fort at nine o'clock in the morning, with fifty-four regulars, a subaltern, physician, twelve militia, and the necessary baggage wagons for the provisions and ammunition, which contained eighteen soldiers, women and children. They had not proceeded more than a mile and a half along the shore of the lake, when an ambuscade of Indians was discovered behind the sand-hills which encompass the flat sandy shore. The horrid yell, which rose on the discovery being made, was accompanied by a general and deadly fire from them. Several men fell at the first fire, but Capt. Heald formed his men, and effected a charge up the bank, which dispersed his assailants. It was only, however, to find the enemy return by a flank movement, in which their numbers gave them the victory. In a few moments, out of his effective force of sixty-six men, but sixteen survived. With these, he succeeded in drawing off to a position in the prairie, where he was not followed by the Indians. On a negotiation, opened by a chief called Mukudapenais, he surrendered, under promise of security for their lives. This promise was afterwards violated, with the exception of himself and three or four men. Among the slain was Ensign Ronan, Dr. Voorhis, and Capt. Wells. The latter had his heart cut out, and his body received other shocking indignities. The saddest part of the tragedy was the attack on the women and children who occupied the baggage wagons, and were all slain. Several of the women fought with swords. During the action, a sergeant of infantry ran his bayonet through the heart of an Indian who had lifted his tomahawk to strike him; not being able to withdraw the instrument, it served to hold up the Indian, who actually tomahawked him in this position, and both fell dead together.* The Miamis remained neuter in this massacre. Mr. Kinzie, of Chicago, of whose hospitalities we had partaken, was a witness of this transaction, and furnished the principal facts of this narrative.

The morning (Sept. 1) opened with a perfect gale, and we were degrade, to use a Canadian term, all day; the waves dashed against the shore with a violence that made it impossible to take the lake with canoes, and would have rendered it perilous even to a large

* Gouverneur Morris recites a similar incident at the battle of Oriskany, in 1777. -Coll. New York Hist. Soc.

vessel. This violence continued, with no perceptible diminution, during the day. As a mode of relief from the tedium of delay, a short excursion was made into the prairie. I found a few species of the unio, in a partially choked up branch of the Konamek. Capt. Douglass improved the time by taking observations for the latitude, and we footed around ten miles of the extreme southern head of the lake. It is edged with sand-hills, bearing pines. A few dead valves of the fresh-water muscle were found on the shore, On the following day the wind lulled, when we proceeded fiftyfour miles, passing in the distance the remains of the schooner Hercules, which went ashore in a gale, in November, 1816, and all on board perished; her mast, pump, spars, and the graves of the passengers, among which, was that of Lieut. W. S. Eveleth, U.S. A., were pointed out to us. We landed a few moments at the entrance of the River du Chemin,* where the trail to Detroit leaves the lake shore. The distance to that city is estimated at three hundred miles. Ten miles beyond this spot we passed the little River Galien, where, at this time, the town and harbor of New Buffalo, of Michigan, is situated, and we encamped on the shore twelve miles beyond it.

We had been travelling on a slightly curved line from Chicago to the spot, in the latitude of 41° 52′ 20′′, and had now reached a point where the course tends more directly to the northeast and north. By the best accounts, the length of Lake Michigan, lying directly from south to north, is four hundred miles, There is no other lake in America, north or south, which traverses so many degrees of latitude, and we had reason to expect its flora and fauna to denote some striking changes. We had passed down its west, or Wisconsin shore, from Sturgeon Bay, finding it to present a clear margin of forest, with many good harbors, and a fertile, gently undulating surface. But we were now to encounter another cast of scenery. It is manifest, from a survey of the eastern shore of this lake, that the prevalent winds are from the west and northwest, for they have cast up vast sand dunes along the coast, which give it an arid appearance. These dunes are,

* Michigan City, of the State of Indiana, is located near this spot. This city has its harbor communicating with Lake Michigan through this creek. It has a newspaper, branch bank, railroad, and (in 1853) 2,353 inhabitants.

however, but a hem on the fertile prairie lands, not extending more than half a mile or more, and thus masking the fertile lands. Water, in the shape of lagoons, is often accumulated behind these sand-banks, and the force of the winds is such as to choke and sometimes entirely shut up the mouth of its rivers. We had found this hem of sand-hills extending around the southern shore of the lake from the vicinity of Chicago, and soon found that it gave an appearance of sterility to the country that it by no means merited. On reaching the mouth of St. Joseph's River (3d), a full exemplification of this striking effect of the lake action was exhibited. This is one of the largest rivers of the peninsula, running for more than a hundred and twenty miles through a succession of rich plains and prairies; yet its mouth, which carries a large volume of water into the lake, is rendered difficult of entrance to vessels, and its lake-borders are loaded with drifts of shifting sand.

