We passed, this day, several encampments and villages of Winnebagoes and Menomonies--tribes, who, with the erratic habits of the Tartars, or Bedouins, once spread their tents in the Fox and Wisconsin valleys, but have now (1853) relinquished them to the European race; and it does not, at this distance of time, seem important to denote the particular spots where they once boiled their kettles of corn, or thumped their magic drums. God have mercy on them in their wild wanderings! We also passed the entrance of Wolf River, a fine bold stream on the left; and soon below it the handsome elevation of La Butte de Morts, or the Hillock of the Dead. This eminence was covered by the frail lodges of the Winnebagoes. The spot is memorable in Indian history, for a signal defeat of the Foxes, by the French and their Indian allies in the seventeenth century, after which, this tribe was finally expelled from the Fox valley. Our night's encampment (17th) was below this spot. The night air was remarkably cold, and put an end to our further annoyance from mosquitos. We embarked at five o'clock the next morning during a dense fog, which was in due time dissipated by the rising sun. We had been five hours in our canoes, under the full force of paddles, when we entered Winnebago Lake. This is a most beautiful and sylvan expanse of water some twenty-four miles long by ten in width, surrounded by picturesque prairie and sloping plains. It has a stream at Fond du Lac, its southern extremity,[122] which is connected by a short portage with the principal source of Rock River of the Mississippi. [122] This spot is now the site of the flourishing town of Fond du Lac, which was laid out in 1845. It had a population of 2,014 in 1850, including two newspaper offices, two banking houses, one iron foundry, a car factory, twelve drygoods stores, and sixty other stores. It is situated 72 miles N. N. W. from Milwaukie, and 90 N. E. from Madison, the capital of the State of Wisconsin. It is the shire town of a county containing a population of 14,510, with 17 churches, and 2,844 pupils attending public schools, and 85 attending academies. It has a plank road to Lake Michigan, and will soon be connected by a railroad with Chicago. It is by such means that the American wilderness is conquered.