parently not over fifteen inches, its diameter one and a quarter
or one and a half inches, square, not round, its color a dull
yellow or buff, with one or two darker but faint lines drawn
upon it. At the distance of about two or three inches from
the extreme point of the tail the square shape of the body
abruptly terminated, like a stick notched, and cut down so as
to describe a circle on the end of the parallelogram, and from
thence it was a regular cone to the point. Having sat upon
my horse and viewed it for some time, I was satisfied, that its
motion and mode of attack must be very different from the
common varieties of the snake; as, though it wriggled like
the worm, it made no perceptible advance, and I inferred,
from its lack of longitude, that it could not make much pro-
gress in the common way. Upon reference to Shaw, Dr.
Goldsmith, Fleming, and other writers on Zoology, I can find
no description of this very singular animal. Dr. Morse, in
his Geography, does not notice it.

Beside the coluber, and the toad, and frog, and turtle, and the common worms, reptiles are not numerous.

The people inhabiting this country are the Menominis or Malominis, the Potawatomies, the Winnebagoes, Chippewas, Dahcotahs (called by the French Sioux), and Sacs and Foxes: this last band is always called, by their own people, Muskwáka. The Sacs call themselves Sáki. Beside these there are several thousand eastern Indians removed from New York, who inhabit the northeastern part of Wisconsin, near Lake Michigan.

RIVERS.

The Missisippi and Missouri, the principal rivers of this country, are well known. The Missouri, rising in a mountain region, flows with a rapid current, about four miles an

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hour, is very turbid and muddy, and is subject to a great rise. Three times, since the country was known to the whites, it has risen thirty or forty feet above the usual high-water mark. The last rise was in the summer of 1844, and was very disastrous, overwhelming the whole bottom country between the bluffs. The Missisippi, rising from lakes in the midst of a champaign, and flowing through a similar region, and over a wide bed, from bluff to bluff, has a slower current, generally from two to two and a half miles an hour, is a clear, limpid stream, and is rarely known to rise more than ten feet. In the spring of 1844, however, it had a rise of fifteen feet or more. The Missi-sippi, or, according to other Indian dialects, Massi-sepo (so the Musquakas speak it), great river, is in length, as given by Mr. Nicollet, the latest and most accurate authority, in his report to Congress (p. 125), 2,896 miles, reckoning to its "utmost sources at the summit of the hauteurs de terre, or dividing ridge between the Missisippi and the Red River of the North." From this point to the mouth of Leech Lake River is 221 miles; to Wanomon or Vermillion River, 248; to the head of the Kabikons, or Little Falls, 269; to the mouth of Kagi-wigwan (Crow-wing) River, 515; to the Karishon (Crow) River, 667; to the mouth of St. Peter's, 704; St. Croix, 746; upper end of Lake Pepin, 781; Chippeway River, 810; Black River, 861; Upper Iowa, 918; Wisconsin, 970; head of the Upper Rapids (Rock River Rapids), 1159; head of the Lower Rapids (Des Moins), 1287; Illinois River, 1470; Ohio River, 1680; from thence to the Gulf of Mexico, 1216. Rock River comes into the Missisippi on the east, about nineteen miles below the head of the Upper Rapids. The Lower Iowa River enters on the west, about forty-five miles below Rock River; and the Moingonan, or Des Moins, about fifteen miles below the head of the Lower Rapids. These rapids extend about

eleven miles upon the river; the upper rapids are about fifteen miles in length. Mr. Schoolcraft, who considered, as did Nicollet, the Lake Itasca to be the source, computed the whole length of the river at 3,160 miles, or 264 more than Nicollet. This, probably, was occasioned by the addition of estimates not very accurate from point to point upon the river, founded upon the reckoning of the boatmen.

