394 



DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY BORDERING 



20. Wisacode Rice)-. — This river is known to the French voyageurs by the name 

 of " Bois Brule." In order to distinguish it from a river of that name which 

 empties into the Lake on the south shore, the Chippewa name is given here. It is 

 about twenty yards wide at the mouth, and deep enough to allow a large Mackinaw 

 boat to enter.* 



About five hundred yards above the mouth, the river is crossed by a ridge of No. 

 59, making rapids, and a fall of ten feet. There are twenty-five feet of rock ex- 

 posed. Back from the river, the ridge rises to the height of three hundred feet. 

 Two hundred and fifty yards higher up stream is an exposure of No. 60. This 

 rock weathers easily near the water, and forms a gorge from eight to twenty feet in 

 width, with mural precipices from forty to fifty feet in height. It dips to the south- 

 east, and contains thin veins of calcite, with an east-and-west direction. A quarter 

 of a mile above the gorge is a ridge of greenstone, which crosses the river, bearing 

 north 45° east; and beyond that No. 60 comes up again, bearing southeast, at an 

 angle varying from 15° to 25°. Two hundred yards beyond the ridge, a small 

 stream comes in on the west side ; and in the rocky point at the junction are several 

 potholes, from eighteen to twenty inches in diameter, and from three to four feet 

 in depth. There is a rapid here, with a fall of nine feet. 



Beyond this No. 60 continues to form the channel, until a fall, consisting of 

 several cascades, one of which falls twelve feet perpendicular, is reached. The 

 whole fall is thirty-eight feet. No. 60 is seventy-one feet thick at this place ; and 

 in the high hill, on the west side of the river, greenstone shows itself, and is be- 

 lieved to overlie the rock below. The nature of the exposure, however, prevented 

 this from being satisfactorily ascertained. Immediately above the fall No. 60 forms 

 a gorge, with mural walls, which continue a short distance to a fall of twenty feet 

 in height. From the bottom of the fall first mentioned, to the top of the walls of 

 the gorge, is one hundred and fourteen feet. The rock then mounts upwards, and 

 forms a ridge nearly three hundred feet high, and is composed, as far as could be 

 ascertained, of No. 60 up to the top. 



Half a mile beyond this, clay and marl beds occur, two hundred feet thick, form- 

 ing a narrow ridge, which slopes down to the margin of the river. No. 62 is the 

 last rock exposed before reaching the clay-beds. Three other high ridges of clay 

 and marl come to the river, and conceal the rocks, except at a few points, where 

 the base of a ridge of hornblende rock (No. 63), estimated to be five hundred feet 

 in height, is washed by the river. On the side next the stream is a mural escarp- 

 ment, resembling in all respects those seen on Pigeon River and along the boundary 

 line. On the opposite side of the stream, the ridges seen from the top of this one 

 appeared to be about the same height, and are probably composed of the same rock. 

 The bearing of all of them is northeast and southwest. 



The river from this point is a continuous rapid. Just beyond the high ridge No. 

 63, is an exposure of slaty hornblende (No. 64), over which the river falls in a 

 series of beautiful cascades, forty feet in seventy yards. There are about eighty 

 feet of rock exposed. On the east side, the escarpment is mural, and exhibits a 



* See Section from the mouth of Wisacode River, northwesterly. PI. 1, N., Sec. 5. 



