Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

      It was the 1st of June before we could leave the spot where we had been confined. We embarked at six o'clock, the lake being sufficiently pacific, though not yet settled. But after proceeding about a league, it again became agitated, and drove us ashore, where we lay without encamping. Kewaygushkum was requested to send some of his young men in quest of game. The soldiers and engagees also formed fishing parties, at a contiguous river; but about three o'clock in the afternoon all the parties returned completely unsuccessful. There was neither fish nor game to be had. At the same time the agitation of the lake ceased, the wind springing up from an opposite quarter, which enabled us to hoist sail. This put every one in a pleasant humor, and we proceeded along the coast till evening, and encamped on a small sandy bay, which puts into the land, immediately beyond the promontory of Point aux Barques—an estimated distance of twenty-five miles from our starting-point in the morning.

      At the distance of a league before reaching this point, the first stratum of rock, in situ, presents itself. It is a gray friable sandstone, elevated from ten to twenty feet above the water, but attaining a greater height in the approach to this noted cape. This stratum of sandstone rock, which is of a perishable character, is exposed to receive the shock of the waves of Lake Huron for several hundred miles from the north and west. It exhibits the force and fury of the lake action by the numerous cavities which have been worn into it, at the water's edge, and by the sub-bays which have, in some localities, been formed in the line of dark opposing cliffs. It was in one of these sub-bays that we encamped, on a smooth sandy beach, which appears to have been a favorite encamping ground of the natives. But although we had met several canoes of Chippewas, on the route between Fort Gratiot and this point, none were found at the place of our encampment. Such of them as we approached, on the lake, were invariably in want of food, and received it with evident marks of gratification.

      On going inland, back from our encampment, we found a succession of arid ridges of sand, which had been evidently produced by the prostrated sandstone of the coast, which, after comminution by the waves, had been carried to this position by the winds. These ancient dunes and ridges were covered sparsely with pitch pines and aspen, and having their surfaces covered with the uva ursi, pyrola, and smaller shrub-growth common to arenaceous soils.

      On the day following, we ascended along the eastern shores of Saganaw Bay, a distance of eighteen miles, which brought us to Point aux Chenes. At this place the guides pointed to a group of islands about midway of the bay, for which we steered. The calmness of the weather favored the traverse. We reached and landed on the largest of the group, called Shawangunk, by the Indians, probably from its southernmost position. I found it to consist of a dark, compact limestone, imbedding masses of chalcedony and calcareous spar. I also picked up a detached mass of argillaceous oxide of iron, and some fragments of striped hornstone. Anxious to improve the favorable time for effecting the passage, we pushed on for the opposite western shore, which was safely reached. We then steered down the bay, skirting a low sandy shore some twenty miles or more, till entering the open lake, and reaching the River aux Sables. On entering this river, and after having pitched our camp, we were visited by a band of Chippewa Indians, with friendly salutations. It appeared that the arrival of the expedition had been anticipated by them, they having themselves constructed and furnished the canoes for it, and being well acquainted with the official position, at Detroit, of the leader of our party. The principal Chief, the Black Eagle, addressed a speech to Governor Cass, in which he appropriately recognized these relations, welcomed him to his village, and recommended the condition of his people to his notice. The calumet was then smoked in the usual style of Indian ceremony, the pipe-bearer beginning with persons of first rank, and handing it in the supposed order of grade, to the lowest member of the official family. The ceremony was ended by shaking of hands. All this was done with the ease and dignity of an oriental sheikh. We had anticipated savages, and savage manners, and armed ourselves to the teeth, pushing a point with an army official at Detroit, until we were each provided with a short rifle. But this first formal council with the sons of the forest, began to open our eyes to the true character of the Indian manners and diplomacy, in their intercourse with government officials.

      The chiefs, after their departure, sent to our encampment a present of fresh sturgeon, a species which is caught abundantly in the aux Sables at this time, for which returns were made of such articles as were most acceptable to them. Being out of the Bay, we employed the following day making advances along the Huron coast, an estimated distance of forty-eight miles. In this distance, we passed Thunder Bay. Encamped on a low, calcareous shore, bearing cedar and spruce, which the Indians call Sho-she-ko-naw-be-ko-king, or Flat Rock Point. A few miles after leaving River aux Sables, the Highlands of Sables present themselves at a short distance back from the shore. This ridge, which is a landmark for mariners, runs from southeast to northwest, and is visible as far as Thunder Bay. The limestone, which is dark and of an earthy fracture, is very much broken up on the shore, and contains various species of organic remains. On crossing the Bay, we landed on an island covered with debris, where we observed one of those imitative, water-worn, primitive boulders, resembling altars, which are frequently set up by the Indians as the places of depositing some offering, or out of mere respect for some local god.

       At six o'clock the next morning we were again in our canoes, assiduously moving along the Huron coast; but, after proceeding about a league, a storm of wind and rain suddenly arose, driving us from the lake. A few hours served to restore its calmness, but we had not gone over a couple of leagues when we were again compelled by the rising wind to take to the shore, where we were detained the rest of the day, listening to the capricious murmurs of the lake. This position was directly opposite Middle Island, a noted anchorage about six miles distant. All night the waves of the lake were heard. The morning broke without change. Lake Huron still evinced an angry aspect, threatening to renew the struggle of yesterday. It was concluded to send the canoes forward, relieved of our weight, and proceed ourselves on foot along the beach. Walking on this became difficult on those parts of it where the fossiliferous and shelly limestone had been broken up and heaped in small fragments. Among these, we recognized specimens of the cornu-ammonis, and the maderpore, with some other species. The cedars and brushy growth generally stood so thick, and grew so closely to this line of debris, that it was impracticable to take the woods. The toil, however, rewarded us with some specimens of the organic forms imbedded in the rock, while it enabled the topographers to secure the data for a very perfect map of the coast. At ten o'clock in the morning we reached the east cape of Presque Isle Bay, where the canoes came to take us across to the peninsula of that name. After completing this, the men landed the canoes and baggage on the peninsula side, and carried them across the narrow sandy neck of land; but, on reaching the open lake beyond it, the wind was found too strongly adverse to permit embarkation. The Canadians have the not inappropriate term of degrade for this species of detention; we were here foiled, indeed, in our high hopes of pushing ahead, and compelled to wait on the naked sands for many weary hours. While thus detained, the Indians brought in a brown rabbit, [18] a species of lake tortoise, and some pigeons, being their only fruits of success in hunting, except a single grouse, or partridge, which had crowned their efforts since leaving Detroit. It must be borne in mind, however, that there has been very little opportunity for hunting, that we have had abundant supplies, and that our mode of travelling is such as to alarm all game within sound of our track. They have, indeed, brought reports at several points of seeing the footprints of the deer and black bear, but they have not had the leisure to pursue them.

      At five o'clock, the wind abated so much as to permit embarkation, and our canoemen hastened forward with the intention of travelling all night, but at eleven o'clock it freshened to such a degree, and at the same time became so intensely dark, that we were compelled to land and encamp. Neither the topography, mineralogy, or any branch of the physical geography of a country can be ascertained without minute examination; and this constitutes, indeed, the object of the investigations, which have been, thus far, so toilsomely pursued against adverse winds since the commencement of the expedition; but they have disclosed facts which reveal the true structure and physical history of this bleak, ungenial coast; this hope serves, every day, to give new impetus to the voyage.

      Another day along the Huron coast. It was now the 6th of June. The voyageurs began now to manifest great anxiety to reach Michilimackinac, and had their canoes in the water at a very early hour. We all participated