ON THE SOUTH SHORE OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 431 
trap and sandstone can be examined, it is almost sure to be present. There are 
cases where the trap, instead of being forced through the strata, across the stratifi- 
cation, has spread out between the beds, forming alternate strata of trap and sand- 
stone, without any visible conglomerate. The view here.taken seems to have been 
the theory of Dr. Houghton, who calls the conglomerate a “ trap tuff,” in his Report 
of 1841, in which Mr. Foster of the Michigan Survey concurs. I have noticed it 
merely to add my observations as confirmatory of the correctness of those views. 
SECTION II. 
PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE BAD RIVER COUNTRY. 
Tue Montreal River, although it forms the boundary between Michigan and 
Wisconsin, from its mouth to the forks, is a stream small in size, and its sources 
are not more than forty miles from the Lake. 
Above the Forks, its several branches collect the waters from the swamp region 
of the summit-levels between the Mississippi and the Lake basins. About ten 
miles west of the mouth of the Montreal, a much larger stream discharges itself 
through an extensive swamp or “mashkeg,” on a low, sandy shore; which is called 
“ Mauvaise” or “ Bad River ;” by the Chippewas “ Mashkeg-zibe,’ or the “River of 
Marshes.” In the interior it soon divides into branches, spreading right and left, 
parallel to the coast, and although it does not take its rise further inland than the 
Montreal, it drains a much greater field. The western, or Mashkeg Fork, dis- 
charges into the main stream at the “Mission,” where there is an Indian village four 
miles from the Lake. Appearances indicate that there was an ancient channel, 
different from the present, which bore away to the left, or westward; about half a 
mile below the Mission, and entered Chegwomigon (pronounced Shag-vau-mi-gon) 
Bay. There is a bayou through the swamp at present, along this apparent chan- 
nel, called the Cawcau-gon, and boats and canoes, by making a portage of about 
eighty rods, frequently cross that way to La Pointe, when the weather is rough on 
the Lake. 
The Mashkeg Fork heads at Long Lake, and has three principal branches,—Pike 
River, Riviére l Eau Claire, and Riviére la Brache. The corresponding waters, on 
the other side, are the heads of the St. Croix; and the dividing ridge, by Dr. Nor- 
wood's barometrical measurements, is from six hundred and fifty-six to seven hun- 
dred and twenty-one feet above Lake Superior. The branch next in order as we 
ascend the Bad River is called the “ East Fork,” entering from the east about seven 
miles above the Falls, following the stream, or fifteen miles from the mouth in a 
direct line. By water, it is at least twenty-five miles to Woods's Farm at the Falls. 
The river is generally navigable for small Mackinaw boats, and is very sluggish till 
within six miles of Woods's. The bottom land is wide, thickly covered with sugar- 
trees and rushes, and the soil unsurpassed in richness. On these bottoms we saw 
continually deserted cabins, with small patches of potatoes around them, where 
such Indians as are not too lazy, and the half-breeds of La Pointe, come in the 
