FeatherstonhcwgVs Geological Report. 121 



would act upon Lake Huron, would probably confirm the very 

 judicious opinion of Governor Cass. 



From this place (here is canoe and flat-boat navigation up 

 Lower Fox river to Lake Winnebago. At a distance of about 

 forty miles, the banks of the river are quite remarkable for 

 the beauty of their slopes ; and the general fertility of the soil, 

 composed of siliceo-calcareous earth, mixed up with vegetable 

 matter, will soon bring a great population into this part of the 

 country. On approaching the rapids of Kahkawning, called 

 Cocolo by the Canadians, the well-wooded banks of the river 

 slope in such a uniform and graceful manner, that the broad 

 stream seems to be gliding through an amphitheatre. There 

 is a large flat area at these falls, which seem to have a descent 

 of about twenty feet to the mile, across which is a portage, 

 served by the drunken Winnebagoes of this place. The 

 water falls over horizontal beds of the carboniferous limestone. 

 Twelve miles further the river falls about six feet over another 

 ledge of the same formation, at a place called La Grande 

 Chute. Coasting the west shore of the lake, which lies low, 

 and is crowded with fine forest trees springing from the richest 

 soil, I reached the Pa\vaygun, or Wolf river, in about twenty 

 miles. The shores of all the waters here produce great quan 

 tities of zizania aquatica, or wild rice, from which the Menom- 

 onies, or rice-eaters, receive their name. From this place, for 

 about one hundred miles, the country lies very low, the eleva 

 tions of land being trifling, and principally composed of the 

 sand resulting from the disintegration of ancient beds of sand 

 stone ; it may be considered, with this exception, a great rice- 

 swamp. At a place called Apackquay, or Rush lake, I saw 

 several thousand acres of zizania together, two miles in one 

 direction and five or six in another, resembling an immense 

 field of wheat, with the heads just formed and waving about. 

 At other places the channel went for great distances through 

 dense areas of wild-rice stalks, ten feet high, mixed up with 

 rushes and other acquatic plants, so as to exclude every object 



