assailed by a single savage, and the whole number were massacred. All, without distinction of age or sex, fell at once beneath his murderous tomahawk.

Captain Wells, who had as yet escaped unharmed, saw from a distance the whole of this murderous scene, and being apprised of the stipulation, and on seeing it thus violated, exclaimed aloud, so as to be heard by the Potawatomies around him, whose prisoner he then was: "If this be your game, I will kill too!" and, turning his horse's head, instantly started for the Potawatomie camp, where the squaws and Indian children had been left ere the battle began.

He had no sooner started than several Indians followed in his rear, and discharged their rifles at him as he galloped across the prairie. He laid himself flat on the neck of his horse, and was apparently out of their reach when the ball of one of his pursuers took effect, killing his horse and wounding him severely. He was again a prisoner. As the savages came up, Winnemeg and Wa-ban-see, two of their number and both his friends, used all their endeavors in order to save him; they had disengaged him already from his horse, and were supporting him along, when Pec-so-tum, a Potawatomie Indian, drawing a scalping-knife, stabbed him in the back, and thus inflicted a mortal wound. After struggling for a moment, he fell, and breathed his last in the arms of his friends-a victim for those he had sought to save-a sacrifice to his own rash, presumptuous, and perhaps indiscreet intentions.

The battle having ended, and the prisoners being secured, the latter were conconducted to the Potawatomie camp near the fort. Here the wife of Wau-beenee-mah, an Illinois chief, perceiving the exhausted condition of Mrs. Helm, took a kettle, and dipping up some water from the stream which flowed sluggishly by them, threw into it some maple sugar, and stirring it up with her hand, gave her to drink. “It was,” says Mrs. Helm, "the most delicious draught I had ever taken, and her kindness of manner amid so much atrocity touched my heart." Her attention, however, was soon directed to other objects. The fort, after the troops had marched out, became a scene of plunder. The cattle were shot down as they ran at large, and lay dead, or were dying around her. It called up afresh a remark of Ensign Ronan's, made before: "Such," said he, "is to be our fate-to be shot down like brutes."

The wounded prisoners, we have already remarked, were not included in the stipulation made on the battle field, as the Indians understood it. On reaching, therefore, the Potawatomie camp, a scene followed which beggars description. A wounded soldier lying on the ground was violently assaulted by an old squaw, infuriated by the loss of friends, or excited by the murderous scenes around her— who, seizing a pitchfork, attacked with demoniac ferocity and deliberately murdered in cold blood the wretched victim, now helpless and exposed to the burning rays of the sun, his wounds already aggravated by its heat, and he writhing in torture. During the succeeding night 5 other wounded prisoners were tomahawked.

Those unwounded remained in the wigwams of their captors. The work of plunder being now completed, the fort next day was set on fire. A fair and equal distribution of all the finery belonging to the garrison had apparently been made, and shawls, ribbons, and feathers were scattered about the camp in great profusion. Most of the prisoners remained among the Indians until the treaty made in the next year, when they were returned to their friends. Captain Heald and his wife, and Lieutenant Helm and his wife, were ransomed soon after their capture. Their sufferings and perils, however, during their short captivity were most trying.

THE State of Michigan is situated between 41° 40′ and 47° 30′ N. latitude, and 82° 12′ and 90° 30' W. longitude. It is bounded on the north by Canada and Lake Superior, on the east by the River Ste. Marie, Lake Huron, the Lake and River St. Clair, the Detroit River, and Lake Erie, which separate it from Canada, on the south by Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and on the west by Wisconsin and Lake Michigan.

TOPOGRAPHY.

Lakes Michigan and Huron, and the Straits of Markinaw, divide the State into two unequal peninsulas. The Northern Peninsula is about 320 miles long, from southeast to northwest, with an extreme width of 130 miles. The Southern Peninsula is about 283 miles long, from north to south, and 210 miles wide in its broadest part.

"The Southern Peninsula of Michigan, so interesting in its agricultural and economical aspects, is rather tame in its topographical features, as there is no considerable elevation (compared with the country immediately around it) within its whole extent, though the ridge which divides the waters flowing into Lakes Huron and Erie from those flowing into Lake Michigan, is 300 feet above the level of the lakes, and about 1000 feet above the sea. The country, however, may be generally characterized as a vast undulating plain, seldom becoming rough or broken. There are occasional conical elevations of from 150 to 200 feet in height, but generally much less. The

