PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



between the river just mentioned and Fox River of Green 

 Bay. (Long's Expedition, v. ii., p. 335.) The bhie mounds, 

 near the Wisconsin ; the Platte mounds, near Platteville ; 

 the Pilot-knob, near Galena ; the Table mound, three miles 

 south of Dubuque ; Sherald's mound and Pike's mountain, 

 may also be named among the lesser elevations of this 

 region, as also Sinsinewa mound. There are some eleva- 

 tions also near the right bank of the Missisippi, above Lake 

 Pepin ; and, in fact, on both sides in that part of the country. 

 The Coteau des Prairies is an extensive and elevated table- 

 land, dividing the v^raters which flow into the Missouri from 

 those falling into the St. Peter's and Missisippi. A range 

 of highlands extends from the Ocooch, on the Wisconsin, to 

 Lake Superior, supposed by Long and Dr. James to be a con- 

 tinuation of the Ozark mountains. The northern section 

 of this highland usually goes under the name of Porcupine 

 Hills. 



" It is neither a mountainous, nor a hilly, nor an absolutely 

 flat country," says Nicollet, '' exhibiting undulations of the 

 surface that are not entitled to these usual appellations. 

 There are hillocks, swells and uplands, but they have a lon- 

 gitudinal and horizontal rather than a vertical projection. In 

 other words, it is a beautiful arrangement of upland and low- 

 land plains, that give it an aspect sui generis. The first 

 Frenchmen who explored it, and the British and Americans 

 who followed them, were so forcibly impressed with this 

 novelty in the appearance of the topography, that they 

 employed new names to designate it. Hence we have the 

 expressions coteau des j^rairies, coteau des bois [highland 

 prairie, highland luoods], hauteur des terres [sununit of lajul], 

 and rolling, flat, or marshy prairies. There is still suflicient 

 variety in the irregularities of its surface, and the distribution 



