Название: A Life on the American Frontiers: Collected Works of Henry Schoolcraft
Автор: Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Документальная литература
isbn: 4064066383756
isbn:
The route of the Chippewa (or Sauteaux) River, is imperfectly known, and has never been fully and accurately delineated and described. It is a long river, having a number of fingered branches, which spread over a large area of interior midland country. They are connected, at distant points, with the principal sources of the St. Croix and the Wisconsin of the Mississippi; with the Mushkee, the Montreal, and the Ontonagon of Lake Superior; and with the Monomonee, and the North Branch of Fox River of Green Bay. The portages are of no great length, but being at considerable altitudes above both the Mississippi and the lakes, and remote from either, they are impracticable for boats.
In 1766 or ’67, J. Carver ascended the Chippewa River to the Ottawa Fork. He ascended it no higher, and his delineations of it, on the map which accompanied his original work, published in London, cannot now be referred to. Dr. Douglass Houghton, and Lieut. Robert E. Clary, U. S. A. delineated this stream, in 1831, to the junction of the Red Cedar Fork, and up that fork to its source in Lac Chetac; they continued the delineation of the route thence, by portages, into the Ottawa Fork of the Chippewa, up that river to Lac Courtorielle, or Ottawa Lake, and thence by a series of short portages, to the Namakagon Branch of the St. Croix, and up that branch, to the commencement of the series of portages, which connect it with the Mushkee or Mauvais River of Lake Superior. The latter river was delineated in its entire length. These topographical observations, were commenced at the most easterly point of the route. They remain in manuscript. Duplicates of them have been communicated to the government.
The route of the St. Croix and Brulé, describes a shorter line between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, than the preceeding; and it is one, that has been, and continues to be, much used by the traders and by the resident Indian population. We cannot refer, however, to any accurate delineation of it, or to any printed account of the country. Carver, in his way to the Kiministiquoia, or Grand Portage, visited the upper forks of the St. Croix, and descended the Burntwood, or Brulé, to which he gave the name of Goddard’s River.
The channel of communication which exists through the Savanne and St. Louis Rivers, was delineated by Capt. D. B. Douglass, as a member of the expedition sent into that quarter by the government in 1820. But the result of his observations, has not been given to the public. The route has been again delineated with care, in its whole extent, from Fond du Lac to Sandy Lake, during the present year, by Lieut. James Allen, of the U. S. Army, and will with his other delineations, be transmitted for the use of the Topographical Bureau at Washington.
Lieut. Allen’s delineations, also, embrace the St. Croix and Burntwood Rivers, in their whole length; and exhibit the first actual survey of these streams, which the topographical history of the region, presents.
Portions of these surveys have been prepared by the officer making them, to illustrate the present volume, together with the octavo sketches, which accompany the Narrative to Itasca, Cass and Leech Lakes.
EXPLORATION
OF THE
ST. CROIX AND BURNTWOOD RIVERS.
CHAPTER I.
Interval of the banks of the Mississippi, between the mouths of the River De Corbeau and St. Croix, adverted to.—Plains above St. Anthony’s Falls, agricultural.—Fact respecting the recession of the bison.—Geological change in the character of the Mississippi, in crossing 45 deg. parallel.—Fort Snelling.—Council.—Reach the mouth of the St. Croix.—Picturesque character of St. Croix Lake.—Traits of its natural history.—Encamp near a diminutive kind of barrows.—“Standing Cedars.”—An Indian trader.—Green-stone rock.—Falls of the St. Croix.—Traditionary account of an ancient Indian battle, fought at these falls by the Chippewas, Saucs, Foxes, and Sioux.—Wahb Ojeeg.
That portion of the Upper Mississippi, lying between the junction of the De Corbeau and St. Anthony’s Falls, presents to the eye a succession of prairie and forest land, which has the characteristics of a valuable agricultural country. It is difficult in passing it, to resist the idea, that it will, at some future day, sustain a dense population. It is so elevated above the bed of the Mississippi, as to be out of the reach of its periodical floods. The banks are rendered permanent by resting upon a basis of fixed rocks, (the primitive,) which appear in the channel of the river. The soil is arable upland, apparently light, but of that ferruginous character, which has turned out so durable and fertile in Michigan. Like the prairies of the latter, the plough might be set in motion, without the labor of clearing and grubbing, and a farm reclaimed with no additional labor but that of fencing. Wood is often wanting on the immediate margin of the river. It is not always so; and when thus wanting, forests may be observed on the hilly grounds, at a distance. Wild hay might be cut in any quantity. It is among the facts which mark the natural history of the region, that the buffalo, or more strictly speaking, the bison, which fed on these plains, in 1820, has not appeared here since. The Virginia deer and the elk are, however, still abundant. The absence of lime stone will probably prove the most formidable bar to its settlement. Nothing of this kind is found except in its southern borders. There appears to be no formations of rock elevated above the soil, but the limited district called the Pètites Roches. And the strata here are exclusively referable to the primitive series.
The entrances of a small river called Nokassippi, about two hundred miles above St. Anthony’s Falls, may be considered as the termination of this tract. Above this point, although the Mississippi has some rich alluvions, as at the mouth of Sandy Lake River, its vegetation assumes generally an alpine character, and a large portion of the wide area of its valley, is traversed by pine ridges, with innumerable intervening lakes, and extensive tracts of, what the natives denominate, mushkeegs.
On crossing through the forty-fifth parallel of latitude, the Mississippi exhibits a change in the materials of its banks preparatory to its entering the limestone region. This is first rendered strikingly visible on the rapids immediately above the Falls of St. Anthony. The fall itself is an imposing exhibition of geological scenery. The river here sinks its level about forty feet, in the distance of, say 1,500 yards.20 Sixteen feet of this has been estimated to consist of a perpendicular fall, reaching, with irregularities from shore to shore. Debris is accumulated in rude masses below, and the rapids are filled with fallen or rolled rocks which impart a character of wildness to the scene. We made a portage of 1,250 yards, having descended nearer to the brink of the fall than is common. Fort Snelling is situated at the estimate distance of nine miles below the falls, at the junction with the river St. Peter’s. It occupies a commanding position, and exercises it may be inferred, an important influence over the contiguous Indian tribes, and the Indian trade. We reached this post on the 24th of July. Capt. Jouett, the commanding officer, promptly afforded every facility for communicating the object of the visit to the Sioux, and requesting their concurrence, which was promised by the chiefs, in a council convened at the Agency House. We refer to the subjoined report for its results. No recent details of the progress of the Sauc war, had been received. Having accomplished the object we proceeded down the Mississippi, and reached the mouth of the St. Croix, at three o’clock in the afternoon of the 26th, five days before the decisive action of Gen. Atkinson with the combined Saucs and Foxes below.
The River St. Croix has one peculiarity, СКАЧАТЬ