Chickahominy River

“ It is well to remember that the water shed of the Tennessee River embraces 40,910 square miles. Believe it or not, about half of that area is found above the Chickamauga Dam. This upper basin has an average rainfall of 50.8 inches.
LOOKING WESTWARD
Let us now turn our backs to the Chickamauga Lake for a glimpse towards the west. To the southwest, we see Lookout Mountain standing like a bright cameo in a position as if it were looking down on Chattanooga. To our right, we view the head of another rocky monster that is looking southward. ”

“ He said that his master lived at Big Sulphur Springs, farthest west of any of the Chickasaws; that the Kiowas and Comanches raided the country every summer and drove out horses or cattle wherever they could find them unprotected; that he had often gone with his master to find these stolen cattle; that these forages were so frequent that the Chickasaws had never undertaken to occupy any of their lands west of Rock Creek, north of Big Sulphur Springs, nor west of the Washita River south of the springs ”

“ Chilkoot River flows from a lake of the same name into the inlet. There are an Indian village and large canneries on the inlet.
Taiya Inlet leads to Skaguay and Dyea. It is a narrow water-way between high mountains which are covered nearly to their crests with a heavy growth of cedar and spruce. They are crowned, even in summer, with snow, which flows down their fissures and canyons in small but beautiful glaciers, while countless cascades foam, sparkling, down to the sea, or drop sheer from such great heights that the beholder is bewildered by their slow, never ceasing fall. ”

“ In 1849, when the state of Georgia finished the Western and Atlantic Railroad, a station and post office was established there known as Chickamauga, Tennessee. It became a busy village where thousands of dollars worth of farm produce was bought and shipped. After General Bragg abandoned Chattanooga, Chickamauga became the terminus where the Confederate troops and supplies were loaded and unloaded.
In 1777 the Cherokee settlements from Virginia to the Chattahoochee River were destroyed by the whites. ”

“ The Chickamauga River, rising from the mountains south, flows in its general course a little east of north to conflux with the Tennessee River. The Ridge runs nearly parallel with the river, and opens up a valley a mile wide. It is a bold outcropping of limestone about one hundred feet above the valley, with occasional passes, or gaps, that are strong points of guard for defence. Four miles northwest from the Union left was the gap at Rossville, called for the old Cherokee chief. On its right was the pass of the Dry Valley road, and immediately in its rear was the McFarland Gap. ”

“ Beyond these rugged escarpments of limestone and out of sight of the traveler, the country stretches away toward the interior as an undulating prairie, with meadows and rich pasturelands, with occasional forests, the whole watered and drained by an intricate network of streams tributary to the lake and river, and the three larger streams, the Kinnikinic, which empties into the St. Croix and Big rivers, Trimbelle and Rush, that empty into the Mississippi. Some branches of the Chippewa also take their rise in this county. ”

“ In its present condition the Chilkoot trail has the advantage over the Skaguay in its shorter length, the distance from Dyea to the head of Lake Lindeman, the virtual head of river navigation, being about twenty-four miles; from Skaguay to Bennett, along the usual White Pass trail, the distance is fully ten or twelve miles longer, although a cut-off by way of the summit lakes reduces the traverse considerably. ”

“ The advance of the Chippewas had landed at the upper end of the portage, intending to encamp there. The Sioux and their allies had just preceded them, from the lower part of the stream with the same object. The Foxes or Outagamies immediately fired, and a battle ensued. It is a spot indeed, from which a retreat either way is impracticable, in the face of an enemy. It is a mere neck of rugged rock. The river forces a passage through this dark and solid barrier. It is equally rapid and dangerous for canoes above and below. ”

“ Next day we rise 2000 feet higher, and redescend 6500 feet to the banks of the Kischanganga, the chief affluent of the Jhelam, running mostly parallel to the course of the latter stream. Then we undulate—if so soft a term be applicable to a route so sharply, abruptly and irregularly serrate—along the spurs which border the river, now in the forest and now on a bleak plateau where careful irrigation avails to grow nothing less hardy than millet, peas and buckwheat. ”

