122 Feather stonhaiigh''s Geological Report. 



but (be sky. At times tbe water was so sliallow it was with 

 difficulty tbe canoe could be forced tbrougb it. Often it was 

 necessary to trust altogether to tbe compass, and tbe immediate 

 approach to Fort Winnebago was so tortuous, tbe channel so 

 often turned back upon itself, that tbe compass was quite use- 

 less. Whatever tbe direction, tbe country is covered with 

 these tall plants, and tbe grasses on tbe land, when you suc- 

 ceed in getting there, are so rank (now that the buffalo has 

 left this part of the country) that it is difficult to advance. It 

 is in fact the summit level of this part of tbe country, tbe Fox 

 river draining it towards the north, and Rock river and tbe 

 Wisconsin draining it towards tbe south. Before tbe retreat 

 of tbe waters, which has been before spoken of, which perhaps 

 was contemporaneous with the disintegration of the sandstone, 

 these extensive rice-swamps have been lakes, and it is only 

 since their subsidence that the zizanja has begun to grow. 



In tbe neighborhood of Fort Winnebago tbe country begins 

 to rise, and tbe beds of carboniferous limestone observed in 

 Lower Fox river, are overlain by beds of quartzose sandstone, 

 having occasional siliceo-calcareous seams amongst them. 

 Tbe sandstone beds are horizontal, disintegrate easily, and 

 are often variegated in color, having red, orange, and dark 

 tints. I was taken to a locality in tbe neighborhood of the 

 fort where this stone bad been quarried, and became imme- 

 diately aware that I was in tbe vicinity of a galeniferous dis- 

 trict, for I was well acquainted with tbe analogous formation 

 in the State of Missouri, and which is spoken of in my report 

 of last year.* 



From Fort Winnebago there is a portage to the Wisconsin 

 river of about two thousand five hundred yards. This is a dead 

 flat of black mud and sand, occasionally overflowed so as to 

 admit of canoes passing to Fox river, and from which the 

 waters have retreated. Tbe Wisconsin is an ample stream, 



* Page 43. 



