PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 21 



parently not over fifteen inches, its diameter one and a quarter 

 or one and a half inches, square, not round, its color a dull 

 yellow or buff, with one or two darker but faint lines drawn 

 upon it. At the distance of about two or three inches from 

 the extreme point of the tail the square shape of the body 

 abruptly terminated, like a stick notched, and cut down so as 

 to describe a circle on the end of the parallelogram, and from 

 thence it was a regular cone to the point. Having sat upon 

 my horse and viewed it for some time, I was satisfied that its 

 motion and mode of attack must be very different from the 

 common varieties of the snake ; as, though it wriggled like 

 the worm, it made no perceptible advance, and I inferred, 

 from its lack of longitude, that it could not make much pro- 

 gress in the common way. Upon reference to Shaw, Dr. 

 Goldsmith, Fleming, and other writers on Zoology, I can find 

 no description of this very singular animal. Dr. Morse, in 

 his Geography, does not notice it. 



Beside the coluber, and the toad, and frog, and turtle, and 

 the common worms, reptiles are not numerous. 



The people inhabiting this country are the Menominis or 

 Malominis, the Potawatomies, the Winnebagoes, Chippewas, 

 Dahcotahs (called by the French Sioux), and Sacs and Foxes : 

 this last band is always called, by their own people, Musk- 

 waka. The Sacs call themselves Saki. Beside these there 

 are several thousand eastern Indians removed from New 

 York, who inhabit the northeastern part of Wisconsin, near 

 Lake Michigan. 



RIVERS. 



The Missisippi and Missouri, the principal rivers of this 

 country, are well known. The Missouri, rising in a moun- 

 tain region, flows with a rapid current, about four miles an 