“ CHIPPEWA RIVER.--At twelve o'clock precisely we came to the confluence of this fork with the main stream. The Chippewa is a noble mass of water, flowing with a wide sweeping majesty to the Mississippi. It excites the idea of magnitude. Wide plains, and the most sylvan and picturesque hills bound the view. We abandoned our smallest canoe at this point, and, pushing into the central channel of the grand current, pursued for six hours our way to its mouth, where we encamped on a long spit of naked sand, which marked its entrance into the Mississippi. ”

“ The Chippewas are extensively intermarried with the Ottawas, and are thrifty and worthy citizens of the United States, as are also those of Saginaw, and of Keewenaw Bay in Michigan. The Bad River, Red Cliff, Red Lake, and Mississippi bands are likewise making rapid progress in civilization. Of those which have made but little or no progress are the Leech Lake, White Earth, Mille Lac, and other scattered bands in remote and inaccessible regions of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the older chiefs resolutely opposing any attempt on the part of the younger men to begin a civilized life. ”

“ In its westerly course before its junction with the Chixoy there are reaches of the river where during the dry season hardly any current is perceptible, and after heavy rains the flood-waters extend for so many miles through the forest that one is almost led to think that this region from the mouth of the Chajmaic northward may at one time have formed the bed of a great lake. ”

“ The first and next the rivers mouth are the Kecoughtans, who besides their women & children, have not past 20. fighting men. The Paspaheghes (on whose land is seated James Towne, some 40 myles from the Bay) have not past 40. The river called Chickahamania neare 250. The Weanocks 100. The Arrowhatocks 30. The place called Powhatan, some 40. On the South side this river the Appamatucks have sixtie fighting men. ”

“ From Chippewa to Queenston, about seven miles below the cataract, the land rises rather than falls; whilst, at the same time, the bed of the river has a fall in that distance of upwards of 300 feet; it follows, that Queenston heights are at least that height above the bed of the river. Here, however, the high land suddenly terminates in a ridge, stretching east and west through the state of New York, and the province of Upper Canada, and at right angles with the Niagara river. Just below the heights, are the villages of Queenston on the Canada side, and Lewistown or that of New York. ”

“ The only curiosity in the place is a rude Catholic church, which is said to have been built by Jesuit missionaries upwards of one hundred years ago. It occupies the centre of a grassy lawn, surrounded with shrubbery, backed by a cluster of wood-crowned hills, and commands a fine prospect, not only of the Saguenay, but also of a spacious bay, into which there empties a noble mountain stream, now known as Chicoutimi River. ”

“ To the west the barrier extends from Brock's Monument to the ridge which bounds the westerly side of the valley of the Chippewa Creek, and thence around the head of Lake Ontario into the Simcoe Hills.
At that period all the islands in the Niagara River valley were submerged. The lower sections of the valleys of the Chippewa, Cayuga, Tonawanda, and Buffalo creeks [Pg 36] were also submerged. The site of Buffalo was, probably, a small island, and many other similar islands were scattered over the broad expanse of water. ”

“ No persons are now living who were contemporary with the victims. And it may be regarded as one of the occurrences which marked the Chippewa conquest of this portion of the country.
About eighteen miles below the junction of the Piniddiwin, we debarked for the purpose of cooking supper, and preparing our canoes for a night descent, as the channel of the river was now sufficiently broad, deep, and equable to justify it. An Ocaut Ekinabic, was killed at this place. Lieut. Allen, wish67ing day light, to finish tracing the river to its junction with the east fork, encamped here. ”

“ The Chippeway river had a large lateral gorge like that of the St. Croix to fill up before reaching the valley of the Mississippi, and it now joins the Mississippi by a very complete set of delta streams, beginning about 15 miles above its mouth. There was a time when the mouth now known as Beef slough was about equal to the main Chippeway. In their growth each kept along the bluffs or sides of the gorge they were filling up, raising their immediate banks and leaving a depression between them. ”

