10 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[La Salic, 1680. 



river, and often inundated, especially after rains, which easily cause the streams to leave their 

 channels, and expand them exceedingly, though often but a little in height. That of the Islinois, 

 from their village to the Grand river, has a very deep and even bed. There is a border of timber 

 nearly its whole length. The low grounds all sustain very large trees of all kinds, the slopes of 

 the shores being generally covered. But immediately after one has crossed that which the river 

 overflows from time to time, and ascended the banks, he finds only beautiful fields spread before 

 his view, interrupted here and there with clumps of trees, which appear to be there only from 

 necessity. These uninhabited plains extend sometimes even to the brink of the river, particu- 

 larly about the environs of the village, and at sixty leagues to the east and northeast, where 

 timber can be seen very rarely along the shore of the river; but below it is more generally 

 bordered. The current is hardly perceptible when there has not been a great fall of rain. 

 Although this happens only in the spring, it is perfectly navigable, nevertheless, throughout the 

 year, for large boats as far as to the Islinois, and above that only for canoes, partly on account of 

 the rapidity of the stream, and partly on account of the greater descent and the shoals which 

 destroy its depth. Ice which they encountered in the Grand river stopped them at the mouth of 

 the Islinois till the 12th of March. It washes on the south shore a steep rock, about forty feet 

 high, suitable for the establishment of a fort, and on the opposite side extends a fine prairie, the 

 limit of which cannot be seen, very good for cultivation. This place seems to me very well 

 adapted for settlement, for many reasons which I have not time here to state, and I shall easily 

 be able here to establish myself on my return. Just at and below Pimiteoni the river turns 

 somewhat to the south, so that its embouchure is between 46 and 47 degrees of north latitude, and 

 separated from the gulf of Mexico about 120 or 130 leagues. There are between Quebec and 

 Montreal 43 leagues difference east and west; from Montreal to Fort Frontenac, 61 leagues ; from 

 the fort to Niagara, 65 ; from Niagara to the head of Lake Erie, 122 ; from there to the mouth of 

 the river of the Miamis, 117 ; from there to the Islinois, 52 ; thence to Pirniteoui, or Creve Cffiur, 

 27, and from Creve Cceur to the Mississipi, 18, which makes, altogether, about 500 leagues, or 24 

 degrees of longitude. The Missistipi appears, in leaving the mouth of the leatiki, to go toward the 

 south and southwest, and above there to come from the north and the northwest. It runs between 

 two ranges of mountains of considerable height much more than that of Mt. Valerian, which wind 

 about in the same manner as the river, from which presently they fall back a little, leaving 

 between them and its channel a prairie of some width, which is sometimes washed by the water 

 of the river, in such a way that when along one coast it is bordered by the foot of a mountain, on 

 the other is formed a bay, the head of which is terminated by a prairie or by a little patch of 

 woods. The slopes of these shores, which are either of rubbish or of rock, are covered here and 

 there with little oaks, and at other times with very beautiful herbs. The height of these moun- 

 tains conceals the plains beyond, which are of rather poor land, quite different from that of the 

 Islinois, though they sustain the same animals. The channel of the great river, although, for the 

 most part of the width of one or two leagues, is entirely intercepted by a number of islands 

 covered with wild timber, in which are so many vines that one can hardly pass through it. These 

 are subject to inundation by the overflow of the river. They conceal generally the other shore of 

 the river from view, so that it is rarely seen because of these islands. The bottom is very 

 uneven, in ascending the river above the mouth of the Islinois. There are often shoals which 

 cross the channel from one side to the other, over which canoes have difficulty in passing. It is 

 true that in the current of the stream there is generally sufficient water to float the largest vessels ; 

 but there the stream is extremely rough and difficult to make headway. The Mississipi does not 

 receive any considerable rivers from the west side, from the river of the Islinois up to the country 

 of the Nadouessioux, where it receives that of the Otoutantas, Paote and Maskoutens, who are of 

 the Nadouessioux of the East, about one hundred leagues from Teakiki. 



THE WISCONSIN VALLEY AND THE ROUTE TO GREEN BAY. 



Following the course of the Mississipi, one finds the river Ouisconsing, Misconsing or 

 Meschetz Odeba, which flows between the bay of the Puans and the Grand river. It runs at first 

 from the north to the south, to about the 45th degree of north latitude, and from there turns 

 to the west and southwest, and after a course of sixty leagues, falls into the Mississipi. It is 

 almost as large as that of the Islinois, navigable up to that bend where a canoe portage is made 