The next day's journey carried us fifty miles; and, on proceeding ten miles further on the 4th, we reached the mouth of the Kalamazoo.* Before reaching this river, I discovered on the beach a body of detached orbicular masses of the calcareous marl called septaria-the ludus helmontii of the old mineralogists. On breaking some of these masses, they disclosed small crystalline seams of sulphuret of zinc. The Kalamazoo irrigates a fine tract of the most fertile and beautiful prairies of Michigan, which, at the date of the revision of this journal, is studded with flourishing towns and villages.

Fifteen miles further progress towards the north, brought us to the mouth of Grand River-the Washtenong of the Indianswhich is, I believe the largest and longest stream of the Michigan peninsula. It is the boundary between the hunting-grounds of the Pottowattomies (who have thus far claimed jurisdiction from Chicago) and the Ottowas. The latter live in large numbers at its rapids and on its various tributaries. The next stream of

* KALAMAZOO. This word is the contraction of an Indian phrase descriptive of the stones seen through the water in its bed, which, from a refractive power in the current, resembles an otter swimming under water. Hence the original term, Negikanamazoo. This term has its root forms in negik, an otter, the verb kana, to hide, and ozoo, a quadruped's tail. The letter is the mere transposition of lin native words passing from the Indian to the Indo-French language.

† OTTOWAS. So late as 1841, the number of the tribe, reported to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Michigan, was 1,391, which was divided into 13 villages,

note we encountered was the Maskigon, twelve miles north of Grand River, where we encamped, having travelled, during the day, fifty-four miles. The view of this scene was impressive from its bleakness, the dunes of sand being more at the mercy of the winds. I found here a large, branching specimen of the clubfungus, attached to a dead specimen of the populus tremuloides, which had been completely penetrated by these drifting sands, so as to present quite the appearance, and no little part of the hardness and consistency, of a fossil. The following figure of this transformation from a fungus to a semi-stony body, presents a perfect outline of it as sketched in its original position.

On the day of our departure from the Maskigon, we enjoyed fine weather and favorable winds, and proceeded, from the data of Captain Douglass, seventy miles, and encamped a few miles beyond the Sandy River. In this line of coast, we passed, successively, the White, Pentwater, and Marquette. Of these, the latter, both from its size and its historical associations, is by far the most

important; for it was at this spot, after having spent years of devotion in the cause of missions in New France-in the course of which he discovered the Mississippi River-that this zealous servant of God laid down in his tent, after a hard day's travel, and surrendered up his life. The event occurred on the 8th of May, 1675, but two years after his grand discovery. Marquette was a native of Laon, in Picardy, where his family was of distinguished rank. The precise moment of his death was not witnessed, his men having retired to leave him to his devotions, but returning, in a short time, found him lifeless. They carried his body to the mission of old Michilimackinac, of which he was the founder, where it was interred.*

It rained the next morning (6th), by which we lost two hours, and we had some unfavorable winds, but, by dint of hard pushing, we made forty-five miles, and slept at Gravelly Point. In this line we passed successively, at distances of seventeen and thirty miles, the rivers Manistic and Becsie, which is the Canadian phrase for the anas canadensis. Clouds and murky weather still hovered around us on the next morning, but we left our encampment at an early hour. Thirteen miles brought us to the Omicomico, or Plate River, nine miles beyond which found us in front of a remarkable and very elevated sand dune, called the Sleeping Beara fanciful term, derived from the Indian, through the French l'ours qui dormis. Opposite this feature in the coast geology, lie the two large wooded islands called the Minitos-well-known objects to all mariners who venture into the vast unsheltered basin of the southern body of Lake Michigan. Thirty miles beyond this sandy elevation, brought us to the southern cape of Grand Traverse Bay, where we encamped, having advanced fifty-two miles. This was the first place where we had noticed rocks in situ, since passing the little Konamic River, near Chicago. It proved to be limestone, of the same apparent era of the calcareous rock

* PLACE OF INTERMENT OF MARQUETTE. It is known that the mission of Michilimackinac fell on the downfall of the Jesuits. When the post of Michilimackinac was removed from the peninsula to the island, about 1780, the bones of the missionary were transferred to the old Catholic burial-ground, in the village on the island. There they remained till a land or property question arose to agitate the church, and, when the crisis happened, the whole graveyard was disturbed, and his bones, with others, were transferred to the Indian village of La Crosse, which is in the vicinity of L'Arbre Croche, Michigan.