Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

“ The lake here bursts upon the view in one of those magnificent landscapes which are peculiar to this region. Nature has everywhere operated on the grandest scale. Wide ocean expanses and long lines of shore spread before the eye, which gazes admiringly on the broad and often brilliant horizon, and then turns, for something to rest on, along the shore. Long ridges of gravel, sand, and boulders, meet it here. Beyond and above this storm-battered beach, are fringes of woods, or banks of clay. ”

“ By far the greatest disproportion in the Falls exists between the height and great width of the falling sheet. The water is most thick and massy at the Horseshoe Fall, which gives one the most striking and vivid idea of creative power. In fitting positions in the gulf, with good incidences of light, the Falls look like a mighty torrent pouring down from the clouds. At the time of my visit, the wind drove immense fields of ice out of Lake Erie, with floating trees and other driftwood, but I never saw any vestiges of these below the Falls. ”

“ This is an impressive scene—the bold cliffs of the west bank of the Mississippi, with Pike's-hill rising in front on the west, while those of the Wisconsin Valley stand at but little less elevation on the north and south. At this season of the year the water is clear and placid, and mingles itself in its mighty recipient without disturbance. But it is easy to conceive, what the Indians affirm, that in its floods it is a strong and turbid mass of moving waters, against which nothing can stand. This character of the stream is believed, indeed, to be the origin of the Indian name of Wisconsin. ”

“ It was felt that we were no longer on the open Mississippi, but were winding up a close and very serpentine tributary, nowhere over thirty feet wide, which unfolded itself in a savanna, or bog, bordered closely with lagoons and rice ponds. Indian sagacity, it was clear, had led Ozawindib up this tributary as the best, shortest, and easiest possible way of reaching to, and surmounting the Itasca plateau, but it required a perpetual use of hand, foot, paddle, and pole ”

“ It is not the province of every age to produce a Linnæus, a Buffon, or a Cuvier; but, such are the almost endless forms of vegetable and animal life and organization—from the infusoria upward—that not a year elapses which may not enlarge the boundaries of science. The record of discovery is perpetually accumulating, and filling the list of discoverers with humbler, yet worthy names. Whoever reads with care the scientific desiderata here offered will find matter of description or comment which has employed the pens of a Torrey, a Mitchell, a Cooper, a Lea, a Barnes, a Houghton, and a Nicollet. ”

“ The eye, once introduced to this panorama of waters, is never done looking and admiring. Scene after scene, cliff after cliff, island after island, and vista after vista are presented. One day's scenes of the traveller are but the prelude to another; and when weeks, and even months, have been spent in picturesque rambles along its shores, he has only to ascend some of its streams, and go inland a few miles, to find falls, and cascades, and cataracts of the most beautiful or magnificent character. Go where he will, there is something to attract him. Beneath his feet are pebbles of agates ”

“ Dampness, frigidity, and gloom marked the dreary spot, and when a camp fire had been kindled it threw its red glare around on strange masses of thickets and darkness, which might have well employed the pencil of a Michael Angelo. Tired and overwearied men are not, however, much given to the poetic on these occasions, and they addressed themselves at once to the pacification of that uneasy organ, the stomach. Travelling with men who strangely mix up two foreign languages, one falls insensibly into the same jargon habits, of which I convicted myself of a notable instance this evening. ”

“ A person not familiar with Indian symbols, might deem such signs alarming. I knew him to be very fond of using these symbols, and, indeed, a man who never made a speech without them; and I had the fullest confidence that, while he aimed to produce the fullest effect upon his listening, but less shrewd tribe of folks, and upon all, indeed, he never dreamed of an act which should bring him into conflict with the United States. Like Blackhawk, who was now exciting and leading the tribes at lower points to war, he had, from his youth, been in the British interests. ”

“ Pierce and Mackay directed their respective commands to retire to their tents.
The intrepid act of Governor Cass had struck the Indians with amazement, while it betokened a knowledge of Indian character of which we never dreamed. This people possess a singular respect for bravery. The march of our force, on that occasion, would have been responded to, instantly, by eighty or a hundred Indian guns; but to behold an unarmed man walk boldly into their camp and seize the symbol of their power, betokened a cast of character which brought them to reflection. ”

