We were now drawing toward the foot of Lake Michigan, at the point where this inland sea is connected, through the Straits of Michilimackinac, with Lake Huron. A cluster of islands, called the Beaver Islands, had been in sight on our left hand, since passing the coast of the Sleeping Bear, which are noted as affording good anchorage ground to vessels navigating the lake. It is twenty-five miles from the site of the old French mission, near L'Arbre Croche, to the end of point Wagoshance,[ [145] which is the southeast cape of the Straits of Michilimackinac, and nine miles from thence to the Island. Along the bleak coast of this storm-beaten, horizontal limestone rock, with a thin covering of drift, we diligently passed. Night overtook us as we came through the straits, hugging their eastern shore, and we encamped on a little circular open bay, long after it became pitchy dark. We had traversed a coast line of fifty-seven miles, and were glad, after a refreshing cup of tea and our usual meal, to retire to our pallets.
The next morning revealed our position. We were at the ancient site of old Michilimackinac—a spot celebrated in the early missionary annals and history of New France. This was, indeed, one of the first points settled by the French after Cadaracqui, being a missionary and trading station before the foundation of Fort Niagara, in 1678; for La Salle, after determining on the latter, proceeded, the same fall, up the lakes to this point, which he installed with a military element. The mission of St. Ignace had before been attempted on the north shore of the straits, but it was finally removed here by the advice of Marquette. On gazing at the straits, they were found to be agitated by a perfect gale. This gave time for examining the vicinity. It was found a deserted plain, overspread with sand, in many parts, with the ruins of former occupancy piercing through these sandy drifts, which gave it an air of perfect desolation. By far the most conspicuous among these ruins, was the stone foundation of the ancient fort, and the excavations of the exterior buildings, which had evidently composed a part of the military or missionary plan. Not a house, not a cultivated field, not a fence was to be seen. The remains of broken pottery, and pieces of black bottles, irridescent from age, served impressively to show that men had once eaten and drank here. It was in 1763, in the outbreak of the Pontiac war, that this fort, then recently surrendered to the English, was captured, by a coup-de-main, by the Indians. The English, probably doubting its safety, during the American Revolution, removed the garrison to the island, which had, indeed, furnished the name of Michilimackinac before; for the Indians had, ab initio, called the old post Peekwutinong, or Headland-place, applying the other name exclusively, as at this day, to the Gibraltar-like island which rises up, with its picturesque cliffs, from the very depths of Lake Huron. The sketch of this scene of desolation, with the Island in view, is given in the second volume of my Ethnological Researches, Plate LIII.
After pacing the plain of this ancient point of French settlement in every point, we returned to our tent about eleven o'clock A. M., and deemed it practicable to attempt the crossing to the island in a light canoe, for, although the gale was little if any abated, the wind blew fair. I concurred in the opinion of Captain Douglass that this might be done, and very readily assented to try it, leaving the men in the baggage canoe to effect the passage when the wind fell. It cannot be asserted that this passage was without hazard; for my own part, I had too much trust in my nature to fear it, and, if we were ever wafted on "the wings of the wind," it was on this occasion; our boatmen, volunteers for the occasion, reefing the sails to two feet, and we owed our success mainly to their good management. On rounding the Ottowa point, which is the south cape of the little harbor of 'Mackinac, our friends who had parted from us at Green Bay were among the first to greet us. By the union of these two parties, the circumnavigation of Lake Michigan had been completely made. The rate of travel along the line traversed by them was computed at forty-five miles per day. They had been eight days on the route. The coast line traversed by Captain Douglass and myself, since quitting Chicago, is four hundred and thirty-nine miles, giving a mean of forty-three miles per diem, of which one entire day was lost by head winds.
CHAPTER XX.
Topographical survey of the northern shores of Green Bay and of the entire basin of Lake Michigan—Geological and Mineralogical indicia of the coast line—Era of sailing vessels and of the steamboat on the lakes—Route along the Huron coast, and return of the expedition to Detroit.
The coast line traversed by the party detached from Green Bay on the 22d of August, under Mr. Trowbridge, extended from the north shore of Fox River to the entrance of the Monominee River, and thence around the Little and Great Bay de Nocquet, to the northwestern cape of the entrance of Green Bay. From the latter point, the northern shore of Lake Michigan was traced by the Manistic, and the other smaller rivers of that coast, to the northern cape of the Straits of Michilimackinac, and through these to Point St. Ignace and the Island of Michilimackinac. The line of survey, agreeably to their reckoning, embraced two hundred and eighty miles, thus closing the topographical survey of the entire coast line of the basin of Lake Michigan, and placing in the hands of Captain Douglass the notes and materials for a perfect map of the lake.[ [146]
Mr. Trowbridge, whom I had requested to note the features of its geology and mineralogy, presented me with labelled specimens of the succession of strata which he had collected on the route. These denoted the continuance of the calcareous, horizontal series of formations of the Fox Valley, and of the islands of Green Bay, quite around those northern waters to the closing up of the surveys at Point St. Ignace and Michilimackinac. Nor do the primitive rocks disclose themselves on any part of that line of coast. Of this collection, Mr. Trowbridge well observes, in his report to me, the most interesting will probably be the organic remains. These were procured on the northeast side of Little Nocquet Bay, where areas of limestone appear. They consist of duplicates of the pectinite. Three layers of this, the magnesian limestone, show themselves at this place, of which the intermediate bed is of a dull blue color and compact structure, and is composed in a great measure of the remains of this species. It is comparatively soft when first taken up, but hardens by exposure. About ten miles north of this point, the upper calcareous, or surface rock, embraces nodules of hornstone. Specimens of a semi-crystalline limestone, labelled "marble," were also brought from a cliff, composed of this rock, on the lake shore, about thirty to forty miles southwest from Michilimackinac. Mr. Doty also brought some specimens of sulphate of lime, cal. spar, and some of the common rolled members of the quartz-drift stratum.
Michilimackinac is a name associated with our earliest ideas of history in the upper lakes. How so formidable a polysyllabic term came to be adopted by usage, it may be difficult to tell, till we are informed that the inhabitants, in speaking the word, clip off the first three syllables, leaving the last three to carry the whole meaning. The full term is, however, perpetuated by legal enactment, this part of Michigan having been organized into a separate county some time, I believe, during the administration of Gen. Hull. The military gentlemen call the fort on the cliff, "Mackin[=a]," the townspeople pronounce it Mackinaw; but if a man be hauled up on a magistrate's writ, it is in name of the sovereignty of Michilimackinac. Thus law and etymology grow strong together.