PART I. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



This country (west of Lake Michigan) was almost un- 

 known to geographers twenty years ago. The report of 

 Rev. J. ^lorse to the Secretary of War, in 1821, states that 

 in 1819 there were but three famihes settled from the mouth 

 of the Illinois up two hundred and forty miles, and Darby, in 

 his Gazetteer (2d edit., 1827), says, "of this immense re- 

 gion" (included between Lakes Michigan and Superior, Rivers 

 Missisippi and Red, the State of Missouri and the northern 

 boundary of the United States) " much remains unknown, 

 and of those parts that have been explored, our information 

 is generally imperfect." [Verb. Michigan.] Galena was 

 settled in 1828; and in 1833, after the Black Hawk war, 

 settlements began on Rock River and the northern parts of 

 Illinois and in Iowa, upon the tract purchased of the Sacs 

 and Foxes. In the list of rivers flowing into the Upper Mis- 

 sisippi, in the same work, are several defects and errors. 

 On the right side. Root and Wabsipinicon and Checagua (or 

 Skunk) are omitted ; and that now known to the inhabitants 

 of Iowa as Tete des Morts, is called Galena. On the left, 

 some considerable streams are not named. The falls of St. 

 Anthony are placed, in the same authority, in latitude 44°, 

 which is one desree south of their true situation. 



It is said that the list is given mostly on the authority of 

 Schoolcraft, and they are also ?nore minutely detailed from the 



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