IGG EXPEDITION TO THE 



edge of the swamp for about three miles, until we reached 

 the place where the old portage road meets the current, 

 which was here very distinct towards the south. We were 

 delighted at beholding for the first time, a feature so inte- 

 resting in itself, but which we had afterwards an opportunity 

 of observing frequently on the route ; viz. the division of 

 waters starting from the same source, and running in two 

 different directions, so as to become the feeders of streams 

 that discharge themselves into the ocean at immense dis- 

 tances apart. Although at the time we visited it, there was 

 scarcely water enough to permit our pirogue to pass, we 

 could not doubt, that in the spring of the year the route 

 must be a very eligible one. Lieut. Hopson, who accom- 

 panied us to the Des Plaines, told us that he had travelled 

 it with ease, in a boat loaded with lead and flour. The dis- 

 tance from the fort to the intersection of the Portage road 

 and Des Plaines, is supposed to be about twelve or thirteen 

 miles ; the elevation of the feeding lake above Chicago 

 river was estimated at five or six feet ; and, it is probable 

 that the descent to the Des Plaines is less considerable. 

 The Portage road is about eleven miles long ; the usual 

 distance travelled by land seldom however exceeds from 

 four to nine miles ; in very dry seasons it has been said to 

 amount to thirty miles, as the portage then extends to 

 Mount Juliet, near the confluence of the Kankakee. When 

 we consider the facts above stated, we are irresistably led to 

 the conclusion, that an elevation of the lakes of a few feet, 

 (not exceeding ten or twelve,) above their present level, 

 would cause them to discharge their waters, partly at least, 

 into the Gulf of Mexico ; that such a discharge has at one 

 time existed, every one conversant with the nature of the 

 country must admit ; and it is equally apparent that an ex- 

 penditure, trifling in comparison to the importance of the 



