NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 179 



ral Indian languages, besides the Canadian French, and appeared 

 cheerful and intelligent. An excursion into the adjacent country, 

 to view some caves, and a reported mineral locality made by 

 Mr, Trowbridge, during my descent to the mines of Dubuque, 

 brought me some concretions of carbonate of lime, but the Indian 

 guides either faltered to make the promised discoveries, through 

 their superstitions, or really failed in the effort to find the object. 

 By tracing the shores of the Mississippi, I found the rolled and 

 hard agates and other quartz species, which characterize the 

 pebble-drift of its sources, still present in the down-flowing shore- 

 drift. 



The aboriginal name of this place is Kipesagi, an Algonquin 

 word, which is applied to the mouth or outflow of the Wisconsin 

 River. It appears to be based on the verb kipa^ to be thick or 

 turbid, and sauge, outflow — the river at its floods, being but little 

 else than a moving mass of sand and water. 



It was the 9th (Aug.) at half-past ten in the morning before 

 the expedition left the Prairie to ascend the Wisconsin, the mouth 

 of which we reached after descending the Mississippi three miles. 

 This is an impressive scene — the bold ciifi's of the west bank of 

 the Mississippi, with Pike's-hill rising in front on the west, while 

 those of the Wisconsin Valley stand at but little less elevation 

 on the north and south. At this season of the year the water is 

 clear and placid, and mingles itself in its mighty recipient without 

 disturbance. But it is easy to conceive, what the Indians affirm, 

 that in its floods it is a strong and turbid mass of moving waters, 

 against which nothing can stand. This character of the stream is 

 believed, indeed, to be the origin of the Indian name of Wisconsin. 

 Miskawagumi, means a strong or mixed water, or liquid. By add- 

 ing to this word totoshaho (milk), the meaning is coagulated or turn- 

 ing milk ; it is often used to mean brandy, which is then called 

 strong water; by adding iscodawcibo, the meaning is fire-water. 

 Marquette, in 1673, spells the name of the river indifferently 

 Meshkousing, and Mishkousing. Of this term, the inflection ing, 

 is simply a local form, the letter s being thrown in for euphony. 

 This word appears to be a derivation from the term onushkowa, 

 strong water. By admitting the transmutation of m to w, the 

 initial syllable mis is changed to wis, and the interpretation is then 

 river (or place) of strong waters. The term of kipesagi, applied 



