168 NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



dwellings being constructed of logs and barks, and tlie court- 

 yards picketed in, as if they were intended for defence. It is 

 called Kipisagee by the Cliippewas and Algonquin tribes gene- 

 rally, meaning the place of the jet or outflow of the (Wisconsin) 

 River. It is, in popular parlance, estimated to be 300 miles below 

 St. Peter's, and 600 above St. Louis.* Its latitude is 43° 3' 6". 

 It is the seat of justice for Crawford County, having been so named 

 in honor of W. H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury of the 

 XJ. S. It is, together with all the region west of Lake Michigan, 

 attached to the territory of Michigan. There is a large and fertile 

 island in the Mississippi, opposite the place. 



We found the garrison to consist of a single company of 

 infantry, under the command of Capt. J. Fowle, Jun.,f who re- 

 ceived us courteously, and offered the salute due to the rank of 

 His Excellency, Gov. Cass. The fort is a square stockade, with 

 bastions at two angles. There was found on this part of the 

 prairie, when it came to be occupied with a garrison by the Amer- 

 icans, in 1819, an ancient platform-mound, in an exactly square 

 form, the shape and outlines of which were preserved with exact- 

 itude by the prairie sod. This earthwork, the probable evidence 

 of a condition of ancient society, arts, and events of a race who 

 are now reduced so low, was, with good taste, preserved by the 

 military, when they erected this stockade. One of the officers 

 built a dwelling-house upon it, thus converting it, to the use, and 

 probably the only use, to which it was originally devoted. No 

 measurements have been preserved of its original condition ; but 

 judging from present appearances, it must have squared seventy- 

 five feet, and have had an elevation of eight feet. 



* These distances are reduced by Ex. Doc. 237, respectively to 2G0 and 542 miles. 



f This ofiBcer entered the army in 1812, serving with reputation. He rose, 

 through various grades of the service, to the rank of Lieut. Col. of the 6th infanti-y. 

 He lost his life on the 25th April, 1838, by the explosion of the steamer Moselle, 

 on the Ohio River. 



