SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river. 215 



consider the extent and antiquity of the trade carried on 

 in this part of the country, and the facilities which the 

 route affords. On no part of our journey have we travel- 

 led with more comfort to ourselves, the soil being dry and 

 firm, well watered, and sufficiently interspersed with woods 

 to afford us a constant supply of this article for fuel ; the 

 grass is generally fine, so that our horses fared well ; the 

 country only became rough as we approached the Wiscon- 

 san. This river, like the Ohio, seems to unite with the 

 Mississippi in a hilly country; the hills rise to the 

 height of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet; 

 their sides are abrupt, and their soil is but indifferent. 

 The Wisconsan has been, for a long time past, the usual 

 communication between the lakes and the Mississippi. 

 About one hundred and eighty miles above the mouth of 

 the Wisconsan, this river comes so near to the Fox river of 

 Greenbay, that a portage of two thousand five hundred yards, 

 across a low and level prairie which is occasionally over- 

 flowed, establishes a connection between the two streams. 

 From the portage down to the mouth of Fox river in the 

 Greenbay of Lake Michigan, the distance is computed at 

 from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty 

 miles. The Wisconsan river, which takes its rise near the 

 hills of the same name, extends at least one hundred and 

 fifty miles above the portage. It is represented as having, 

 throughout its course, a rapid current, and but a shallow 

 channel, from which circumstances the ascent is difficult 

 and troublesome. Fox river is formed by the union of two 

 branches, one of which rises at a short distance from the 

 portage road ; its course, which is at first westwardly, soon 

 takes a general easterly direction, but the river is at all 

 times very crooked; it falls into Greenbay near Fort 

 Howard, 



