian, in which the arenaceous parts were supposed to be Schoharie sandstone, is the buff mag¬ nesian limestone of the Galena. The elevated land, further southwest from the strike of the last, in Mower and Fillmore counties, he suggests may con- 1871, Kloos.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 103 tain higher formations, such as the Iowa Subcarboniferous formation, but in the absence of exposures of the rock nothing could be ascertained with¬ out artificial excavations. The discussion of the “Tertiary phenomena” by Mr. Hurlbut embraces Prof. J. D. Whitney’s view of the origin of the driftless area in Iowa, and the opinions of Gen. G. K. Warren concerning the former direction of drain¬ age of the Minnesota and upper Mississippi “westward into the Cretaceous ocean,” in which he groups in a new and interesting manner many topo¬ graphic and hypsometric facts, going to show that the interior of the state is a basin whose greatest depression is along the valley of the Minnesota, from its source to the head of lake Pepin. “ The supposed surface and shore line of this lake basin is very well indicated, in many places, at about one thousand feet elevation above the sea, by clay terraces and bluffs, containing trunks and branches of trees, lignite clay and other lacustrine formations.” KLOOS’ GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN MINNESOTA. In the same journal, in 1871. Mr. J. H. Kloos of St. Paul, records sundry geological observations made in the northern part of the state. He sketches the country briefly along the line of the new railroad from lake Superior to the Mississippi river at St. Paul, noting most closely the region of the slates on the St. Louis river, which he assigns to the Huronian formation; the conglomerates and red sandstones he assigns to the Potsdam, the latter being unconformable on the former, with a dip six or seven degrees toward the south ; and suggests that beds of iron ore underlie the slates of the St. Louis river, as they do the slates of the Marquette iron range in Michigan; the haematitic and magnetic iron ore at Vermilion lake being perhaps in that horizon, and thus the lowest member of the Huronian formation. In respect to the rocks at Duluth he describes, in general terms, the “ Duluth granite,” as a coarse crystalline rock consisting principally of a grayish-white feldspar showing three distinct cleavage planes, two of them being nearly at right angles ; one plane has a glassy lustre, and the other a brilliant pearly lustre, with striae which he regards as an indication of labradorite. Another constituent he named diallage, or hypersthene ; and another magnetic iron. The rock he pronounces hyperyte, provisionally. He mentions the first rocks forming the immediate shore at Duluth, styling 4 104 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [A. Winchell, 1871 . them feldspar-porphyry, with magnetite and epidote, and also calcite and laumontite, some of the rock being amygdaloidal. Between the hyperyte and the porphyryte he notes another unstratified homogeneous black rock, of igneous origin; but he essays not to trace the relations which these igneous % rocks bear to each other, though he.states that they seem to be inter- stratified with the Potsdam sandstone at points farther down the coast. The “trap rock” at Taylor’s Falls he styles porphyryte, places it in the Huronian, and dissents from Dr. Owen, who regards the sandstone overlying as older than the trap. Mr. Kloos, on the other hand, demonstrates, by various diagrams and by his observations, that the sandstone was deposited, and still remains undisturbed, in horizontal stratification, unconformably, over the crystalline rock, and must be of later date.* In respect to the copper discoveries at Taylor’s Falls, he says that there are a great many small feldspathic veins, and that in one of these, where Mr. Taylor had sunk a shaft to the depth of twenty feet, copper was dis¬ seminated through the substance of the vein-rock (principally feldspathic and decomposed) in exceedingly thin foliae, mixed sometimes with a sul- phuret of copper, or copper-glance. The Kettle river discoveries he regards more favorably. They are forty miles above Taylor’s Falls, and warrant the expectation that in other places on the Kettle river copper-bearing veins will be found at some future time.f Mr. Kloos was the first to announce the Cretaceous rocks at any point so far north in the state as the Sauk valley. In the American Journal of Science and Arts , 1872, he gives the particulars of such a discovery, authen¬ ticated by paleontological determinations of Mr. F. B. Meek. A. WINCHELL EXAMINES THE SALT WELL AT BELLE PLAINE. The legislature ol 