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.