106 The American Geologist. August. l< 
OLOGISt;* but three others, by reason of the pressure of many 
duties, have been deferred to this volume. 
In their order from west to east, coinciding in a general 
way with their chronologic sequence, these vast glacier-bound 
bodies of fresh water have been named lakes Souris, Agassiz, 
Western Superior or Duluth, Chicago, Maumee, Whittlesey, 
Saginaw, Warren, Algonquin; Lundy, Newberry, Dana, Iro- 
quois, Hudson-Champlain, and St. Lawrence. Associated with 
these were also considerable numbers of other glacial lakes, 
mostly smaller and of less duration, described and named by 
X. II. Winched, in northern Minnesota, and by Fairchild, in 
western and central Xew York. 
My first afternoon and night, after leaving St. Paul, were 
spent at Portage, Wisconsin, a place of unique interest his- 
torically as well as for its topography and geology. Its name 
speaks of the time, extending through two hundred years, 
when at that place canoes and their lading were portaged be- 
tween the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. Geologically, in its 
relation to the closing scenes of the Ice age, it is one of the 
most remarkable points on the entire watershed dividing the 
St. Lawrence and the Mississippi basins. 
Xear this portage, in the winter of 1634-5, Jean Xicolet, 
the first white explorer of Wisconsin, learned of the water 
called by the Algonquin tribes the Mississippi (Great river), 
which he supposed to be the sea. Twenty years later, in 1655, 
at the end of the winter, this was probably a part of the route 
by which Groseilliers and Radisson. with a large escort of 
Indians, went on snowshoes across Wisconsin to the Missis- 
sippi, where they made boats and thence ascended this river to 
Prairie island, being the first white men in Minnesota ; and 
the next year they returned over this portage, with a still larg- 
er company of Indians and a rich freight of furs, on their re- 
turn to Montreal and Quebec. Again, in 1673, this route was 
traversed by the renowned Marquette and Joliet on their way 
to the first exploration by white men of the Mississippi 
from the mouth of the Wisconsin river to that of the Arkamu.-. 
Afterward it was traversed by Perrot, LeSueur, and many 
other daring explorers, traders, and missionaries, during the 
* "Preglacial Erosion in the Course of the Niagara Gorjie. and its Relation 
to Estimates of Postglacial Time." vol. xxviii. Tip 235-244, Oct.. 1901. 
"The Toronto and Scarboro Drift Series," vol. xxviii. pp. 30(5-316, Nov., 
1901. 
