re_ before, was anxious to see. On the 1st
of July, we encamped at Dead River, from whence I sent forward a canoe
with a message, and wampum, and tobacco, to Gitchee Iauba, the head
chief of Ancekewywenon, requesting him to send a canoe and four men to
supply the place of an equal number from the Sault St. Marie, sent back,
and to accompany me in my voyage as far as _La Pointe_.

GEOLOGY.--We spent the next day in examining the magnesian and
calcareous rubblestone which appears to constitute strata resting
against and upon the serpentine rock of Presque Isle. This rock is
highly charged with what appears to be chromate of iron. We examined the
bay behind this peninsula, which appears to be a harbor capable of
admitting large vessels. We ascended a conical hill rising from the bay,
which the Indians call _Totoesh_, or Breast Mountain. Having been the
first to ascend its apex, the party named it Schoolcraft's Mountain.
Near and west of it, is a lower saddle-shaped mountain, called by the
natives The Cradle Top. Granite Point exhibits trap dykes in syenite.
The horizontal red sandstone, which forms the peninsula connecting this
point with the main, rests against and upon portions of the granite,
showing its subsidence from water at a period subsequent to the upheaval
of the syenite and trap. This entire coast, reaching from Chocolate
River to Huron Bay--a distance of some seventy miles--consists of
granite hills, which, viewed from the top of the Totoesh, has the rolling
appearance of the sea in violent motion. Its chief value must result
from its minerals, of which iron appears to constitute an
important item.

We reached Huron River on the 4th of July about three o'clock in the
afternoon, having come on with a fine wind. At this place we met Mr.
Aitkin's brigade of boats, seven in number, with the year's hunts of the
Fond du Lac department. I landed and wrote official notes to the Sault
St. Marie and to Washington, acquainting the government with my
progress, and giving intelligence of the state of the Indians.

TRADERS' BOATS.--Mr. Aitkin reports that a great number of the Indians
died of starvation, at his distant posts, during the winter, owing to
the failure of the wild rice. That he collected for his own use but
eight bushels, instead of about as many hundreds. That he had visited
Gov. Simpson at Pembina, and found the latter unwilling to make any
arrangements on the subject of discontinuing the sale of whisky to