Descent of the Fox River from Winnebago Lake to Green
Bay--Incidents--Etymology, conchology, mineralogy--Falls of the
Konomic and Kakala--Population and antiquity of the settlement of
Green Bay--Appearances of a tide, not sustained.
A rapid commences at the precise point where Fox River issues from
Winnebago Lake. This rapid, down which canoes descend with half loads,
extends a mile and a half, when the river assumes its usual navigable
form, presenting a noble volume. Nine miles below this, a ledge of the
semi-crystalline limestone rock crosses the entire channel, lifting
itself five feet above the bed of the stream. Over this the Fox River
throws itself by an abrupt cascade. Down this shelf of rock, the canoes,
previously lightened of their burden, are lifted by the men. It was
sometime after dark when we reached and encamped on the north shore, at
the foot of this cascade, which bears the name of Konamik. The syllable
_kon_, in this word, appears to me to be the same as _con_ in Wisconsin,
and is, apparently, a derivative from a term for strong water, which
has, in this case, the meaning of cascade or fall. The word _amik_, its
terminal, means a beaver. We thus have the probable original meaning in
beaver-water, or, by implication, beaver cascade. There is a rapid below
this fall. I judged the water must sink its level, in this vicinity,
about fifteen feet. On examining the character of the limestone, I
discovered crystals of calcareous spar occupying small cavities. At
other localities, at lower points, there were found crystals of black
sulphuret of zinc, and yellow sulphuret of iron. The rock appears to be
of the same age as the lead-bearing limestone of the West; it is also
overlaid by the red marly clay, and I should judge it to contain
deposits of sulphuret of lead.
The next morning, we resumed our descent of the Fox River with
difficulty. It was now the 19th of August, and the waters had reached
their lowest summer stage. The entire distance of twelve miles from the
Konamik to the Kákala fall may be deemed to be, at this season, a
continuous rapid. Our barge was abandoned on the rapids. While the men
toiled in these rapids to get down their canoes, it was found rather a
privilege to walk, for it gave a more ample opportunity to examine the
mineral structure and productions of the country.
It was high noon when we reached the rapids of the Kákala. This is a
formidable rapid, at which the river rushes with furious velocity down a
rocky bed, which it seems impossible boats or canoes should ever safely
descend. It demands a portage to be made, under all circumstances, the
water sweeping round a curve or bow, of which the portage path is the
string. This is the apparent meaning of the term, in the Indian tongue;
but it is disguised by early orthography, in which the letter _l_ has
taken the place of _n_, and the syllable _in_ of _au_. The term _kakina_
is the ancient French form of the Indian transitive-adjective _all_,
inclusive, entirely. There is another root for the term in _kakiwa_,
which is the ordinary term for a portage, or walk across a point of
land, which is rendered local by the usual inflection, _o-nong_.
We found the portage path to be a well-beaten wagon road across a level
fertile plain, which appeared to have been in cultivation from the
earliest Indian period. Probably it had been a locality for the tribes,
where they raised their favorite maize, long before the French first
reached the waters of Green Bay. Evidence of such antiquity in the plain
of Kákala appeared in an ancient cemetery of a circular shape, situated
on one side of the road, on a comparatively large surface, which had
reached the height of some eight or ten feet, by the mere accumulation
of graves. This has all the appearance of a sepulchral mound, in the
slow process of construction; for, on viewing it, I found a recent
grave. We passed, on this plain, a Winnebago village of ten or twelve
lodges, embracing two hundred souls. The portage is continued just one
mile. Embarking again, at this point, we proceeded down the river, and
encamped eight miles below this point, having, with every exertion, made
but twenty miles this day.
