APPENDIX. 307 



been traversed, exceeds four thousand miles, in the course of 

 which we had crossed nineteen portages, over which all the baggage 

 and canoes were conveyed on the shoulders of men. We en- 

 countered actual resistance from the Indians at only one point.* 

 I kept my journals continually before me, and had my pencil in 

 hand every morning as soon as it was light enough to discern ob- 

 jects. I began my geological observations at Detroit. 



This ancient city, founded by the French in 1701, stands upon 

 an argillaceous stratum, which is divided, topographically, into an 

 upper and lower bank. Wherever this clay has been examined 

 by digging, it discloses pebbles of various species of rock, denot- 

 ing it, as far as these extend, at least, to be a part of the great 

 drift stratum. 



In digging a well near the old Council House, in the northeast 

 part of the city, the top soil appeared to be less than two feet. 

 The workmen then passed through a stratum of blue clay, of eight 

 or ten feet, when they struck a vein of coarse sand, six or eight 

 inches in thickness, through which the water entered profusely. 

 The digging was carried through another bed of blue clay, twenty 

 or twenty-two feet in depth, when the men reached a stratum of 

 fine yellow sand, into which they dug three feet and stopped, 

 having found sufficient water. The whole depth of the well is 

 thirty-three feet. The water is clear and rapid. No vegetable 

 or other remains were found, and* but few primitive pebbles. 



In another well, situated near the centre of the town, the depth. 

 of which is twelve feet, the top soil was found to be two feet and 

 a half; then a bed of gravel, seven feet; a vein of blue clay, eight 

 inches, and the residue a whitish-blue clay, very compact and 

 hard ; a copious supply of water having been found. The water 

 is, however, slightly colored, and is of a quality called hard. 



In some places, this clay drift yields balls of iron pyrites, which 

 renders the water unpalatable. At what depth the rock would 

 be struck, if the excavation were continued, can only be conjec- 

 tured, A well has been dug, a short distance below the city, 

 upwards of sixty feet, chiefly through clay and gravel, without 

 reaching the rock; but abraded fragments of granite and horn- 

 blende rocks were thrown from the greatest depths. 



* Vide Narrative Journal. 



