AITIM'IX. 2W5 



from the Water, while the shadows of evening are deepening 



around, are suited to m ike vivid impressions. Ami iheee broken 



■ad denuded cliffs otlrr the most favorable points for making 



j observations Then are no places inland where the 



streams have cut so deep. On gaining the height of land, the 

 I are found to be covered with so heavy a deposite of soil, 

 that it is difficult to glean much that can he relied on respecting 

 the interior structure. 



The ingk formed by the junction of the Wisconsin with the 



Mississippi is .1 sombre line of weather-beaten roeks. Gliding 



along the current, at the base of these roeks, the idea of a M hill 

 country," of no very productive character, is naturally impressed 

 upon the ohserver. And this Unpression came down, probably, 

 from the days of Marquette, who was the first European, that 

 we read of, who de scen ded the Wisconsin, and thus became the 

 true discoverer of the Mississippi. The fact that it yielded lead 

 ore, bits of which were occasionally brought in by the natives, 

 was in SCCOrdaace with this opinion ; and sided, it may be sup- 

 posed, in keeping out of view the real character of the country. 

 I know not how else to account for the light which has suddenly- 

 burst upon us from this bank of the Mississippi, and which has 

 at once proved it to be as valuable for the purposes of agricul- 

 ture as for those of mining, and as sylvan in its appearance as 

 if it were not fringed, as it were, with roeks, and lying at a great 

 elevation above the SJ t< r. This elevation is so considerable as 

 to permit a lively descent in the streams, forming numerous 

 mill-seats. The surface of the country is not, however, broken, 

 but may be compared to the heavy and lazy-rolling waves of the 

 sea after a tempest. These wave-like plains are often destitute 

 of trees, except a few scattering ones, but present to the eye an 

 ilsaaat boundless field of native tierbsge. (iroves of oak some- 

 times diversity those 11 itive meadows, or cover the ridges which 

 bound them. Very rarely does any rock appear sbove the sur- 

 face. The highest elevations, the Platte mounds, and the Blue 

 mound, arc covered with sod and with trees. Numerous brooks 

 of limpid water traverse the plains, and find their way into either 



the Wisconsin, Rock Rive*, or the Mississippi The common 



deer is still in possession of its favorite haunts ; and the traveller 



