From this depth there has been protruded from its bottom two species of formations, which were thus elevated by volcanic forces, namely, the trap and the granitical series. Cones and high mural cliffs, with large rents, make this basis one of great inequalities. To fill up these, the sedimentary rocks, by a natural law of gravitation, let fall the dissolved and suspended matter which constitutes the horizontal strata, such as the neutral and deep-colored sandstones. This process also gives origin to grauwackes and the grauwacke slates and the argillites. But these horizontal deposits do not all retain their horizontality. They were tilted up by other volcanic forces, after the deposition and hardening of the sandstones, as we see them at the north foot of the Porcupine Mountains and along the rugged valley of the St. Louis River.
This secondary upheaval or series of upheavals, is conceived to furnish proof of epochs. Strata of the same mineral constitution and system of formation which are upheaved, are clearly of posterior age to the horizontal. Some of these strata of the secondary, epoch have only had their horizontality disturbed, while others are quite vertical. Yet, the disturbances of an epoch are only relative, and it remains true that any disturbance, however slight, in the fundamental series, throws the epoch beyond the newer fletz and tertiary formations.
Some theory of this kind is necessary in scrutinizing the position of the St. Mary's sandstone, which is manifestly of the palaozoic era. It has felt the impulse of disturbance, although it appears to be little. Evidences of this are most perceptible in the British Channel, on the north side of the Island of St. Joseph. This channel, and, indeed, the entire course of the river up to Lake Superior, is the line of juxtaposition between the rocks of elder and the secondary epoch. At the extreme foot of Sugar Island occurs the remains of a stratum of the sandstone era, consisting of white quartz filled with coarse red jasper pebbles. I observed remains of this stratum of remarkable rock, which have been broken off and swept away in the basin of Lake Huron, deposited in boulder masses on its southern shores.
The sandstone of St. Mary's is, structurally, brittle, fissile, and worthless, as a building material. Its substructure is complicated and made up of thin layers exactly deposited, as if from watery suspension, but deposited without disturbance. These sub-layers of construction, are sometimes cut off by parallel lines at right angles, or by new series of layers diagonally formed, or in echelon.
3. INDIAN TRIBES.
VIII.
CONDITION AND DISPOSITION.
1. Official Report of an Expedition through Upper Michigan and Northern Wisconsin in 1831.
Sault Ste. Marie, Sept. 21, 1831.
Sir: In compliance with instructions to endeavor to terminate the hostilities between the Chippewas and Sioux, I proceeded into the Chippewa country with thirteen men in two canoes, having the necessary provisions and presents for the Indians, an interpreter, a physician to attend the sick, and a person in charge of the provisions and other public property. The commanding officer of Fort Brady furnished me with an escort of ten soldiers, under the command of a lieutenant; and I took with me a few Chippewas, in a canoe provided with oars, to convey a part of the provisions. A flag was procured for each canoe. I joined the expedition at the head of the portage, at this place, on the 25th of June; and, after visiting the Chippewa villages in the belt of country between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, in latitudes 44° to 46°, returned on the 4th of September, having been absent seventy-two days, and travelled a line of country estimated to be two thousand three hundred and eight miles. I have now the honor to report to you the route pursued, the means employed to accomplish the object, and such further measures as appear to me to be necessary to give effect to what has been done, and to insure a lasting peace between the two tribes.
Reasons existed for not extending the visit to the Chippewa bands on the extreme Upper Mississippi, on Red Lake, and Red River, and the River De Corbeau. After entering Lake Superior, and traversing its southern shores to Point Chegoimegon, and the adjacent cluster of islands, I ascended the Mauvaise River to a portage of 8-¾ miles into the Kaginogumac, or Long Water Lake. This lake is about eight miles long, and of very irregular width. Thence, by a portage of 280 yards, into Turtle Lake; thence, by a portage of 1,075 yards, into Clary's Lake, so called; thence, by a portage of 425 yards, into Lake Polyganum; and thence, by a portage of 1,050 yards, into the Namakagon River, a branch of the River St. Croix of the Upper Mississippi. The distance from Lake Superior to this spot is, by estimation, 124 miles.