Major Long, who measured the height of the falls of St. Anthony with a plumb-line, in 1817, states it to be sixteen and a half feet. In this he agrees with Pike, who visited it twelve years before him. Carver called it thirty feet. Hennepin, the first European who saw and named it, in 1680, says it is fifty or sixty feet high. For reasons hereafter mentioned, in the historical part of these notes, full reliance cannot be placed on Henepin. It may be, however, that the ponderous body of water is gradually wearing away the stone which makes the bed of the river before it falls, and that thus the height is constantly diminishing; or, by the falling of the stone, and the consequent receding of the fall, the same effect might be produced. It is stated, by Nicollet, I think, that in a half mile the whole fall is seventy-five feet.

In relation to the recession of the falls, and the whole descent of the water, Mr. Keating says:-" The river (Missisippi) runs upon a bed of sandy alluvion, resulting from the destruction of the bluffs, but in many places the rock is laid bare. These observations upon the geology of the bluff upon which the fort is erected correspond with those made at the Falls of St. Anthony, with this exception, that, at the latter place, our observations are limited to the three superior strata, viz the slaty limestone, with organic remains; the blue limestone, destitute of these; and the sandstone, with a loose texture. The falls are occasioned by the fissures which occur in the superior limestone, and which allow the water to

penetrate through this bed to the sandstone, which, being of a loose texture, is soon washed away; in this manner, thick plates of limestone are left unsupported, and soon fall by their own gravity. This process is constantly causing the fall to recede towards its source. What time has been required, what lapse of centuries has been consumed, in bringing the falls to their present situation, it is not in the power of man to decide; but we may well see that it must have been immense. The difference of level at the head of the fall and the level of the river at the fort being estimated at about one hundred feet, and the strata running in a horizontal position, we can readily account for the additional strata observed under the sandstone at the fort, and which are concealed at the falls." [Long's 2d Exped., v. i., p. 309.]

By the Sioux these falls are called Rara, from Irara, to laugh (or, perhaps, Irara, which, quickly spoken, would sound Rara). The Chippewas call them Kakabikah, severed rock.

Major Long tells a romantic story in connection with these falls. It is thus :-An Indian of the Dacota nation had united himself in his youth to a female called Ampato Sapa, the Dark Day, a name which, if given at her birth, and not afterward bestowed in allusion to her unfortunate end, would seem to show that these people possess the power of divination. They lived happily together many years. Two children were the fruit of their union. The man, having acquired renown as a hunter, aspired to be elected a chief. To increase his dignity and importance, and to strengthen his influence, he resolved to add another wife to his household, and fixed his choice on the daughter of a man of influence in the tribe. When he made known his determination to his wife, she endeavored to dissuade him, by reminding him of their long-cherished love, and the happiness they had

enjoyed together. Finding no arguments available, and, in fact, that he had already executed his purpose of a second marriage, she observed her opportunity, launched her light bark canoe, and placing her children in it, pushed off into the stream above the fall. Her death song was heard, clear and shrill, by her friends upon the banks of the river. She recited, with a mournful voice, the pleasure she had enjoyed when the undivided object of her husband's affection. As she fell faster and faster down the current, her voice became lost in the sound of the cataract. Her boat was borne to the edge of the cascade, was seen for a moment in the spray and mist that hovered over the water, and disappeared, to be seen no more. The Indians say that, often, in the morning, a voice is heard singing a mournful requiem, the burden of which is the inconstancy of her husband. And some assert that the spirit of Ampato Sapa has been seen wandering about the place with her children in her bosom.

For a description of the head-waters and superior course of the Missisippi, I quote Mr. Nicollet, the most recent, the most accurate, the most lively, and the most graphic description given of this stream.

"The Missisippi holds its own from its very origin; for it is not necessary to suppose, as has been done, that Lake Itasca may be supplied with invisible sources, to justify the character of a remarkable stream, which it assumes at its issue from this lake. There are five creeks that fall into it, formed by innumerable streamlets oozing from the clay beds at the bases of the hills, that consist of an accumulation of sand, gravel, and clay, intermixed with erratic fragments, being a more prominent portion of the great erratic deposit previously described, and which here is known by the name of hauteurs des terres-heights of land.

"These elevations are commonly flat at top, varying in