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o-ists have named the "great water shed," from Avhich those great rivers 

 draw their constant supply. The principles upon which this great reser- 

 voir is maintained, at an elevation of many hundred feet above the level 

 of Lake Superior, always full, never failing in drought, heat or frost, it 

 belongs to the science of Geology to explain. The great fact is a promi- 

 nent one in the geographical features of this part of the State, and is 

 interesting in more points than one, and particularly as touching its 

 climate. 



Some of the principal rivers, having their sources in this " Region of 

 the Lakes," are the Montreal and the Ontonagon, falling into Lake Supe- 

 rior ; the Menomonee, and the Wolf (a north branch of the Fox) fall- 

 ing into Green Bay, and the Wisconsin, the Chippewa and the St. Croix, 

 falling into the Mississippi, (St. Louis River, at Fond du Lac, off Lake 

 Superior, has its source in a distinct region, to the N. W. of that Lake ; 

 and the Black River rises some twenty or thirty miles south of the 

 "Region of the Lakes." ) Four of these rivers, to wit : the Menomonee, 

 the Wolf, the Wisconsin and the Chippewa, rise within a very few miles 

 of each other, in and near the " Lake of the Desert," and water, in their 

 courses, four-fifths of the entire State. Though, but slightly known 

 towards their heads, to the white men, they have, for ages past, constitu- 

 ted the highways of the natives, and of those engaged m trade and com- 

 merce with them. To attempt a detailed description of the immense 

 country north of town 24, and watered by these rivers and lakes, would 

 involve a degree of research and labor quite out of the question in this 

 communication ; a few discursory remarks, only, will be attempted. 



It is to be regretted that where knowledge does not exist, fancy is too 

 often allowed to take its place, and give form and character to matters 

 under discussion. With this impulse, grave and important subjects are 

 often summarily disposed of with a single dash of the pen. Not many 

 years since, a government officer made a formal report to the War De- 

 partment, setting forth that the whole Peninsula of Michigan was an 

 impassable swamp ! and a map was made and published in accordance 

 with that report! This Michigan swamp has disappeared before the 

 tide of immigration; but the propensities to indulge the imagination 

 are not cured. An official, of later times, has given a similar character 

 to a large portion of Wisconsin. Time .and the progress of the "Yankee 

 Nation" will doubtless drain this Wisconsin swamp as it did that of 

 Michigan. 



