224 NAKEATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION", 



of all tlie series of Nortli American lakes wliicli stretcli west 

 from the St. Lawrence, that peaks and high mural walls of vol- 

 canic formation, pierce through, or lift up, the horizontal series 

 of the Silurian system ; and that, in the lake region, the latter is 

 found in singular juxtaposition, by means of these upheavals, 

 with the senites, sienitic granites, and metamorphic rocks com- 

 posing the globe's nucleus, or primary out-pushed stony coats 

 of these latitudes. 



I had passed through this varied and wonder-creating scene 

 of coast views and long-stretching vistas in 1820, when geology, in 

 America, at least, was in its infancy, as a member of the organic 

 government expedition into this quarter of the Union, as detailed 

 in the preceding pages. I had, in 1826, revisited the whole coast 

 from Point Iroquois to Fond du Lac, in the exercise of official 

 duties, connected with the Indian tribes ; besides making sec- 

 tional expeditions into the regions of the Gargontwa and Mishe- 

 pecotin, and of the Takwymenon sand-rock, interior, and coast 

 lines. But the beauty of the prospects presented in 1831, the 

 serenity of the weather, and the opportunity which it gave of 

 revisiting scenes which had before flitted by, as the fragments of 

 a gorgeous dream, gave to this visit a charm which no length of 

 time can obliterate. And these attractions were enhanced by 

 association with the agreeable men who accompanied me; of 

 whom it may be said that they represented the place of strings 

 in a melodious harp, whose concurrence was at all times neces- 

 sary to produce harmony. The sainted and scene-loving Wool- 

 sey* — the self-poised .and amiable Houghton, just broke loose 

 from the initial struggles of life to luxuriate on the geological 

 smiles of the face of nature in this scene — ah ! where are they ? 

 Death has laid his cold hand on them, to open their eyes on 

 other, and to us inscrutable scenes. 



Passing through this lake, the expedition met the brigade of 

 boats of the late Mr. Wm. Aitken, from the Upper Mississippi 

 waters, with the annual returns of furs from that region. He 

 represented the urgent necessity of an official visit to that section 

 of the country, where the Indians were in turmoil ; but stated, at 

 the same time, that the waters were too low in the streams at the 



* Vide Letters on Lake Superior, in Southern Literary Messenger, 1836. 