The interest which had been excited by the conchology of the
Mississippi and Wisconsin valleys, was renewed in the descent of the Fox
River, particularly in the section of it below Winnebago Lake. Shrunk to
its lowest summer level, its shores disclosed almost innumerable species
of unios, many of which had been manifestly dragged to the shores and
opened by the muskrat, thus serving to give hints for finding the living
species. Among these, the U. obliqua, U. cornutus, U. ellipticus, U.
carinatus, U. Alatus, U. prælongus, and U. parvus, were conspicuous; the
latter of which, it is remarked by Mr. Barnes, is the smallest and most
beautiful of all the genus yet discovered in America.[123] In the
duplicates, from this part of the Fox River, transmitted to Mr. Isaac
Lea, of Philadelphia, he found a species with green-rayed beaks, on a
yellow surface and iridescent nacre, having a peculiar structure, which
he did me the honor to name after me.[124] The description of Mr. Lea is
as follows: "Unio Schoolcraftensis. Shell subrotund, somewhat angular at
posterior dorsal margin, nearly equilateral, compressed, slightly
tuberculate posteriorly to umbonical slope. Substance of the shell
rather thick; beaks elevated; ligament short; epidermis smooth yellow,
with several broad green rays; teeth elevated, and cleft in the left
valve, single, and rising from a pit in the right; lateral teeth
elevated, straight, and lamellar; anterior cicatrices distinct,
posterior cicatrices confluent; dorsal cicatrices within the cavity of
the shell on the base of the cardinal tooth; cavity of the beaks angular
and deep; nacre pearly white and iridescent. Diameter ·7, length 1·1,
breadth 1·3 inches."
[123] Amer. Journ. Science, vol. vi. pp. 120, 259, &c.
[124] Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. v. p.
37; plate 3, fig. 9.
The next morning (20th), a heavy fog in the Fox Valley detained us in
our encampment till 7 o'clock. Six miles brought us to another rapid,
called the Little Kakala, which, however, opposes no obstacle to the
descent of canoes. At this spot, which is the apparent western terminus
of the Bay settlement, we found a party of U. S. soldiers, from Fort
Howard, engaged in digging the foundations for a saw-mill. Our
appearance must have been somewhat rusty at this time, from our
deficiences in the tonsorial and sempstrescal way, for these sons of
Mars did not recognize their superior officers in Capt. Douglass and Lt.
Mackay; glibly saying, in a jolly way, as they handed them a drink of
water: "After me, sir, is manners;" and drinking off the first cup. At
this rapid I got out of my canoe, wishing to see the geological
formation more fully, and walked quite to the Rapide du Pere, where Fox
River finds its level in the broad, elongated, and lake-like tongue of
water, extending up from the head of Green Bay. On reaching this point,
the scene of the settlement first burst on our view, with its
farm-houses and cultivated fields stretching, for five miles, along both
banks of the river; disclosing the flagstaff of the distant fort, and
the bannered masts of vessels, all of which brought vividly to mind our
approach to the civilized world. If the Canadian boat-song was ever
exhilarating and appropriate, it was peculiarly so on the present
occasion; and when our _voyageurs_ burst out, in full chorus, with the
ancient ditty, beginning,
"_La fille du Roi son vout chassau,
Avec son grande fusee d'largent_,"
they waked up a responsive feeling, not alone in the breasts of the
French _habitans_, lining the shores of the river, but in our own
breasts. On reaching the fort, the salute due to the governor of a
territory was paid, in honor of our leader, Governor Cass; and in
exchanging congratulations with the officers and citizens, we began
first to feel, in reality, that, after passing among many savage tribes,
our scalps were still safely on our heads. I found, at the fort, letters
from my friends, and was thus reminded that warm sympathies had been
alive for our fate. Weary regions had now been past, and privations
endured, of which we thought little, at the time; the flag of the Union
had been carried among barbarous tribes, who hardly knew there was such
a power as the United States, or, if they knew, despised it; and some
information had been gathered, which it was hoped would enlarge the
boundaries of science, and would at the same time send a thrill of
satisfaction, and impart a feeling of security, along the whole line of
the advanced and extended western settlements. If Berkeley, in the dark
days of the Commonwealth of England, could turn to the West, with
exultation, as the hope of the nation, it must be admitted that it is by
some out-door means, like this, that the way for the car of "empire"
must be prepared.
We found the fort, which bears the name of Howard, in charge of Capt.
W. Wistler, during the absence of Col. Joseph L. Smith. Its strength
consists of three hundred men, together with about the same number of
infantry at Camp Smith, at Rock or Dupere Rapid, a few miles above, who
are engaged in quarrying stone for a permanent fortification at that
point. On visiting this quarry, I found it to consist of a bluish-gray
limestone, semi-crystalline in its structure, containing small
disseminated masses of sulphuret of zinc, calcspar, and iron pyrites,
and corresponding, in every respect, with the beds of this rock observed
along the upper parts of the Fox and Wisconsin valleys.