1870 passed a law entitled “ An act to aid in the development of the salt springs at Belle Plaine,” which donated six sections of the state salt lands to a company organized for that purpose, on certain conditions. These conditions, which required the sinking of a drilled well at *In the third volume of the report of the geological survey of Wisconsin, Mr. Sweet seems to have come to the same opinion independently, at a later date than Mr. Kloos. tSubsequently Mr. Kloos and Prof. Streng made a careful examination of the crystalline rocks collected in Minne¬ sota. Mr. Kloos’ geological observations were published in Zeitschrift d. d. geol. OeseUschaft, 1871, S. 428; and the min- eralogical papers of Streng and Kloos are to be found in the Neues Jahrbuch far Min. Geol. u. Pal. 1877. Vide , also, the translations of these in the tenth and eleventh annual reports of the Geological and Natural History survey of Minnesota. k HISTORICAL SKETCH. 105 1871, A. Winchell.] Belle Plaine, where indications of brine were said to exist, to the depth of several hundred feet, were complied with by the company, and the six sec¬ tions of land were conveyed to the company. The following year, on the passage of another law to further aid in the development of the same salt springs, the conveyance was conditioned on a favorable report, after a geo¬ logical survey of the vicinity of Belle Plaine by a competent geologist. Prof. A. Winchell of Ann Arbor, Michigan, having been designated by gov¬ ernor Austin, made the necessary examination, and reported in June, 1871. His report was transmitted to the senate in January, 1872, and was ordered printed. It is an octavo pamphlet of sixteen pages.* After stating the general facts and principles which guided the geologist in coming to a conclusion, the report gives some local geological observations in which the section of the exposed sand-rock along Sand creek, at Jordan, is for the first time care¬ fully made out. It is regarded as of the Potsdam age, and placed beneath the Lower Magnesian limestone of Owen. No distinction is made between the stratigraphical horizon of the limestone at Kasota and that at St. Law¬ rence, and the sand-rock at Jordan is supposed to lie beneath both; the strata at Kasota being supposed to dip down the river so as to bring them at St. Lawrence about sixty feet nearer the water than at Kasota. From all the facts considered, the. conclusion was reached that the prospect of obtaining brine at Belle Plaine was not encouraging; that the horizon of the rocks penetrated is below all known saliferous formations, and that even if the shales of the Trenton group should prove to be saliferous, the product is likely to accumulate under a region far to the south. Notwithstanding the unfavorable report of the geologist, which ren¬ dered the appropriation of 1871 inoperative, the legislature of 1872 appro¬ priated six sections more of the salt spring lands to the same company for the same purpose. Not only has no brine in workable quantities ever been obtained from this well, but the analyses of the present survey have failed to establish the alleged briny character of the water of the spring at Belle Plaine on which the-expenditure was at first undertaken. The same legislature (1872) enacted the law which initiated the present survey. *Report of a geological survey of the vicinity of Belle Plaine, Scott county, Minnesota. By A. Winchell. * / 106 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Present survey, 1872-83. HISTORY OF THE PRESENT SURVEY. The law under which this survey has been carried on was drafted by president W. W. Folwell, and was introduced in the legislature by senator J. S. Pillsbury. then a regent of the University. It passed both houses, and was approved by governor Horace Austin, March 1, 1872. It reads as follows: Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota: Section 1. It shall be the duty of the board of regents of the University of Minnesota to cause to be begun as soon as may be practicable, and to carry on a thorough geological and natural history survey of the state. Sec. 2. The geological survey shall be carried on with a view to a complete account of the mineral kingdom, as represented in the state, including the number, order, dip, and magnitude of the several geological strata, their richness in ores, coals, clays, peats, salines, and mineral waters, marls, cements, building stones and other useful materials, the value of said substances for eco¬ nomical purposes, and their accessibility, also an accurate chemical analysis of the various rocks, soils, ores, clays, peats, marls and other mineral substances; of which complete and exact record shall be