pearance of this ridge is probably owing to the soft and easily decomposed limestone rock of which it is composed.

On our northern border is Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the world, and on the east is Lake Michigan, second only to Lake Superior in magnitude, forming links in the great chain of inland seas by which we are connected with the "lower country" by a navigation as important for all purposes of commerce as the ocean itself. Besides these immense lakes, Wisconsin abounds in those of smaller size, scattered profusely over her whole surface. They are from one to twenty or thirty miles in extent. Many of them are the most beautiful that can be imagined the water deep and of crystal clearness and purity, surrounded by sloping hills and promontories covered with scattered groves and clumps of trees. Some are of a more picturesque kind, being more rugged in their appearance, with steep, rocky bluffs, crowned with cedar, hemlock, spruce, and other evergreen trees of a similar character. Perhaps a small rocky island will vary the scene, covered with a conical mass of vegetation, the low shrubs and bushes being arranged around the margin, and the tall trees in the centre. These lakes usually abound in fish of various kinds, affording food for the pioneer settler; and among the pebbles on their shores may occasionally be found fine specimens of agate, carnelian, and other precious stones. In the bays where the water is shallow and but little affected by the winds, the wild rice (Zizania aquatica) grows in abundance, affording subsistence for the Indian, and attracting innumerable water birds to these lakes. The rice has never been made use of by the settlers in Wisconsin as an article of food, although at some places it affords one of the principal means of support for the red It is said to be about equal to oatmeal in its qualities, and resembles it in some degree in taste. The difficulty of collecting it, and its inferior quality, will always prevent its use by white men, except in cases of extreme necessity.

men.

The Lake of the Woods, and Rainy Lake, near our north boundary, have been so often described as to need only to be mentioned here. Their thousand small wooded islands give them a peculiarly interesting and picturesque character not to be found in any other scenery in the world. Among the small lakes may be mentioned Lake Winnebago, St. Croix (upper and lower), Cass Lake, Lake Pepin, the Four Lakes, the Mille Lac, Ottawa, Pewaugan, Pewaukee, Geneva, Greene, Koshkonong, and many others, all more fully described in other parts of this work.

The Mississippi, the great river of rivers, forms, as before remarked, the western boundary of Wisconsin. It is augmented in this Territory by the waters of the Wisconsin, Black, Chippewa, St. Croix, and St. Francis rivers, which alone would be sufficient to form a very respectable "Father of Waters," but which scarcely swell the mighty flood of the Mississippi; these with Rock river, which empties into the Mississippi in Illinois, and the St. Louis, Bois Brule, Mauvaise and Montreal rivers, tributaries of Lake Superior; and the Menomonee, Peshtego, Oconto, Pensaukee, Fox or Neenah, and Wolf rivers, tributaries of Green Bay; and Manitowoe, Sheboygan, and Milwaukee rivers, tributaries of Lake Michigan, are the principal rivers in Wisconsin. Innumerable smaller streams and branches run through the whole extent of the Territory, so that no portion of it is without an abundant supply of good, and generally pure water. The Mississippi is navigable as far up as the Falls of St. Anthony. The Wisconsin is navigable as far up as the pine region above the Portage by small steamboats, at certain seasons of the year; and they have been up Rock river as far as Aztalan, in Jefferson county, but these streams are comparatively of little value for the purposes of navigation. All the principal rivers are, however, navigable for canoes. Their waters usually originate in springs and lakes of pure and cold water. Many of them, especially in the northern or primitive

region, are precipitated over rocky barriers, forming beautiful cascades or rapids, and affording valuable sites for mills and manufactories of all kinds. The falls of St. Anthony, on the Mississippi, seven miles above the mouth of the St. Peter's, are only surpassed by the great Niagara, in picturesque beauty and grandeur; and are now becoming a place of fashionable resort for summer tourists.

The rivers running into the Mississippi take their rise in the vicinity of the sources of those running into the lakes, and they often originate in the same lake or swamp, so that the communication from the Mississippi to the lakes is rendered comparatively easy at various points. The greatest depression in the dividing ridge in the Territory is supposed to be at Fort Winnebago, where the Wisconsin river approaches within half a mile of the Neenah, and where, at times of high water, canoes have actually passed across from one stream to the other. Some of the rivers are supplied from the tamarack swamps, from which the water takes a dark color.