“ Hamilton had offered so many rewards to the Indians for the scalps of revolutionists that he was popularly dubbed the Hair Buyer. John Stuart was the British Agent for the South who had charge of seeing that the war supplies were kept at McDonald’s. Everything went well until the Americans, in command of Colonels Evan Shelby and Montgomery, got into boats at Kingsport, Tennessee, in the spring of 1779, and descended the Tennessee River. Soon after passing where the Chickamauga Dam now stands, they piloted their boats to the south side, where they found an Indian fishing. ”

“ Dearborn, the United States engaged to use their best endeavors to fix a boundary between the Cherokees and Chickasaws, 'beginning at the mouth of Caney Creek, near the lower part of the Muscle Shoals, and to run up the said creek to its head, and in a direct line from thence to the flat stone or rock, the old corner boundary,' the line between the Creeks and Cherokees east of Coosau River. ”

“ The scenery of the Saguenay is wild and romantic to an uncommon degree. The first half of its course averages half a mile in width, and runs through an untrodden wilderness of pine and spruce covered hills. It abounds in waterfalls and rapids, and is only navigable for the Indian canoe. A few miles below the most southern fall on the river the village of Chicoutimi is situated, where an extensive lumbering business is transacted, and the Hudson’s Bay Company have an important post. The village has an ancient appearance, and contains about five hundred inhabitants, chiefly Canadian French. ”

“ The Metabetchouan, an important stream, also flows into Lake St. John; and these rivers with the Chicoutimi, Marguerite, Ha-Ha, and numerous smaller rivers, all unite to swell the great flood of the almost bottomless Saguenay. There are numerous lakes north and south of the river, and, almost needless to state, the whole district abounds in mountain, gorge, and waterfall scenery of the wildest kind. Tumultuous rapids are everywhere ”

“ MacNutt issued private instructions to Cooley and Cottrell. They started upstream, where they were shortly joined by ten more. There they picked up a peakie, and laboriously portaged the heavy boat through the woods well out of sight of the dam, setting it in the water below. With another trip they brought augers, boom-chains and shackles, and a manilla rope. Embarking they ran downstream two miles.
At that point the river ran past the mouth of a backwater, an old channel, now an almost currentless little lake, reedy, with shores of floating bog and bottomed with ooze of unknown depth. ”

“ At this fort of Chipewyan we stand near its western end. Two hundred miles away to the east, its lonely waters still lave against the granite rocks.
Whatever may be the work to which he turns hand or brain, an Indian seldom errs. If he names a lake or fashions a piece of bark to sail its waters, both will fit the work for which they were intended.
“The meeting-place of many waters” tells the story of Athabasca. In its bosom many rivers unite their currents; and from its north-western rim pours the Slave River, the true Mackenzie. Its first English discoverer called it the “Lake of the Hills;” ”

“ The hunting grounds of the Creeks extended to the water-shed between the Tombigbee and the Coosa and Alabama rivers.
Amakalli, Lower Creek town, planted by Chiaha Indians on a creek of that name, which is the main water-course of Kitchofuni creek, a northern affluent of Flint river, Georgia. Inhabited by sixty men in 1799. The name is not Creek; it seems identical with Amacalola, the Cheroki name of a picturesque cascade on Amacalola creek, a northern affluent of Etowa river, Dawson county, Georgia. The derivation given for it is: ama water, kalola sliding, tumbling. ”

“ November 18.—Cockburn Creek, now an important stream was followed down for four miles, when it formed a junction with the Staaten. The width of the main stream is about 400 yards, in many channels sandy and dry. It now runs generally west and very winding. The country and timber were much as before described, with the exception that a mile back from the river, (a chain of lagoons) generally occurs, some of them being large and deep and covered with lilies. Beyond, a waste of sandy tea-tree levels, thickly covered with triodia or spinifex, and other desert grasses. ”