304 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



the features and physical geography of so large a portion of 

 the public domain." A new interest in mineralogy and geol- 

 ogy was awakened by this expedition, and Mr. Schoolcraft's 

 narrative of it was hurried into press under the pressure of 

 the public clamour for its results. The book was published in 

 May, 1821. 



Mr. Schoolcraft shortly afterward embarked, with General 

 Cass, on another expedition. The route lay from the present 

 site of Toledo, up the Maumee, down the Wabash and Ohio 

 to Shawneetown, overland across the " knobs " and prairies, 

 taking a famous locality of fluor-spar on the way, to St. Louis; 

 thence up the Illinois to the rapids and on horseback to Chi- 

 cago, stopping to find the fossil tree in the bed of the Des 

 Plaines. In Chicago, a treaty was made with the Pottawat- 

 tamies for the surrender of about five million acres of land, 

 to which Mr. Schoolcraft should have given his signature 

 among the others, but he was too ill " did not, indeed, ever 

 expect to make another entry in a human journal." The in- 

 cidents and observations of the journey have been published 

 as Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley. 

 In the next year (1822) Mr. Schoolcraft was appointed Indian 

 agent at Sault Ste. Marie, of which he says, giving his reasons 

 for accepting it : "I had now attained a fixed position ; not 

 such as I desired in the outset and had striven for, but one 

 that offered an interesting class of duties, in the performance 

 of which there was a wide field for honourable exertion, and, 

 if it was embraced, also of historical inquiry and research. 

 The taste for natural history might certainly be transferred 

 to that point, where the opportunity for discovery was the 

 greatest." The position afforded him excellent opportunities 

 for studying the Chippewa language and Indian mythology 

 and superstition, characteristics and customs, of which he 

 made the best use. He determined to be a labourer in the 

 new field of Indian studies. His diary during the whole term 

 - of his office shows him leading a busy and varied life. We 

 find in it notes on his subjects of study, of his readings on 

 various general topics, observations on the natural features 

 of the region, remarks on mineralogical specimens and in- 

 cidents of official work. 



Mr. Schoolcraft spent the winter of i824-*25, on leave of 

 absence, in New York, where he superintended the printing of 