Fort Howard is seated on a handsome fertile plain, on the north banks of
the Fox, near its mouth. It consists of a stockade of timber, thirty
feet high, inclosing barracks, which face three sides of a quadrangle.
This forms a fine parade. There are blockhouses, mounting guns, at the
angles, and quarters for the surgeon and quartermaster, separately
constructed. The whole is whitewashed, and presents a neat military
appearance. The gardens of the military denote the most fruitful soil
and genial climate. Data observed by the surgeon, indicate the site to
be unexcelled for its salubrity, such a disease as fever, of any kind,
never having visited it, in either an endemic or epidemic form.
The name of Green Bay is associated with our earliest ideas of French
history in America. When La Salle visited the country in the 17th
century, it had been many years known to the French, and was esteemed
one of the prime posts for trading with the Indians. The chief tribes
who were located here, and in the vicinity, making this their central
point of trade, were the _Puants_, i. e. Winnebagoes, Malomonies, or
Folle Avoins, known to us as Menomonies, Sacs, and Foxes, called also
Sakis, Outagami, and Renouards, and it was also the seat of trade for
the equivocal tribe of the Mascoutins. The present inhabitants are, with
few exceptions, descendants of the original French, who intermarried
with Indian women, and who still speak the French and Indian languages.
They are indolent, gay, and illiterate. I was told there were five
hundred inhabitants, and about sixty principal dwellings, beside
temporary structures. There are seventy inhabitants enrolled as
militia-men, and the settlement has civil courts, being the seat of
justice from Brown County, Michigan, so called in honor of Major-General
Jacob Brown, U. S. A. The place is surrounded by the woodlands and
forests, and seems destined to be an important lake-port.[125] The
Algonquin name for this place is Boatchweekwaid, a term which describes
an eccentric or abrupt bay, or inlet. Nothing could more truly depict
its singular position; it is, in fact, a kind of cul-de-sac--a
duplicature of Lake Michigan, with the coast-shore of which it lies
parallel for about ninety miles.
[125] GREEN BAY. This town has just (1854) been incorporated as a
city, the anticipations respecting it having been slow in being
realized. It has now an estimated population of 3,000, with several
churches in a healthy and flourishing state, two printing presses, a
post-office, collectorship, and thriving agricultural and commercial
advantages, which will be fully realized when the internal
improvements in process of construction through the Fox and Wisconsin
valleys are finished. Its extreme salubrity has, it seems, been
disregarded by emigrants.
The singular configuration of this bay appears to be the chief cause of
the appearances of a tide at the point where it is entered by Fox River.
This phenomenon was early noticed by the French. La Hontan mentions it
in 1689. Charlevoix remarks on it in 1721, and suggests its probable
cause, which is, in his opinion, explained by the fact that Lakes
Michigan and Huron, alternately empty themselves into each other through
the Straits of Michilimackinac. The effects of such a flux and reflux,
under the power of the winds, would appear to place Green Bay in the
position of a siphon, on the west of Lake Michigan, and go far to
account for the singular fluctuations of the current at the mouth of the
Fox River. On reaching this spot of the rising and falling of the lake
waters, Governor Cass caused observations to be made, which he greatly
extended at a subsequent period.[126] These give no countenance to the
theory of regular tides, but denote the changes in the level of the
waters to be eccentrically irregular, and dependent, so far as the
observations extend, altogether on the condition of the winds and
currents of the lakes.
[126] American Journal of Science, vol. xvii.
Something analogous to this is perceived in the Baltic, which has no
regular tides, and therefore experiences no difference of height, except
when the wind blows violently. "At such times," says Pennant,[127]
"there is a current in and out of the Baltic, according to the points
they blow from, which forces the water through the sound, with the
velocity of two or three Danish miles in the hour. When the wind blows
violently from the German Sea, the water rises in several Baltic
harbors, and gives those in the western tract a temporary saltness;
otherwise, the Baltic loses that other property of a sea, by reason of
the want of tide, and the quantity of vast rivers it receives, which
sweeten it so much as to render it, in many places, fit for domestic
use."
[127] Arctic Geology.