[52] Chemoquiman, from gitchee, great, and moquiman, knife.
[53] Vide Reports in the Appendix: 1. Report on the [Copper Mines] of Lake Superior, November 6, 1820. 2. Report on the Value of the Existing Evidences of Mineral Wealth in the Basin of Lake Superior to the Public Domain, October 1, 1822.
[54] Geological Report, vide Appendix.
[55] Now the seat of the Marquette Iron Works.
[56] This river has subsequently been fixed on as the northwestern boundary of the state of Michigan, separating it from Wisconsin.
[57] Birds of Lake Superior.—Of the species that frequent the vicinity of this lake, the magpie is found to approach as far north as Lac du Flambeau, on the head of the Montreal and Chippewa Rivers. This bird is called by the Chippewas Wabish Kagagee, a name derived from Wabishkau, white animate, and Kaw-gaw-gee, a crow. The three-toed woodpecker visits its forests. The T. polyglottis has been seen as far north as the Island of Michilimackinac. In the spring of 1823, a species of grosbeak visited St. Mary's, of which I transmitted a specimen to the New York Lyceum of Natural History, where it received the name of Evening Grosbeak.
[58] From Muskeeg, a swamp or bog, and o, the sign of the genitive.
[59] Muskeego, or Mauvais River.—In 1831, the United States government placed under my charge an expedition into the Indian country which ascended this river, with a view to penetrate through the intervening region to the Mississippi. Indian canoes were employed, as being best adapted to its rapids and portages, which were managed by voyageurs. A detachment of infantry, under Lieut. R. Clary, was added. The tribes in this secluded region were then meditating the outbreak which eventuated the next year in the Black Hawk War. This expedition ascended the river through a most embarrassing series of rapids and rafts, which often choked up its channel for miles, into a long lake, on its summit, called Kagenogumaug. From the northwest end of this, it passed, from lake to lake, to the Namakagun fork of the River St. Croix of the Mississippi, descended that stream to Yellow River, then retraced the Namakagun to a portage to Ottowa Lake, a source of Chippewa River, then to a portage into Lac Chetac, the source of the Red Cedar, or Follavoine River, and pursued the latter to the main channel of the Chippewa, and by the latter into the Mississippi, which it enters at the foot of Lake Pepin; thence down the Mississippi to Prairie du Chien, and through the present area of the State of Wisconsin, by the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, to Green Bay; thence through Lakes Michigan and Huron to Sault de Ste Marie.
[60] From Shaugwamegun, low lands, and ing, a place.
[61] Wisacoda, or Broule River.—On returning down the Mississippi River, from the exploration of its sources, in 1832, I ascended the River St. Croix quite to its source in St. Croix Lake. A short portage, across a sandy summit, terminated at the head springs of the Wisacoda, which, from a very narrow and tortuous channel, is soon increased in volume by tributaries, and becomes a copious stream. Thus swelled in volume, it is dashed down an inclined plane, for nearly seventy miles, over which it roars and foams with the impetuosity of a torrent. It is not till within a few miles of Lake Superior that it becomes still and deep. The entire length of the river may be estimated at one hundred miles. It has two hundred and forty distinct rapids, at some of which the river sinks its level from eight to ten feet. It cannot fall, in this distance, less than 500. That it should ever have been used in the fur trade, is to be explained by the fact that it has much water.