184 NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



drainage east, west, north, and south, and a ready access to the 

 great oceanic marts through the Great Lake and the Mississippi, 



"We passed, this day, several encampments and villages of Win- 

 nebagoes and Menomonies — tribes, who, with the erratic habits of 

 the Tartars, or Bedouins, once spread their tents in the Fox and 

 Wisconsin valleys, but have now (1853) relinquished them to the 

 European race ; and it does not, at this distance of time, seem im- 

 portant to denote the particular spots where they once boiled 

 their kettles of corn, or thumped their magic drums. God have 

 mercy on them in their wild wanderings ! We also passed the 

 entrance of Wolf Eiver, a fine bold stream on the left ; and soon 

 below it the handsome elevation of La Butte de Morts, or the 

 Hillock of the Dead. This eminence was covered by the frail 

 lodges of the Winnebagoes. The spot is memorable in Indian 

 history, for a signal defeat of the Foxes, by the French and their 

 Indian allies in the seventeenth century, after which, this tribe was 

 finally expelled from the Fox valley. Our night's encampment 

 (17th) was below this spot. The night air was remarkably cold, and 

 put an end to our further annoyance from mosquitos. We em- 

 barked at five o'clock the next morning during a dense fog, which 

 was in due time dissipated by the rising sun. We had been five 

 hours in our canoes, under the full force of paddles, when we 

 entered Winnebago Lake. This is a most beautiful and sylvan 

 expanse of water some twenty-four miles long by ten in width, 

 surrounded by picturesque prairie and sloping plains. It has a 

 stream at Fond du Lac, its southern extremity,* which is con- 

 nected by a short portage with the principal source of Eock Eiver 

 of the Mississippi. 



The Fox Eiver, after having displayed itself in the lake, leaves 

 it, at its northern extremity, flowing by a succession of rapids 

 and falls over horizontal limestones to the head of Green Bay. 



* This spot is now the site of the flourishing town of Fond du Lac, which was 

 laid out in 1845. It had a population of 2,014 in 1850, including two newspaper 

 offices, two banking houses, one iron foundry, a car factory, twelve drygoods stores, 

 and sixty other stores. It is situated 72 miles N. N. W. from Milwaukie, and 90 

 N. E. from Madison, the capital of the State of Wisconsin. It is the shire town of 

 a county containing a population of 14,510, with 17 churches, and 2,844 pupils 

 attending public schools, and 85 attending academies. It has a plank road to Lake 

 Michigan, and will soon be connected by a railroad with Chicago. It is by such 

 means that the American frilderness is conquered. 