“ The attraction of aggregation would seem inadequate to hold together such diverse masses. In these curious and striking masses we see the red feldspathic granite, black and shining hornblende rock, white fatty quartz, and striped jasper, held together as firmly, and polished by attrition as completely, as if they were—what they are not—the results of crystallization in this aggregate form. ”

“ The Winnebagoes, speaking a separate and original tongue, came later, and preserve more distinct traditions of their migration. All these tribes carried with them the strong prejudices and fixed hatred excited by the cruelty, rapacity, and cupidity of their European conquerors; and, above all, of that insatiable thirst for gold and silver which led the Spaniards to sack their towns, burn their temples, and torture their people. Cruelty and injustice of so glaring a character must have made upon their minds too deep an impression ever to be forgotten, or completely erased from their traditions. ”

“ Indeed, the fur trade has for a long period been more productive, if we are to rely on statements, than the richest silver mines of Mexico or Peru.
Society at Michilimackinac consists of so many diverse elements, which impart their hue to it, that it is not easy for a passing traveller to form any just estimate of it. The Indian, with his plumes, and gay and easy costume, always imparts an oriental air to it. To this, the Canadian, gay, thoughtless, ever bent on the present, and caring nothing for to-morrow, adds another phase. ”

“ On the third day after leaving Sandy Lake, at an early hour, we reached the Falls of Pakágama. Here the rock strata show themselves for the first time on the Mississippi, in a prominent ledge of quartz rock of a gray color. Through this formation the Mississippi, here narrowed to less than half its width, forces a passage. The fall of its level in about fifty rods may be sixteen or eighteen feet. There is no cascade or leap, properly so called, but a foaming channel of extraordinary velocity, which it is alike impossible to ascend or descend with any species of water craft. ”

“ We ascended into the open plain country, which appears in every direction around the town, and directed our course to Gratiot's Grove. In this distance, which, on our programme of the route, was put down, at fifteen miles, a lively idea of the formation and character of the country is given. The eye is feasted with the boundlessness of its range. Grass and flowers spread before and beside the traveller, and, on looking back, they fill up the vista behind him. ”

“ Neither can the meal of dinner be stopped for. At length, at half past five o'clock in the evening, we came to the base of the highlands of the Itasca or Hauteurs de Terre summit. The flanks of this elevation revealed themselves in a high, naked precipice of the drift and boulder stratum, on the immediate margin of the stream which washed against it. Our pilot, Ozawindib, was at the moment in the rear; halting a few moments for him to come up, he said that we were within a few hundred yards of the Naiwa rapids, and that the portage around them commenced at this escarpment. ”

“ The Mississippi here traverses the immense plains which extend to the Missouri, and which present to the eye a spectacle at once interesting and fatiguing. Scarcely the slightest variation in the surface occurs, and they are entirely destitute of timber. In this debatable land, the game is very abundant; buffaloes, elks, and deer range unharmed, and unconscious of harm. The mutual hostilities of the Chippewas and Sioux render it dangerous for either, unless in strong parties, to visit this portion of the country. ”

“ The whole area of the island is one labyrinth of curious little glens and valleys. Old green fields appear, in some spots, which have been formerly cultivated by the Indians. In some of these there are circles of gathered-up stones, as if the Druids themselves had dwelt here. The soil, though rough, is fertile, being the comminuted materials of broken-down limestones. The island was formerly covered with a dense growth of rock-maples, oaks, ironwood, and other hard-wood species, and there are still parts of this ancient forest left, but all the southern limits of it exhibit a young growth. ”

“ The value of a coal mine, a stone quarry, or a gypsum bed, often arises as much from its situation as its fertility. But the proposition may be reversed with respect to a metallic mine, the value of which to the proprietor arises more from its fertility and less from its situation. Gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, &c., when separated from the matrix of the mine, are so valuable that they can bear to be transported a long journey over land, and the most distant voyage by water. ”

“ This charming season is called the Indian Summer, a name which is derived from the natives, who believe that it is caused by a wind which comes immediately from the court of their great and benevolent God Cantantowan, or the Southwestern God; the God who is superior to all other beings, who sends them every blessing which they enjoy, and to whom the souls of their fathers go after their decease. ”

