Fifteen miles further progress towards the north, brought us to the mouth of Grand River—the Washtenong of the Indians—which is, I believe the largest and longest stream of the Michigan peninsula. It is the boundary between the hunting-grounds of the Pottowattomies (who have thus far claimed jurisdiction from Chicago) and the Ottowas. The latter live in large numbers at its rapids and on its various tributaries.[ [141] The next stream of note we encountered was the Maskigon, twelve miles north of Grand River, where we encamped, having travelled, during the day, fifty-four miles. The view of this scene was impressive from its bleakness, the dunes of sand being more at the mercy of the winds. I found here a large, branching specimen of the club-fungus, attached to a dead specimen of the populus tremuloides, which had been completely penetrated by these drifting sands, so as to present quite the appearance, and no little part of the hardness and consistency, of a fossil. The following figure of this transformation from a fungus to a semi-stony body, presents a perfect outline of it as sketched in its original position.
On the day of our departure from the Maskigon, we enjoyed fine weather and favorable winds, and proceeded, from the data of Captain Douglass, seventy miles, and encamped a few miles beyond the Sandy River. In this line of coast, we passed, successively, the White, Pentwater, and Marquette. Of these, the latter, both from its size and its historical associations, is by far the most important; for it was at this spot, after having spent years of devotion in the cause of missions in New France—in the course of which he discovered the Mississippi River—that this zealous servant of God laid down in his tent, after a hard day's travel, and surrendered up his life. The event occurred on the 8th of May, 1675, but two years after his grand discovery. Marquette was a native of Laon, in Picardy, where his family was of distinguished rank. The precise moment of his death was not witnessed, his men having retired to leave him to his devotions, but returning, in a short time, found him lifeless. They carried his body to the mission of old Michilimackinac, of which he was the founder, where it was interred.[ [142]
It rained the next morning (6th), by which we lost two hours, and we had some unfavorable winds, but, by dint of hard pushing, we made forty-five miles, and slept at Gravelly Point. In this line we passed successively, at distances of seventeen and thirty miles, the rivers Manistic and Becsie, which is the Canadian phrase for the anas canadensis. Clouds and murky weather still hovered around us on the next morning, but we left our encampment at an early hour. Thirteen miles brought us to the Omicomico, or Plate River, nine miles beyond which found us in front of a remarkable and very elevated sand June, called the Sleeping Bear—a fanciful term, derived from the Indian, through the French l'ours qui dormis. Opposite this feature in the coast geology, lie the two large wooded islands called the Minitos—well-known objects to all mariners who venture into the vast unsheltered basin of the southern body of Lake Michigan. Thirty miles beyond this sandy elevation, brought us to the southern cape of Grand Traverse Bay, where we encamped, having advanced fifty-two miles. This was the first place where we had noticed rocks in situ, since passing the little Konamic River, near Chicago. It proved to be limestone, of the same apparent era of the calcareous rock which we had observed at Sturgeon Bay and the contiguous west shore of Lake Michigan. The line of lake coast included in this remark is three hundred and twenty miles; during all which distance the coast seems, but only seems, to be the sport of the fierce gales and storms, for there is reason to believe that the formations of drift clay, sand, and gravel rest, at various depths, on a stratification of solid, permanent rock. To us, however, it proved a barren field for the collection of both geological and mineralogical specimens. There were gleaned some rolled specimens of organic remains, of no further use than to denote the occurrence of these in some part of a vast basin. There was a specimen of gypsum from Grand River. The few patches of iron sand I had noticed, were hardly worthy of record after the heavy beds of this mineral which we had passed in Lake Superior. The same remark may be made of the few rolled fragments of calcedonies, and other varieties of the quartz family, gleaned up along its shores, for neither of these constitute a reliable locality.
Petrified leaf of the Fagus Ferruginea
Of the floræ and fauna we had been observant, but the sandy character of the mere coast line greatly narrowed the former, in which Captain Douglass found but little to preserve, beyond the parnassia caroliniana and seottia cerna.[ [143] The fury of the waves renders it a region wholly unfitted to the whole tribe of fresh-water shells. A petrifaction of the fagus ferruginia, brought from a spring on the banks of the St. Joseph's River by Gov. Cass, on his home route, on horseback, presented the petrifying process in one of its most perfect forms (vide p. 206). Surfeited with a species of scenery in which the naked sand dunes were often painful to the eye, from their ophthalmic influence, and of geological prostrations which seemed to lay the coast in ruins, we were glad to reach the solid rock formations, supporting, as they did, a soil favorable to green forests.
A partial eclipse of the sun had been calculated for the 5th of September (1820), to commence at seven o'clock, twenty minutes; but, though we were on the lake, and anxious to note it, the weather proved to be too much overcast, and no effects of it were observed. This eclipse was observed, according to the predictions, at Philadelphia.
The morning of the 8th proved calm, which permitted us to cross the mouth of Grand Traverse Bay. This piece of water is nine miles across, with an unexplored depth, and has some 300 Chippewas living on its borders. Six miles north of this point, we reached and crossed Little Traverse Bay, which is occupied by Ottawas. These two tribes are close confederates, speak dialects of the same language which is readily understood by both, and live on the most friendly terms. The Ottowas on the head of Little Traverse Bay, and on the adjoining coast of Lake Michigan—which, from its principal village, bears the names of Village of the Cross, and of Waganukizzie,[ [144] or L'Arbre Croche—are, to a great extent, cultivators of the soil, and have adopted the use of hats, and the French capot, having laid aside paints and feathers. They raise large quantities of Indian corn for the Mackinac market, and manufacture, in the season, from the sap of the acer saccharinum, considerable quantities of maple sugar, which is put up, in somewhat elongated bark boxes, called muckucks, in which it is carried to the same market. We found them, wherever they were encountered, a people of friendly manners and comity.