[Footnote 79: That such was the fact, and that he did not reach the Wisconsin river, is deduced from the language of the _Relations_; also, from a consideration of the length of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers below the "portage," where they very nearly approach each other; and from a study of the time usually employed, at an early day, in their navigation. It has, however, been extensively published that Nicolet did reach the Wisconsin, and float down its channel to within three days of the Mississippi. Now, Nicolet, in speaking of a large river upon which he had sailed, evidently intended to convey the idea of its being connected with "ce lac" (this lake); that is, with Green bay and Lake Michigan--the two being merged into one by Vimont. Hence, he must have spoken of the Fox river. But Vimont (_Relation_, 1640, p. 36) understood him as saying, "that, had he sailed three days more on a great river which _flows from_ that lake, he would have found the sea." The _Relation_, it will be noticed, says, "had he sailed three days more," etc. This implies a sailing already of some days. But such could not have been the case had he been upon the Wisconsin; as that river is only one hundred and eighteen miles in length, below the portage, and the time of its canoe navigation between three and four days only; whereas, upon the Fox, it was nine days; six, from its mouth to the Mascoutins, as previously shown, and three from the Mascoutins to the Wisconsin. The first white men who passed up the Fox river above the Mascoutins, were Louis Joliet and Father James Marquette, with five French attendants, in June, 1673. "We knew," says Marquette, "that there was, three leagues from Maskoutens [Mascoutins], a river [Wisconsin] emptying into the Mississippi; we knew, too, that the point of the compass we were to hold to reach it, was the west-southwest; but the way is so cut up by marshes, and little lakes, that it is easy to go astray, especially as the river leading to it is so covered by wild oats, that you can hardly discover the channel." That Marquette, instead of "three leagues" intended to say "thirty leagues" or "three days," it is evident to any one acquainted with the Fox river from the "portage" down; besides, the mistake is afterward corrected in his narrative as well as on his map accompanying it, where the home of the Mascoutins is marked as indicated by Allouez in the _Relation_ of 1670. See, also, the map of Joliet, before alluded to, as recently published by Gravier, where the same location is given. Joliet and Marquette were seven days in their journey from the Mascoutins to the Mississippi; this gave them three days upon the Fox and four upon the Wisconsin (including the delay at the portage). Canoes have descended from the portage in two days.