“ The deep-sounding roar of the waves, like the deep diapason of a hundred organs, plays over a gamut, whose rising or falling scale tells him, immediately, whether he can put his frail canoe before the wind, or must remain prisoner on the sand, in the sheltering nook where night overtakes him. ”

“ Thence we came through the Wisconsin and Fox valleys to Green Bay, on an arm of Lake Michigan, and, having circumnavigated the latter, returned through Lakes Huron and St. Clair to Detroit. The line of travel is about four thousand two hundred miles. Such a country—for its scenery, its magnificence, and resources, and the strong influence it is destined ultimately to have on the commerce, civilization, and progress of the country—the sun does not shine on! ”

“ If Sandy Lake had, on emerging from the wilderness, impressed us with its rural beauty, this far transcended it in the variety and extent of outlines, and that oceanic amplitude of freshness, which so often inspires admiration in beholding the interior American lakes. ”

“ The tribes of this continent appear, indeed, to have been impelled in circles, resembling the whirlwinds which have swept over its surface; and, so far as relates to the mental power which set them in motion, the comparison also holds good, for the effects of their migrations appear, everywhere, to have been war and destruction. One age appears to produce no wiser men than another. Having no mode of recording knowledge, experience dies with the generation who felt it, all except the doubtful and imprecise data of tradition ”

“ Mosaical History of the Creation.—B. Irvine, Esq., in adverting to remarks on the Illinois fossil, observes:—
"They may yet awaken some ideas in the minds of the people on the wonders of physics—and I had almost said, the slow miracles of creation; for, if ever there was a time when matter existed not, it is pretty evident that millions of years, instead of six days, were necessary to establish order in chaos, let Cuvier, &c. temporize as they may. However, it is the humble allotment of the herd to believe or stare; it is the glory of intelligent men to inquire and admire." ”

“ A new era has dawned in the moral history of our country, and, no longer satisfied with mere geographical outlines and boundaries, its physical productions, its antiquities, and the numerous other traits which it presents for scientific research, already attract the attention of a great proportion of the reading community; and it is eagerly inquired of various sections of it—whose trade, whose agriculture, and whose population have been long known—what are its indigenous plants, its zoology, its geology, its mineralogy, &c. ”

“ This opinion, although certainly not a strange one to be cherished by a barbarous people, is, nevertheless, believed to have had its origin in the transactions of an era which is not only very well defined, but must ever remain conspicuous in the history of the discovery and settlement of America. It is very well known that the precious metals were the principal objects which led the Spanish invaders to penetrate into the interior of Mexico and Peru, and ultimately to devastate and conquer the country, to plunder and destroy its temples, and to tax and enslave its ill-fated inhabitants. ”

“ This point was found one mile above the station of the American Fur Company's trading-house. Here we encountered the first rock stratum, in the shape of our old geological acquaintance, the old red sandstone of Lake Superior. It was succeeded in the first sixteen miles, in the course of which the river is estimated to fall two hundred feet—most of it in the first twenty-nine miles—by trap, argillite, and grauwacke. Through these barriers the water forces its way, producing a series of rapids and falls which the observer often beholds with amazement. ”

“ Existing Lake Drift.—The gleaner among the rock debris of this lake has a field of labor which is not dissimilar to that of the fossilist. If he has not, so to say, to put joint to joint, to establish his conclusions, he has a mineralogical adjustment to make every way as obscure. A boulder of sienite, or a mass of sandstone, or grauwacke, may be easily referred to a contiguous rock. But when the observer meets with species which are apparently foreign to the region, he is placed in a dilemma between the toil of an impossible scrutiny and the danger of an unlicensed conjecture. ”

“ Geographical features impress themselves strongly on the mind. The shape of a mountain is not easily forgotten, and its relation to contiguous waters and woods is recollected after the lapse of many years. The succession of plains, streams, and settlements is likewise retained in the memory, while the peculiar plains, the soils overlaying them, and all the variety of their mineral and organic contents, require to be perpetuated by specimens and by notes, which impose neither a slight nor a momentary labor. ”