178 NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



CHAPTER XYI. 



The expedition proceeds from Prairie du Chein up the Wisconsin Valley — Incidents 

 of the ascent — Etymology of the name — The low state of its waters favorable to 

 the observation of its fresh-water concbology — Cross the Wisconsin summit, and 

 descend the Fox River to Winnebago Lake. 



We were now at the foot of tlie Wisconsin Yalley — at the 

 point, in fact, where Marquette and Joliet, coming from the 

 forests and lakes of New France, had discovered the great River 

 of the West, in 1673. Marquette, led by his rubrics, named it 

 the River "Conception," but, in his journal, he freely employs the 

 aboriginal term of Mississippi, which was in use by the whole 

 body of the Algonquin tribes. While awaiting, at Prairie du 

 Chein, the preparations for ascending the Wisconsin, the locality 

 was found a very remarkable one for its large unios, and some 

 other species of fresh-water shells. Some specimens of the unio 

 crassus, found on the shores of the island in the Mississippi, 

 opposite the village, were of thrice the size of any noticed in 

 America or Europe, and put conchologists in doubt whether 

 the species should not be named giganteus.'^ I had, in coming 

 down the Mississippi, procured some fine and large specimens of 

 the unio purpureus of Mr. Say, at the Painted Rock, with some 

 other species; and the discovery of such large species of the 

 crassus served to direct new attention to the subject. 



Our sympathies were excited, at this place, by observing an 

 object of human deformity in the person of an Indian, who, to 

 remedy the want of the power of locomotion, had adjusted his 

 legs in a large wooden bowl. By rocking this on the ground, he 

 supplied, in a manner, the lost locomotive power. This man of 

 the bowl possessed his faculties of mind unimpaired, spoke seve- 



* American Journal of Science, vol. vi. p. 119. 



