A Life on the American Frontiers: Collected Works of Henry Schoolcraft. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

after them. They were in the utmost fear, and knew not what to do, to elude her, when one of them observed a large crane sitting on a rock in the rapids. They called out to the bird. “See, Grandfather, we are persecuted by a spirit. Come and take us across the falls so that we may escape her.”

      This crane was a bird of extraordinary size and great age. And when first descried by the two sons, sat in a state of stupor, in the midst of the most violent eddies of the foaming water. When he heard himself addressed, he stretched forth his neck, with great deliberation, and then raising himself on his wings flew across to their assistance. “Be careful” said the crane, “that you do not touch the back part of my head. It is sore, and should you press against it, I shall not be able to avoid throwing you both into the rapids.” They were, however, attentive on this point, and were both safely landed on the south side of the river. The crane then resumed its former position in the rapids.

      But the skull now cried out. “Come Grandfather and carry me over, for I have lost my children, and am sorely distressed.” The aged bird flew to her assistance, but carefully repeated his injunction, that she must by no means touch the back part of his head, which had been hurt, and was not yet healed. She promised to obey, but she soon felt a curiosity to know, where the head of her carrier had been hurt, and how so aged a bird could have acquired such a bad wound. She thought it strange, and before they were half way over the rapids, could not resist the inclination she felt to touch the affected part. Instantly the crane threw her into the rapids. The skull floated down from rock to rock, striking violently against their hard edges, until it was battered to fragments, and the sons were thus happily and effectually relieved from their tormentor. But the brains of the woman, when the skull was dashed against the rocks, fell into the water, in the form of small white roes, which soon assumed the shape of a novel kind of fish, possessing a whiteness of color peculiar to itself; and these rapids have ever since been well stocked with this new and delicious species of fish.

The sons meantime took up their permanent abode at these Falls, becoming the progenitors of the present tribe, and in gratitude to their deliverer adopted the Crane25 as their Totem.

      APPENDIX

       Table of Contents

      I. NATURAL HISTORY.

       Table of Contents

       APPENDIX.

      1. List of Shells collected by Mr. Schoolcraft, in the western

       and north-western territory.

      BY WILLIAM COOPER.

      HELIX.

      1. Helix albolabris, Say. Near Lake Michigan.

      2. Helix alternata, Say. Banks of the Wabash, near and above the Tippecanoe. Mr. Say remarks, that these two species, so common in the Atlantic states, were not met with in Major Long’s second expedition, until their arrival in the secondary country at the eastern extremity of Lake Superior.

      PLANORBIS.

      3. Planorbis campanulatus, Say. Itasca (or La Biche) Lake, the source of the Mississippi.

      4. Planorbis trivolvis, Say. Lake Michigan. These two species were also observed by Mr. Say, as far east as the Falls of Niagara.

      LYMNEUS.

      5. Lymneus umbrosus, Say. Am. Con. iv. pl. xxxi. fig. 1. Lake Winnipec, Upper Mississippi, and Rainy Lake.

      6. Lymneus reflexus, Say. 1. c. pl. xxxi. fig. 2. Rainy Lake, Seine River, and Lake Winnipec.

      7. Lymneus stagnalis. Lake a la Crosse, Upper Mississippi.

      PALUDINA.

      8. Paludina ponderosa, Say. Wisconsin River.

      9. Paludina vivipara, Say. Am. Con. i. pl. x. The American specimens of this shell are more depressed than the European, but appear to be identical in species.

      MELANIA.

      10. Melania virginica, Say. Lake Michigan.

      ANODONTA.

      11. Anodonta cataracta, Say. Chicago, Lake Michigan. This species, Mr. Lea remarks, has a great geographical extension.

      12. Anodonta corpulenta, Nobis. Shell thin and fragile, though less so than others of the genus; much inflated at the umbones, margins somewhat compressed; valves connate over the hinge in perfect specimens; surface dark brown, in old shells; in younger, of a pale dingy green, and without rays, in all I have examined; beaks slightly undulated at tip. The color within is generally of a livid coppery hue, but sometimes, also, pure white.

      Length of a middling sized specimen, four and a half inches, breadth, six and a quarter. It is often eighteen inches in circumference, round the border of the valves, with a diameter through the umbones of three inches. Inhabits the Upper Mississippi, from Prairie du Chien to Lake Pepin.

      This fine shell, much the largest I have seen of the genus, was first sent by Mr. Schoolcraft, to the Lyceum, several years ago. So far as I am able to discover, it is undescribed, and a distinct and remarkable species. It may be known by its length being greater in proportion to its breadth than in the other American species, by the subrhomboidal form of the posterior half, and, generally, by the color of the nacre, though this is not to be relied on. It appears to belong to the genus Symphynota of Mr. Lea.

      ALASMODONTA.

      13. Alasmodonta complanata, Barnes. Symphynota complanata, Lea. Shell Lake, River St. Croix, Upper Mississippi. Many species of shells found in this lake grow to an extraordinary size. Some of the present collected by Mr. Schoolcraft, measure nineteen inches in circumference.

      14. Alasmodontab rugosa, Barnes. St. Croix River, and Lake Vaseux, St. Mary’s River.

      15. Alasmodonta marginata, Say. Lake Vaseux, St. Mary’s River: very large.

      16. Alasmodonta edentula? Say. Anodon areolatus? Swainson. Lake Vaseux. The specimens of this shell are too old and imperfect to be safely determined.

      UNIO.

      17. Unio tuberculatus, Barnes. Painted Rock, Upper Mississippi.

      18. Unio pustulosus, Lea. Upper Mississippi, Prairie du Chien, to Lake Pepin.

      19. Unio verrucosus, Barnes, Lea. St. Croix River of the Upper Mississippi.

      20. Unio plicatus, Le Sueur, Say. Prairie du Chien, and River St. Croix.

      The specimens of U. plicatus sent from this locality by Mr. Schoolcraft have the nacre beautifully tinged with violet, near the posterior border of the shell, and are also much more ventricose them those found in more eastern localities, as Pittsburgh, for example; at the same time, I believe them to be of the same species. Similar variations are observed in other species; the specimens from the south and west generally exhibiting a greater development.

      21. Unio trigonus, Lea. From the same locality as the last, and like it unusually ventricose.

      22. Unio ebenus, Lea. Upper Mississippi, between Prairie du Chien and Lake Pepin.

      23. Unio gibbosus, Barnes. St. Croix River, Upper Mississippi.

      24. Unio rectus, Lamarck. U. prælongus, Barnes. Upper Mississippi, from Prairie du Chien to Lake Pepin, and the River St. Croix. The specimens collected by Mr. Schoolcraft, vary much in the color of the nacre. Some have it entirely white, others, rose purple, and others entirely of a very fine dark salmon color. This species inhabits the St. Lawrence as far east as Montreal.

      25. Unio siliquoideus, Barnes, and U. inflatus, Barnes. Upper Mississippi, between Prairie du Chien