Читать книгу The Collected Works - Henry Rowe Schoolcraft - Страница 23

Table of Contents

The principal points at which the waters of the Mississippi river communicate, by interlocking rivers and portages, with the lakes, are the following, proceeding from south to north, namely,

1. By the Illinois and Chicago Creek, (with Lake Michigan.)

2. By the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, (with Green Bay.)

3. By the Chippewa and Mushkee (or Mauvais) Rivers, (with Lake Superior.)

4. By the St. Croix and Burntwood (or Brulé) Rivers, (do.)

5. By the Savanne and St. Louis Rivers, (do.)

The routes by the Illinois, and by the Wisconsin, were first laid open by French enterprise, and have been used for canoes and flat-bottomed boats in their natural state, and without any practical improvement which as yet, facilitates the communication, about a hundred and sixty years. They are so familiar in our geography, have been so much explored, and are so well appreciated, as prominent points for effecting canal and railroad routes, that it is only to be desired that early and efficient measures should be taken for opening them.

The route of the Chippewa (or Sauteaux) River, is imperfectly known, and has never been fully and accurately delineated and described. It is a long river, having a number of fingered branches, which spread over a large area of interior midland country. They are connected, at distant points, with the principal sources of the St. Croix and the Wisconsin of the Mississippi; with the Mushkee, the Montreal, and the Ontonagon of Lake Superior; and with the Monomonee, and the North Branch of Fox River of Green Bay. The portages are of no great length, but being at considerable altitudes above both the Mississippi and the lakes, and remote from either, they are impracticable for boats.

In 1766 or ’67, J. Carver ascended the Chippewa River to the Ottawa Fork. He ascended it no higher, and his delineations of it, on the map which accompanied his original work, published in London, cannot now be referred to. Dr. Douglass Houghton, and Lieut. Robert E. Clary, U. S. A. delineated this stream, in 1831, to the junction of the Red Cedar Fork, and up that fork to its source in Lac Chetac; they continued the delineation of the route thence, by portages, into the Ottawa Fork of the Chippewa, up that river to Lac Courtorielle, or Ottawa Lake, and thence by a series of short portages, to the Namakagon Branch of the St. Croix, and up that branch, to the commencement of the series of portages, which connect it with the Mushkee or Mauvais River of Lake Superior. The latter river was delineated in its entire length. These topographical observations, were commenced at the most easterly point of the route. They remain in manuscript. Duplicates of them have been communicated to the government.

The route of the St. Croix and Brulé, describes a shorter line between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, than the preceeding; and it is one, that has been, and continues to be, much used by the traders and by the resident Indian population. We cannot refer, however, to any accurate delineation of it, or to any printed account of the country. Carver, in his way to the Kiministiquoia, or Grand Portage, visited the upper forks of the St. Croix, and descended the Burntwood, or Brulé, to which he gave the name of Goddard’s River.

The channel of communication which exists through the Savanne and St. Louis Rivers, was delineated by Capt. D. B. Douglass, as a member of the expedition sent into that quarter by the government in 1820. But the result of his observations, has not been given to the public. The route has been again delineated with care, in its whole extent, from Fond du Lac to Sandy Lake, during the present year, by Lieut. James Allen, of the U. S. Army, and will with his other delineations, be transmitted for the use of the Topographical Bureau at Washington.

Lieut. Allen’s delineations, also, embrace the St. Croix and Burntwood Rivers, in their whole length; and exhibit the first actual survey of these streams, which the topographical history of the region, presents.

Portions of these surveys have been prepared by the officer making them, to illustrate the present volume, together with the octavo sketches, which accompany the Narrative to Itasca, Cass and Leech Lakes.