made. Sec. 3. The natural history survey shall include, first, an examination of the vegetable productions of the state, embracing all trees, shrubs, herbs, and grasses, native or naturalized in the state; second, a complete and scientific account of the animal kingdom, as properly repre¬ sented in the state, including all mammalia, fishes, reptiles, birds and insects. Sec. 4. The said surveys and examinations shall be made in the manner and order follow¬ ing : First, the geological survey proper together with the necessary and implied mineralogical investigations ; all of which shall be undertaken as soon as may be practicable, and be carried for¬ ward with such expedition as may be consistent with economy and thoroughness; second, the botanical examinations; third, the zoological investigations. Provided, however, that whenever the said board of regents may find it most economical to prosecute different portions of the surveys in conjunction, or that the public interest demands it, they may, in their discretion, depart from the above prescribed order. And in the employment of assistants in the said surveys, the board of regents shall at all times give the preference to the students and graduates of the University of Minnesota, provided the same be well qualified for the duties. Sec. 5. The said board of regents shall also cause to be collected and tabulated such meteo¬ rological statistics as may be needed to account for the varieties of climate in the various parts of the state; also to cause to be ascertained [by] barometrical observations or other appropriate means, the relative elevations and depressions of the different parts of the state; and also, on or before the completion of the said surveys, to cause to be compiled from such actual surveys and measurements as may be necessary, an accurate map of the state; which map, when approved by the governor, shall be the official map of the state. Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of said board of regents to cause proper specimens, skillfully prepared, secured and labeled, of all rocks, soils, ores, coals, fossils, cements, building stones, plants, woods, skins and skeletons of animals, birds, insects and fishes, and other mineral, vege¬ table and animal substances and organisms discovered or examined in the course of said surveys, to be preserved for public inspection free of cost, in the University of Minnesota, in rooms conve¬ nient of access and properly warmed, lighted, ventilated and furnished, and in charge of a proper scientific curator; and they shall also, whenever the same may be practicable, cause duplicates in reasonable numbers and quantities of the above named specimens, to be collected and preserved for the purpose of exchanges with other state universities and scientific institutions, of which latter the Smithsonian Institution at Washington shall have the preference. Sec. 7. The said board of regents shall cause a geological map of the state to be made as soon as may be practicable, upon which, by colors and other appropriate means and devices, the various geological formations shall be represented, 1873-32, Present survey.] HISTORICAL SKETCH. 107 Sec. 8 . It shall be the duty of the said board of regents, through their president, to make, on or before the second Tuesday in December of each and every year, a report showing the progress of the said surveys, accompanied by such maps, drawings and specifications as may be necessary and proper to exemplify the same to the governor, who shall lay the same before the legislature ; and the said board of regents, upon the completion of any separate portion of the said surveys, shall cause to be prepared a memoir or final report, which shall embody in a convenient manner all useful and important information accumulated in the course of the investigation of the par¬ ticular department or portion; which report or memoir shall likewise be communicated through the governor to the legislature. Sec. 9. To carry out the provisions of this act the sum of one thousand dollars per annum is hereby appropriated, to be drawn and expended by the [said] board of regents of the University of Minnesota. Sec. 10 . This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its approval. The present writer was appointed to conduct this survey in July, 1872, but, having work to complete in the state of Ohio, did not begin service till September. The field-work the first year occupied about a month and was closed by the first heavy fall of snow, November 12th. The means placed at the disposal of the state geologist not warranting the employment of assistants he was only able to make a general reconnoissance of the southern and central