Wisconsin does not fall behind the other portions of the western country in the monuments it affords of the existence of an ancient people who once inhabited North America, but of whom nothing is known except what can be gathered from some of the results of their labors. The works at Aztalan, in Jefferson county, are most known and visited, but there are many other localities which are said to equal them in interest and importance. The substance called brick at this place, is evidently burned clay, showing marks of having been mixed with straw, but they were not moulded into regular forms. There is a class of ancient earth-works in Wisconsin, not before found in any other country, being made to represent quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and even the human form. These "representations are rather rude, and it is often difficult to decide for what species of animal they are intended; but the effects of time may have modified their appearance very much since they

were originally formed. Some have a resemblance to the buffalo, the eagle, or crane, or to the turtle or lizard. One representing the human form, near the Blue Mounds, is, according to R. C. Taylor, Esq., one hundred and twenty feet in length: it lies in an east and west direction, the head toward the west, with the arms and legs extended. The body or trunk is thirty feet in breadth, the head twentyfive, and its elevation above the general surface of the prairie is about six feet. Its conformation is so distinct that there can be no possibility of mistake in assigning it to the human figure.* A mound at Prairieville, representing a turtle, is about five feet high; the body is fifty-six feet in length; it represents the animal with its legs extended, and its feet turned backwards. It is to be regretted that this interesting mound is now nearly destroyed. The ancient works are found in all parts of the Territory, but are most abundant at Aztalan, on Rock river, near the Blue Mounds, along the Wisconsin, the Neenah and the Pishtaka rivers, and near Lake Winnebago.

The mounds are generally scattered about without any apparent order or arrangement, but are occasionally arranged in irregular rows, the animals appearing as if drawn up in a line of march. An instance of this kind is seen near the road seven miles east from the Blue Mounds, in Iowa county. At one place near the Four Lakes, it is said that one hundred tumuli, of various shapes and dimensions, may be counted-those representing animals being among others that are round or oblong.

Fragments of ancient pottery of a very rude kind are often found in various localities. They were formed by hand, or moulded, as their appearance shows evidently that

* The reader is referred to the "Notice of Indian Mounds, &c., in Wisconsin," in Silliman's Journal, vol. 34, p. 88, by R. C. Taylor; and to the "Description of Ancient Remains in Wisconsin," by S. Taylor, vol. 44, p. 21, of the same work, for more detailed descriptions and drawings of these interesting animal mounds.

these vessels were not turned on a

potter's wheel.” Parts of the rim of vessels usually ornamented with small notches or figures, are most abundant.

A mound is said to have been discovered near Cassville, on the Mississippi, which is supposed to represent an animal having a trunk like the elephant, or the now extinct Mastodon. Should this prove true, it will show that the people who made these animal earthworks, were contemporaries with that huge monster whose bones are still occasionally found; or that they had then but recently emigrated from Asia, and had not lost their knowledge of the elephant.

The first white persons who penetrated into the regions of the upper Lakes, were two young fur traders, who left Montreal for that purpose in 1654, and remained two years among the Indian tribes on their shores. We are not in formed as to the details of their journey, but it appears that they returned with information relative to Lake Superior and perhaps Lake Michigan and Green Bay; for in 1659 the fur traders are known to have extended their traffic to that bay. In 1660 we are informed that Rene Mesnard explored the southern shore of Lake Superior; and while crossing the Portage at Keweena, was lost in the forest.

The first settlement of Wisconsin, may be dated back as far as 1665, when Claude Alloüez establisheda mission at La Pointe on Lake Superior, four years before any permanent establishment was made at Green Bay. This was before Philadelphia was founded by William Penn, and before the settlement of Charleston, in South Carolina.

The first account we have of a voyage along the west shore of Lake Michigan (or Illinois Lake as it was then called) was by Nicholas Perrot, who, accompanied by some Potowatomies, passed from Green Bay to Chicago, in 1670. Two years afterwards, the same voyage was undertaken by Alloüez and Dublon. They stopped at the mouth of the Milwaukee river, then occupied by Mascoutin and Kickapoo Indians.