Circumstances would not permit an examination of any portion of the trap formation, except that bordering directly upon the lake. But facts would lead us to infer that that formation extends from one side of Keweena Point to the other, and that a range of thickly wooded hills, which traverses the point, is based upon, if not formed of, that rock. An Indian information which, particularly upon such a subject, must be adopted with caution, would sanction the opinion that the prominent constituents are the same wherever the rock is observed.
After having duly considered the facts which are presented, I would not hesitate to offer, as an opinion, that the trap-rock formation was the original source of the masses of copper which have been observed in the country bordering on Lake Superior; and that at the present day, examinations for the ores of copper could not be made in that country with hopes of success, except in the trap-rock itself; which rock is not certainly known to exist upon any place upon Lake Superior, other than Keweena Point.
If this opinion be a correct one, the cause of failure of the mining company in this region is rendered plain. Having considered each insulated mass of pure metal as a true indication of the existence of a bed in the vicinity, operations were directed to wrong points; when, having failed to realize their anticipations, the project was abandoned without further actual investigation. We would be induced to infer, that no attempts were made to learn the original source of the metal which was discovered, and thus, while the attention was drawn to insulated masses, the ores, ordinary in appearance, but more important in situ, were neglected; and perhaps from the close analogy in appearance to the rock with which they were associated, no distinction was observed.
What quantity of ore the trap-rock of Keweena Point may be capable of producing, can only be determined by minute and laborious examination. The indications which were presented by a hasty investigation are here imbodied, and, with deference, submitted to your consideration.
I have the honor to be,
Sir, your obedient servant,
Douglass Houghton.
V.
Speech of Six Chippewa Chiefs36 on the Sioux War, delivered at Michilimackinac, in July, 1833.
My father: listen to your children. Look upon the blood that is shed by our enemies. I hold in my hand the wampum belt, and the articles of the treaty of Prairie du Chien. This belt is stained by blood. It has passed through all our bands. We have all taken hold of it with our hands. So have we in our hearts taken hold of the words of the treaty. You have told us to sit still, and we have done it. But what have our enemies done? Six times we have been attacked by them. Twice on Sioux land and four times on our own. Look on us, father; our mouths are full of blood. You are the cause of this. It is owing to our listening to your advice. You bade us sit still. You told us that your arm was long and strong, and that you would reach it out and pull back any that crossed the lines. We believed it. We remained quiet. Even when struck, we ceased to revenge ourselves, as we formerly revenged ourselves.
We have been again struck. Our people have been killed on their own lands. Yet we are told to keep quiet. We have been killed while relying upon your flag, thinking our enemies came to smoke the pipe of peace. Father, think not that we are fools. We have right hearts. We cannot sit with our eyes shut. But we will keep them open. They are looking upon the lines. They are looking upon you. We will wait one summer more, in hopes that our voices will reach you.37
No. IV.
Remarks on the Lead Mine Country on the Upper Mississippi.
[Addressed to the Editors of the New-York Mirror.]
Gentlemen:
Time admonishes me of my promise to furnish you some account of my journey from Galena to Fort Winnebago. But I confess, that time has taken away none of those features which make me regard it as a task. Other objects have occupied so much of my thoughts, that the subject has lost some of its vividness, and I shall be obliged to confine myself more exclusively to my notes than I had intended. This will be particularly true in speaking of geological facts. 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.
Limited sketches of this kind are furthermore liable to be misconceived. Prominent external objects can only be brought to mind, and these often reveal but an imperfect notion of the pervading character of strata, and still less knowledge of their mineral contents. Haste takes away many opportunities of observation; and scanty or inconvenient means of transporting hand specimens, often deprive us of the requisite data. Indeed, I should be loath to describe the few facts I am about to communicate, had you not personally visited and examined the great carboniferous and sandstone formation on the Mississippi and Wisconsin, and thus got the knowledge of their features. The parallelism which is apparent in these rocks, by the pinnacles which have been left standing on high—the wasting effects of time in scooping out valleys and filling up declivities—and the dark and castle-looking character of the cherty limestone bluffs, as viewed from the water, while the shadows of evening are deepening around, are suited to make vivid impressions. And these broken and denuded cliffs offer the most favorable points for making geological observations. There are no places inland where the streams have cut so deep. On gaining the height of land, the strata are found to be covered with so heavy a deposite of soil, that it is difficult to glean much that can be relied on respecting the interior structure.
The angle formed by the junction of the Wisconsin with the Mississippi is a sombre line of weather-beaten rocks. Gliding along the current, at the base of these rocks, the idea of a “hill country,” of no very productive character, is naturally impressed upon the observer. And this impression came down, probably, from the days of Marquette, who was the first European, that we read of, who descended the Wisconsin, and thus became the true discoverer of the Mississippi. The fact that it yielded lead ore, bits of which were occasionally brought in by the natives, was in accordance with this opinion; and aided, it may be supposed, in keeping out of view the real character of the country. I know not how else to account for the light which has suddenly burst upon us from this bank of the Mississippi, and which has at once proved it to be as valuable for the purposes of agriculture as for those of mining, and as sylvan in its appearance as if it were not fringed, as it were, with rocks, and lying at a great elevation above the water. This elevation is so considerable as to permit a lively descent in the streams, forming numerous mill-seats. The surface of the country is not, however, broken, but may be compared to the heavy and lazy-rolling waves of the sea after a tempest. These wave-like plains are often destitute of trees, except a few scattering ones, but present to the eye an almost boundless field of native herbage. Groves of oak sometimes diversify those native meadows, or cover the ridges which bound them. Very rarely does any rock appear above the surface. The highest elevations, the Platte mounds, and the Blue mound, are covered with soil and with trees. Numerous brooks of limpid water traverse the plains, and find their way into either the Wisconsin, Rock River, or the Mississippi. The common deer is still in possession of its favorite haunts; and the traveller is very often startled by flocks of the prairie-hen rising up in his path. The surface soil is a rich, black alluvion; it yields abundant crops of corn, and, so far as they have been tried, all the cereal gramina. I have never, either in the west or out of the west, seen a richer soil, or more stately fields of corn and oats, than upon one of the plateaux of the Blue mound.
Such is the country which appears to be richer in ores of lead than any other mineral district in the world—which yielded forty millions of pounds in seven years—produced a single lump of ore of two thousand cubic feet—and appears adequate to supply almost any amount of this article that the demands of commerce require.
The