portions of the state accessible by railroad, and» on this as a basis he was enabled to give a nearly complete section of the strata from the trap 'and granitic rocks to the Galena limestone in the Lower % Silurian, including also about forty feet of the latter. Various out-crops of the Cretaceous were described also in the first annual report. On the basis of the field-work done in the fall of 1872, and of reports already published, the first annual report of the survey gives a general sketch of the geology of Minnesota , as then known, accompanied by a small colored geological map of the state, and also a chart of geological nomen¬ clature intended to express the relation of Minnesota to the great geologi¬ cal series of the earth, and the probable equivalency ot some of the names the formations have received in the various states and in Europe. In the account of the “Potsdam sandstone’ 7 of the northwest, as defined by the Iowa and Wisconsin geologists, and of the red quartzytes of the same region, the first step was taken toward the investigation of that stratigraphical problem which seeks to determine the western equivalent of the Potsdam sandstone of New York ; and inasmuch as the same name had by good authorities been applied to two different and quite distinct western formations, the name St. Croix was suggested for the light-colored sandstone of the upper Mississippi and St. Croix valleys, it being more probable that the Potsdam of New York was represented in Minnesota by the red quartzytes and shales underlying. 108 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Present survey, 1872 - 82 . The state geologist, under the head of “plans and recommendations,” p * makes the following statement in the first report. The law under which the present survey is being prosecuted appropriates the sum of one thousand dollars per annum. This is too small for various reasons, the chief of which are, (1) It will not pay for the services of a single employe on the survey capable of working under the law. Hence it well-nigh renders the law inoperative. (2) It does not command the respect and con¬ fidence of the citizens of the state and others, and serves as an excuse for refusing aid and co-operation. The survey should be independent of favors for which it now has to beg, some¬ times to be scornfully refused. (3) In the survey of those portions of the state inaccessible by public roads, or by railroads, it will be necessary to employ laborers, and incur other expense, for which the sum of one thousand dollars is not sufficient. (4) In order to conduct the survey on one thousand dollars per annum, the state geologist must find some other employment a portion of the year.* (5) The magnitude of the interests involved demands that ample means be allowed for doing the work of the survey thoroughly and without embarrassment. These considerations ought to induce the legislature to increase the amount now appropriated to a sum sufficient at least to keep one man constantly employed, and to pay all expense of field-work and chemical examinations. In connection with the subject of increasing the means provided for a geological survey, it is suggested that the state lands known as salt spring lands may be so sold or appro¬ priated under the management of the board of regents of the university, as to be available for that purpose. It would be in perfect consonance with the original design, in the reservation of these lands from sale, if they were placed in the custody of the board of regents, conditioned on their use in the prosecutation of the geological and natural history survey of the state, with a view to the early and economical development of the brines of the state. This recommendation respecting the use of salt spring lands for the prosecution of the survey, was based on representations made to the writer by Mr. W. D. Hurlbut of Rochester, and Hon. H. B. Wilson, superintendent of public instruction, and on conversations with Hon. 0. P. Whitcomb, state auditor, and subsequently with senator J. S. Pillsbury and president Folwell; but it was only through the indefatigable and persistent efforts ot senator Pillsbury, that the following law was passed by the legislature of 1873.f It is verbatim as drafted by the present writer, and by its action the survey has been supplied with funds needed for its prosecution. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota: Section 1. The state lands known as state salt lands, donated by the general government to aid in the development of the brines in the state of Minnesota, shall be transferred to the custody and control of the board of regents of the university of Minnesota. By said board of regents these lands smay be sold in such manner, or in such amounts, consistent with the laws of the state of Minnesota, as they may see fit; the proceeds thereof being held in trust by them, and only dis¬ bursed in accordance with the law ordering a geological and natural history survey of the state. Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the said board of regents, as soon as practicable, to cause a full and scientific investigation and report on the salt springs of the state, with a view to the early development of such brine deposits as may exist within the state. Sec. 3. The board of regents of the university shall cause the immediate survey and inves¬ tigation of the peat deposits of the state of Minnesota, accompanied by such tests and chemical examinations as may be necessary to show their economical value, and their usefulness for the purpose of common fuel; a full report thereon to be presented to the legislature as soon as practicable. *He was employed as instructor in the University of Minnesota during six months of each year from 1872 to 1878, lit was introduced by senator Edmund Rice. 1872-82, Present survey.] HISTORICAL SKETCH; 109 Sec. 4. The sum of two thousand dollars is hereby appropriated annually (in lieu of one thousand dollars) for the purpose of the geological and natural history survey until such time as the proceeds 6f the sales of the salt lands shall equal that amount, when such annual appropriation shall cease. Sec. 5. The sum of five hundred dollars is hereby appropriated for the purchase of apparatus and chemicals for the use of the geological and natural history survey, the same to be expended by the order of the board of regents of the university of Minnesota. Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of the board of regents of the university of Minnesota to cause duplicate geological specimens to be collected, and to furnish to each of the three Normal schools suites of such specimens after the university collection has become complete. Sec. 7. When the geological and natural history survey of the state shall have been com¬ pleted, the final report on the same by the said board of regents shall give a full statement of the sales of the salt lands hereby given into the custody and control of the board of regents of the university of Minnesota, together with the amount of moneys received therefrom, and of the balance, if any, left in the hands of said board of regents. Sec. 8. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved March 10, 1873. In compliance with the above law the state geologist made an exami¬ nation of the peats in the southern portion of the state and rendered a report on them in 1873. On examining the condition of the United States grant of land for salt springs, which the same law devotes to the prosecu¬ tion of the survey, it was found that a large part of these lands had never been certified to the state, not through any fault of the governor* or other state officers, but through the tardiness of the officers of the general gov¬ ernment. The original grant covered 46,080 acres. Of this sum only 18,771 acres ’were then available for the prosecution of the survey. The uncerti¬ fied lands aggregated 19,872 acres. A memorial of the state legislature was presented to congress, asking the privilege to make re-selections, and through the efforts of governor J. S. Pillsbury and senator S. J. R. McMillan, such permission was granted, and the certified amount of the salt spring lands, designed for the prosecution of the survey, was more than doubled. The survey has continued without interruption since its beginning in 1872. The principal events, and its results from year to year have been recorded in the annual reports, and it is not necessary to enter upon the internal and personal history involved in its management and prosecution. Minneapolis, January, 1881 . [Note.— Since this historical sketch was written Mr. Neill has published some new facts concerning Mr. David Thompson, who is mentioned on page 25 as a geographer employed by the Northwest Fur Company,t derived from the records of the company in the Parliament library at Ottawa. From this it appears that Mr. Thompson crossed the state of Minnesota in 1798, from *Gov. H. U. Sibley had all these lands located according to the terms of the grant. See Report concerning the salt spring lands due the state of Minnesota. By N. H. Winchell, 1874. fNeill’s History of Minnesota, 4th edition, 1882, 110 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. [Present survey, 1872 - 82 . the Red river of the North to lake Superior. He ascended the Red Lake river to the Clearwater river, which he followed to the mouth of a tributary