CHAPTER LXXII.
Popular common school education--Iroquois name for Mackinack--Its scenic beauties poetically considered--Phenomenon of two currents of adverse wind meeting--Audubon's proposed work on American quadrupeds-- Adario--Geographical range of the mocking-bird--Removal from the West to the city of New York--An era accomplished--Visit to Europe.
1841. May 3d. F. SAWYER, Jr., Esq., a gentleman recently appointed Superintendent of Public Instruction, from Ann Arbor, writes: "Yours of the 19th April came during my absence at Marshall, and I take the first opportunity to reply, thanking you for the suggestions made. It is my intention to attempt the publication of a monthly, something after the manner of the Boston Common School Journal, one of the best things of the kind, in my humble opinion, to be found in the Union. As the legislative resolution authorizing a subscription for such a publication is repealed, a journal, if started, will depend upon the disposition of the people to sustain it.
"My intention is to address a circular to the different Boards of School Inspectors throughout Michigan, urging upon them the necessity of doing something for the cause, and invoking their efficiency in the matter. If they will take hold and raise a certain amount in their district, and pledge their constant exertions to excite and keep alive public interest on the subject of common schools, much will have been effected.
"To succeed, the journal must treat of subjects in the most popular manner, avoiding, as far as is consistent with the dignity of the object in view, very elaborate and prosy disquisitions. I shall endeavor to get a circular out next week. Meantime accept my thanks for the interest you take in the subject, and be assured that if I succeed in starting the journal, I shall, at all times, be grateful for contributions from you."
22d. Landed at Mackinack after having passed the winter at Detroit. It appears from Colden that the Iroquois called this island Teiodondoraghie. What an amount of word-craft is here--what a poetic description thrown into the form of a compound phrase! The local term in doraghie is apparently the same heard in Ticonderoga--the imprecision of writing Indian making the difference. Ti is the Iroquois particle for water, as in Tioga, &c. On is, in like manner, the clipped or coalescent particle for hill or mountain, as heard in Onondaga. The vowels i, o, carry the same meaning, evidently, that they do in Ontario and Ohio, where they are an exclamatory description for beautiful scenery. What a philosophy of language is here!
June 15th. The balmy, soft influence of a June atmosphere, resting upon this lovely scene of water, woods, and rocks--a perfect gem in creation, deeply impressed me. Under a strong sense of its geological frame-work of cliffs and winding paths, it appeared that it only required a poetic drapery to be thrown over it and its historical associations, to render it a pleasing theme of description. So unlike English scenery, and yet so characteristic--so very American.
21st. While standing on the piazza in front of the agency house at Mackinack, about five o'clock P.M., my attention was directed to the strong current which set through the strait, west, under the influence of a strong easterly wind. The waves were worked up into a perfect series of foam wreaths, succeeding each other for miles. While admiring this phenomenon, a cloud gathered suddenly in the west, and, in a few minutes, poured forth a gust of wind towards the east, attended with heavy rain. So suddenly was this jet of wind propagated towards the east, that the foam of waves running west was driven back eastwardly, before the waves had time to reverse their motion, which created the unusual spectacle of two opposing currents of wind and waves, in the most active and striking manner. The wave current still running west, while the wind current seized its foam and carried it in a long line towards the east. The new current soon prevailed. At half-past six o'clock the storm had quite abated, and the wind settled lightly from the south-west.
26th. Mr. John J. Audubon announces his intention to prepare a complete work on American quadrupeds, correspondent, in the style of execution, to his great work on ornithology. "As I do not know," he modestly says, "whether you are aware of my having published a work on the birds of America, I take this opportunity to assure you that I have, and, at the same time, to apprise you of my having undertaken, and in fact, began another on the viviparous quadrupeds of our country, which it is also my intention to publish as soon as I can.
"In all such undertakings, the simple though unintermitted labors of an individual are not sufficient, and assistance from others is not only agreeable, but is, in my opinion, absolutely necessary to render them as complete as possible.