198 NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



mile or two, till it percolates through the sands into the lake. Its 

 banks consist of a black arenaceous fertile soil, which is stated to 

 produce abundantly, in its season, the wild species of cepa, or leek. 

 This circumstance has led the natives to name it the place of the 

 wild leek. Such is the origin of the term Chicago,* which is a 

 derivative, by elision and French annotation, from the word Chi- 

 kaug-ong. Kang^ is the Algonquin name for the hystrix, or por- 

 cupine. It takes the prefix Chi^ when applied to the mustela 

 putorius. The particle Chi^ is the common prefix of nouns to de- 

 note greatness in any natural object, but it is also employed, as 

 here, to mean increase, or excess, as acridness, or pungency, in 

 quality. The penultimate ong^ denotes locality. The putorius 

 is so named from this plant, and not, as has been thought, the 

 plant from it. I took the sketch, which is reproduced in the 

 fourth vol. of my Ethnological Researches^ Plate xxvii., from a stand- 

 point on the flat of sand which stretched in front of the place. 

 This view embraces every house in the village, with the fort; and 

 if the reproduction of the artist in vol. iv. may be subjected to 

 any criticism, it is, perhaps, that the stockade bears too great a 

 proportion to the scene, while the precipice observed in the shore 

 line of sand, is wholly wanting in the original. 



The country around Chicago is the most fertile and beautiful 

 that can be imagined. It consists of an intermixture of woods 

 and prairies, diversified with gentle slopes, sometimes attaining 

 the elevation of hills, and it is irrigated with a number of clear 

 streams and rivers, which throw their waters partly into Lake 

 Michigan, and partly into the Mississippi Eiver. As a farming 

 country, it presents the greatest facilities for raising stock and 



* Chicago is the largest city of the State of Illinois, excelling all others in its 

 commercial and business capacities, and public and moral influences. Standing on 

 the borders of the great western prairies, it is the great city of the plains, and its 

 growth cannot be limited, or can scarcely be estimated. It began to be built about 

 ] 831, eleven years after this visit. It was incorporated as a city in 1836, with 4,853 

 inhabitants. In 1850, it had 29,963, and it is now estimated to exceed 60,000. This 

 city lies in lat. 41° 52' 20'-'. It is connected by lakes, canals, and railroads, with 

 the most distant regions. Its imports and exports the last year, were twenty mil- 

 lions. Like all the cities and towns of America, its political and moral influence, 

 are seen to keep an exact pace with its sound religious influences; the number of 

 churches and newspapers, having a certain fixed relation. More than any other 

 city of the West, its position destines it to be another Nineveh. 



