me upon the outcrop of the adjacent granite, just where I expected to
find the primary rocks."

"You will greatly oblige me by communicating to me your opinion,
approximatively, of the course held by the primary rocks south of Lake
Superior, as far as you are acquainted with it, or with the edges of the
secondary rocks, which have a junction line with, or near them. I found
no primary rocks on my way from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien. The rocks
in place at Fort Winnebago, are secondary sandstone of the
carboniferous series."

_2d_. The question of "inscriptions" on rocks by the aborigines has
recently attracted some attention. Dr. Thomas H. Webb, of Providence,
Rhode Island, in a letter of this date, notifying me of my election as
an honorary member of the Rhode Island Historical Society, calls my
attention to this subject. "In your last work," he remarks, "you allude
to some hieroglyphics on a tree. Have you particularly examined any on
rocks; and if so, were they mere paintings, or were they inscribed
thereon? If the latter, in what manner do they appear to have been
done--pecked in with a pointed instrument, or chizzled out? Are they
simply representations of men and animals, without method in their
arrangement, or combinations of these, with other characters bearing
evidence of greater design? Will you be kind enough to furnish me with
the locations of those with which you are acquainted? Is it possible for
me to procure drawings of them? Do you know any one living near such
rocks, whom I could hire to take copies of them, and upon the accuracy
of whose work reliance can be placed?

"I do not wish finished views--correct drawings of the _characters_ with
a pen will be amply sufficient for my purposes; although I should not
object to outlines of the rocks themselves. I would also ask if some of
the 'relics of things that have passed away,' which are found so
abundantly in the west, _e.g._, articles of pottery, iron and copper
implements, &c., can be procured by purchase, or in the way of exchange
for minerals, or in some other way?"

Imprimis--no "iron" implements have ever been found. Secondly, no
observations not made by an antiquarian can be relied on.

_9th_. I embarked for Detroit, on board a schooner under command of an
experienced navigator (Capt. Ward), just on the eve, unknown to us, of a
great tempest, which rendered that season memorable in the history of
wrecks on the great lakes. We had scarcely we