The country around Chicago is the most fertile and beautiful that can be imagined. It consists of an intermixture of woods and prairies, diversified with gentle slopes, sometimes attaining the elevation of hills, and it is irrigated with a number of clear streams and rivers, which throw their waters partly into Lake Michigan, and partly into the Mississippi River. As a farming country, it presents the greatest facilities for raising stock and grains, and it is one of the most favored parts of the Mississippi Valley; the climate has a delightful serenity, and it must, as soon as the Indian title is extinguished,[136] become one of the most attractive fields for the emigrant. To the ordinary advantages of an agricultural market town, it must add that of being a depot for the commerce between the northern and southern sections of the Union, and a great thoroughfare for strangers, merchants, and travellers. [136] This was done in 1821; having been, myself, secretary to the Commissioners, Gov. Cass and Hon. Sol. Sibley, who were appointed to treat with the Indians. Vide _Indian Treaties_, p. 297. The Milwaukie clays to which I have adverted, do not extend thus far, although the argillaceous deposits found, appear to be destitute of the oxide of iron, for the bricks produced from them burn white. There is a locality of bituminous coal on Fox River, about forty miles south. Near, the junction of the Desplaines River with the Kankakee, there exists in the semi-crystalline or sedimentary limestone, a remarkable fossil-tree.[137] [137] FOSSIL FLORA OF THE WEST.--Of this gigantic specimen of the geological flora of the newer rocks of the Mississippi Valley, I published a memoir in 1822, founded on a personal examination of the phenomena. Albany, E. and E. Hosford, 24 pp. 8vo. This paper (_Vide_ Appendix) was prepared for the American Geological Society, at New Haven. See _American Journ. Science_, vol. 4, p. 285; See also, vol. 5, p. 23, for appreciating testimony of the value of geological science (then coming into notice), from Ex-Presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, to whom copies of it were transmitted. CHAPTER XIX. South and Eastern borders of Lake Michigan--Their Flora and Fauna--Incidents of the journey--Topography--Geology, Botany, and Mineralogy--Indian Tribes--Burial-place of Marquette--Ruins of the post of old Mackinac--Reach Michilimackinac after a canoe journey north of four hundred miles.