APPENDIX. 299 



that the Ontonagon Eiver may bo considered as the seat of the 

 principal mines. Mr. Gallatin, in his report on the state of Ame- 

 rican manufactures in 1810, countenances the prevalent opinion, 

 while it has been reiterated in some of our literary journals, and 

 in the numerous ephemeral publications of the times, until public 

 expectation has been considerably raised in regard to them. 



Under these circumstances, the recent expedition under Gov. 

 Cass entered the mouth of the Ontonagon Eiver on the 27th of 

 June, having coasted along the southern shore of the lake from 

 the head of the River St. Mary. We spent four days upon the 

 banks of that stream, in the examination of its mineralogy, during 

 which the principal part of our party was encamped at the mouth 

 of the river. Gov. Cass, accompanied by such persons as were 

 necessary in the exploration, proceeded, in two light canoes, 

 to the large mass of copper which has already been described. 

 We found the river broad, deep, and gentle for a distance, and 

 serpentine in its course; then becoming narrower, with an in- 

 creased velocity of current, and, before reaching the Copper Rock, 

 full of rapids and difficult of ascent. We left our canoes at a 

 point on the rapids, and proceeded on foot, across a rugged tract 

 of country, around which the river formed an extensive semi- 

 circle. We came to the river again at the locality of copper. 

 In the course of this curve the river is separated into two branches 

 of nearly equal size. The copper lies on the right-hand fork, and 

 it is subsequently ascertained that this branch is intercepted by 

 three cataracts, at which the river descends over precipitous cliffs 

 of sandstone. The aggregate fall of water at these cataracts has 

 been estimated at seventy feet. 



The channel of the river at the Copper Rock is rapid and shal- 

 low, and filled with detached masses of rock, which project above 

 the water. The bed of the river is upon sandstone, similar to 

 that under the Palisades on the Hudson. The waters are reddish, 

 a color which they evidently owe to beds of ferruginous clay. 

 The Copper Rock lies partly in the water. Other details in the 

 geological structure and appearance of the country are interest- 

 ing; but they do not appear to demand a more particular con- 

 sideration in this report. 



During our continuance upon this stream, we procured from 

 an Indian a separate mass of copper weighing nearly nine pounds, 