from the north, known as Wild Rice river. From the last he made a portage of four miles and again reached Red Lake river. From Red lake he proceeded southward by the usual route to Turtle lake, the same as the Julian Source the Mississippi described by Mr. Beltrami in 1823, thence down the Mississippi to Sandy lake and by way of the Savannah rivers to the mouth of the St. Louis at Fond du Lac. Mr. Neill has also called attention to the existence of other maps of the region south and west of lake Superior older than that of Franquelin of 1688, represented on plate-page No. 2. One of these is by the engineer Randin, another is by Joliet and Franquelin, and a third is by Joliet. These maps give the name Buade to the Mississippi river, and apply the term Frontenacie to the whole country north and west of the mouth of the Wisconsin river. Only the third, that of Joliet, of 1764, has been published. On the historical plate (No. 1), Du Luth’s fort (Kamanistigouia) is placed at the mouth of the St. Louis river on the authority of Perrot, who says ( Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society for 1867, p. 26), son poste estoit au fond du lac Superieur, though many other authorities concur in placing it at Three Rivers, at the head of Thunder bay.] Analytical Index of the Historical Sketch. Introduction, pages 1—2. Period prior to 1783, p. 2—25. Champlain’s Map, 1615, 2. Statement of Paul le Jeune 1610, 3. Jesuit Relation, 1615, 3. Groselliers and Radisson, 1659, 3. Menard, Allouez, and Marquette. 4. Du Luth’s trading in Minnesota, 1679. 5— 0. Plants the French arms among the Izatys, 5 Rendezvous with the Indians at Fond du Lac, 5. Visits lake Buade again in 1680, and encounters Hennepin, 0. Hennepin’s movements in Minnnesota, 6—8. Description of the falls of St. Anthony, 7. Description of lake Buade, 7- Hennepin’s map, 8. La Salle on the discovery of the falls of St. Anthony, 9—14. Descent of the Illinois river. 9. Description of the Mississippi, 10. The Wisconsin valley and the route to Green bay, 10. La Salle’s opinion of Du Luth, 11. La Salle’s description of the falls of St. Anthony, 12. Accault and Hennepin captured, 13. The party at Mille Lacs, 13. La Salle justifies the expedition, 14. La Hontan in Minnesota, 15. Le Sueur in the Minnesota valley, 16. Le Sueur’s copper- mine and Fort L’Huiliier, 17. Mather’s opinion of Le Sueur’s copper-mine, 17. Oldest map of the region immediately west of lake Superior by the Indian Oehagaeh, 18. Jonathan Carver on the Mississippi, 21. Describes the falls of St. Anthony, 21 Carver ascends the Minnesota, 23. His opinion of the Minnesota valley, 24. His description of the Marble river and the red pipestone. 24. Period of Territorial Exploration, 1783—1858, p. 25 - 91. The upper Mississippi region at the close of the Revolution. 25. Morrison discovers Itasca lake. 26. Lieut. Z M. Pike. 26. On the upper Mississippi, 28. Major S. H. Long at the falls of St. Anthony, and Gov. Lewis Cass'expedition. 31. Schoolcraft in 1820, 32 Schoolcraft at Little Falls. 33. Keating’s narrative, 33. Atthe falls of St. Anthony, 34. On the Minnesota river 35. Coteau des Prairies, 41. On the northern boundary, 42. Maj. Long’s resume. 44. Beltrami discovers the Julian Sources 44. Lake Julia, 47. Turtle lake, 48. Beltrami at the mouth of the Redwood, 49. At the falls of St. Anthony, 49. Schoolcraft at Itasca lake, 50. Lieut Allen at Itasca lake, 52. On the Crow Wing river, 55. On the Mississippi, 56. On the St Croix, 57. G. W. Featherstonhaugh, 57. At the falls of St. Anthony, 58. Ascends the Minnesota, 59. The quartzyte at Redstone, 60. On the Coteau, 61 George Catlin at the Pipestone quarry, 62. Lieut. Albert Lea, 66. Jean N. Nicollet, 67. At the Pipestone quarry, 69. The Undine region, 71. La Hontan’s Long river, 73. The Des Moines connected with the Minnesota, 74. Nicollet at Itasca lake, 76. Lieut. Allen at the source of the Des Moines, 79. Capt. Sumner’s expedition, 80. The survey of D. D. Owen, 81. Wood’s expedition to Pembina, 86. Capt. Pope’s report, 87. The Park region, 89. Capt. Reno’s road, 90. Pacific railroad survey, 91. Period of State Exploration and Survey, 1858—1882. p. 91—110. The first legislature, 91. Joseph A. Wheelock, 92. Anderson and Clark, 93. Hanchett and Clark, 94. H. II. Eames. 95. James Hall in Minnesota, 97. Copper at Tayloi’s Falls, and on the Kettle river, 98. Whittlesey in northern Minnesota, 99. Gen. G. K. Warren on the Minnesota river and the valley of lake Winnipeg, 100, Hurlbut on the geology of southern Minnesota, 102. Kloos on the geology of northern Minnesota, 103. A. Winchell on the Belle Plaine salt well, 104. The law of the present survey, 106. The salt spring lands, 108. .