shores of Lake Huron are often steep, forming bluffs; while those of Lake Michigan are coasted by shifting sand-hills of from 100 to 200 feet in height. In the southern part are those natural parks, thinly scattered over with trees, called in the parlance of the country, ‘oak openings; and in the southwest are rich prairie lands. The Northern Peninsula exhibits a striking contrast, both in soil and surface, to the southern. While the latter is level or moderately undulating, and luxuriantly fertile, the former is picturesque, rugged, and even mountainous, with streams abounding in rapids and waterfalls-rich in minerals, but rigorous in climate, and sterile in soil. The Wisconsin. or Porcupine Mountains, which form the watershed between Lakes Michigan and Superior, are much nearer the latter than the former, and attain an elevation of about 2000 feet in the northwestern portion of the peninsula. The eastern part of this division of the State is undulating and picturesque, but the central is hilly, and composed of table-land. The shores of Lake Superior are composed of a sandstone rock, which, in many places, is worn by the action of the wind and waves into fancied resemblances of castles, etc., forming the celebrated

Pictured Rocks; while the shores of Lake Michigan are composed of a limestone rock. The streams on the northern slope of the Porcupine Mountains have a rapid descent, and abound in picturesque falls and rapids. The Northern Peninsula is primitive, and the Southern secondary; but primitive rocks are scattered over the plains of the latter, of more than 100 tons weight, most abundant on the borders of the Great Lakes, on the flanks of valleys, and where traces of recent floods are apparent.' ""*

Lake Superior washes the northern shore of the State, Lake Michigan the western, and Lakes Huron and Erie the eastern. They have all been described, together with the channels connecting them, in the chapter devoted to the United States. Detroit, between Lakes Erie and St. Clair, and Grand Haven on Lake Michigan, are the principal ports of the State.

The principal bays are Saginaw and Thunder bays on Lake Huron, Tequamenon and Kewechaw bays on Lake Superior, and Green, Little and Grand Traverse bays, and the Great and Little Bays des Noquets on Lake Michigan.

A number of small lakes lie in the State. They possess no commercial value, but form a beautiful feature of the landscape.

The rivers of the State are nearly all small. The Detroit and Ste. Marie have been noticed. Those of the southern peninsula empty into Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie. Those flowing into Lake Michigan are the St. Joseph's, Kalamazoo, Grand, Maskegon and Manistee. The Au Sable and Saginaw flow into Lake Huron, the latter through Saginaw Bay, and the Huron and Raisin into Lake Erie. The rivers of the northern peninsula are fine mill streams, but are unfit for navigation by reason of rocks and rapids. The principal are the Menomonee, Montreal, and Ontonagon. The first flows into Green Bay, and the others into Lake Superior.

A group of Islands, forming Manitou county, lies in the northern part of Lake Michigan.

MINERALS.

"The upper peninsula, rich in minerals, prominent among which is copper, is mostly of primitive geological character; the lower exclusively secondary. The copper deposits among the primary rocks of the northern peninsula are the richest in the world, the copper belt

* Lippincott's Gazetteer, p. 1189.

being 120 miles long and from 2 to 6 miles wide. A block of several tons of almost pure copper, taken from the mouth of Ontonagon River, has been built into the wall of the Washington monument at the national capital. A mass weighing 150 tons was uncovered, in 1854, in the North American mine. Isle Royale abounds in this mineral; one house in that district, during five and a half months of 1854, shipped over 2,000,000 of pounds, and in the nine years previous there were produced 4824 tons. The yield of copper in the State has risen to an annual average of 8000 tons, with promise of steady increase. The opening of the St. Mary's Canal and the clearing of the entrance into Portage Lake have given fresh impetus to this branch of mining industry, which is becoming one of the most cherished interests of the State. Silver has been found in connection with the copper in the proportion of from 25 to 50 per cent. of the precious metal. Iron of a superior quality has been discovered in a bed of slate from 6 to 25 miles wide, and 150 long, extending into Wisconsin. In the production of this mineral, in 1863, Michigan was only second to Pennsylvania, having produced 273,000 tons of ore. Bituminous coal is mined on an enlarging scale to meet the demand of manufactures. Salt also exists in quantities repaying the investment of capital. The high prices lately prevailing have caused a rapid development of the salt fields around Saginaw, a basin some 40 or 50 miles square, in which, by boring some 800 feet, an inexhaustible supply of brine is obtained, yielding 80 or 90 per cent. of salt.” *

CLIMATE.

The climate of the State is less severe than that of other portions of the country in the same latitude, being greatly tempered by the lake breezes.

SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS.

The soil in the middle and lower part of the southern peninsula is very rich, and yields handsome returns. It consists generally of a deep, dark, rich sandy loam, which is frequently mixed with gravel and clay. The northern part abounds in excellent timber. The northern peninsula is heavily wooded with white pine, spruce, hemlock, birch, and oak. The hardier grains do well in this part of the State, but maize is not suited to it.

* General Land Office Report.