280 



DESCRIPTION OF THE 



COUNTU Y 



talcose slate. The stratified rocks above the rapids have a dip of 20° to the north- 

 west. The river falls, for a great part of the distance, in a succession of small cas- 

 cades, made by the tilted strata extending across the river in the line of bearing. 

 A few of the cascades are seven or eight feet high, but generally from two to five 

 feet, and from sixty to eighty yards apart. At the foot of the falls, the gneiss and 

 mica slate dip 57° south-southeast. 



Four miles below the falls, we reached the mouth of Skakweya or New Wood 

 River ; and, much to our joy, found a trading-house established there. The person 

 who occupies it intends opening a farm, and has already made a small clearing. 

 We obtained from him some pork and a lot of fine potatoes. As we had been with- 

 out meat for several days, we found the sour pork quite palatable. The potatoes, 

 which were raised here, are equal to any I have ever seen. 



About a mile and a half below the mouth of New Wood River, a number of 

 springs, strongly impregnated with iron, burst out of the west bank of the river. 

 As the springs are but a few feet above low water-mark, every rise of the river 

 carries away most of the ferruginous matter deposited ; still there is a deposit of 

 considerable thickness lining the shore for the distance of a quarter of a mile. The 

 hill in which the springs originate is about eighty feet high, and extends back from 

 the river from a quarter to half a mile, to a deep ravine, into which springs discharge 

 from the same hill, but present no indication of iron whatever. 



At the mouth of Copper Rock River, five miles below the mouth of New Wood 

 River, a trap dike crosses the Wisconsin, making an island in the river thirty feet 

 high, known as " Rock Island." This range makes dalles on Rock River, several 

 miles above its mouth. The walls of rock at the dalles are from forty to fifty feet 

 high, and, at one point, approach within six feet, through which contracted space 

 the water rushes with great swiftness. There is a portage of twelve miles from the 

 mouth of the river to a point above the dalles ; the river is then navigable for 

 canoes to the lake, of which it is the outlet, a distance of about forty miles. Green- 

 stone continues to show itself in the river, without forming rapids, for the next 

 three miles. 



Six miles below the mouth of Rock River, Prairie River comes in from the east, 

 and just below its mouth a range of hornblende trap crosses the Wisconsin, bearing 

 east-southeast and west-northwest, forming " Beaulieux's Rapids." At one point in 

 these rapids there is a fall of four feet, affording excellent facilities for driving 

 machinery. 



Seven miles below these rapids, near the mouth of Pine River, trap shows itself 

 in the bed of the river, without obstructing navigation. About four and a half 

 miles below the mouth of Pine River, " Trap Rapids" begin, and immediately below 

 them a reddish-coloured, compact, fine-grained granite, shows itself in the banks of 

 the river. Three miles further, a range of hills, from three hundred and fifty to 

 four hundred feet high, and bearing northeast and southwest, skirt the river for 

 some distance. They are, so far as observed, made up entirely of a greenish-coloured 

 compact, petrosiliceous rock, fusible, with difficulty, before the blowpipe into a 

 colourless enamel, and resembles very much some trachy tic specimens brought from 

 the Euganean hills, and from the Cantal. This rock extends to within a short 



