NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 211 



of formations of the Fox Valley, and of the islands of Green Bay, 

 quite around those northern waters to the closing up of the sur- 

 \eys at Point St. Ignace and Michilimackinac. Nor do the primi- 

 tive rocks disclose themselves on any part of that line of coast. 

 Of this collection, Mr. Trowbridge well observes, in his report to 

 me, the most interesting will probably be the organic remains. 

 These were procured on the northeast side of Little Nocquet Bay 

 where areas of limestone appear. They consist of duplicates of 

 the pectinite. Three layers of this, the magnesian limestone, show 

 themselves at this place, of which the intermediate bed is of a 

 dull blue color and compact structure, and is composed in a great 

 measure of the remains of this species. It is comparatively soft 

 when first taken up, but hardens by exposure. About ten miles 

 nortli of this point, the upper calcareous, or surface rock, em. 

 braces nodules of hornstone. Specimens of a semi-crystalline 

 limestone, labelled "marble," w^ere also brought from a cliff, com- 

 posed of this rock, on the lake shore, about thirty to forty miles 

 southwest from Michilimackinac, Mr. Doty also brought some 

 specimens of sulphate of lime, cal. spar, and some of the common 

 rolled members of the quartz-drift stratum, 



Michilimackinac is a name associated with our earliest ideas of 

 history in the upper lakes. How so formidable a polysyllabic 

 term came to be adopted by usage, it may be difficult to tell, till 

 we are informed that the inhabitants, in speaking the word, clip 

 off the first three syllables, leaving the last three to carry the 

 whole meaning. The full term is, how^ever, perpetuated by legal 

 enactment, this part of Michigan having been organized into a 

 separate county some time, I believe, during the administration of 

 Gen, Hull, The military gentlemen call the fort on the cliff", 

 " Mackina," the townspeople pronounce it Mackinaw; but if a 

 man be hauled up on a magistrate's writ, it is in name of the 

 sovereignty of Michilimackinac. Thus law and etymology grow 

 strong together. 



Commerce, we observe, is beginning to show itself here, but 

 by the few vessels we have met, while traversing these broad and 

 stormy seas, and their little tonnage, it seems as if they were 

 stealthily making their way into regions of doubtful profit at 

 least. The fur trade employs most of these, either in bringing up 

 supplies, or carj-ing away its avails. La Salle, when, in 1G79, 



