p. 15

Face of the Country

many of the bluffs along the Mississippi river, often
attain the height of three hundred feet above
their base, and the Blue Mound was ascertained
by Dr. Locke by Barometrical Observations to be
one thousand feet above the Wisconsin river
at Helena. The surface is further [divided]
by the Platte, & Sissinewa mounds, but these
prominent elevations are so rare that they
form very marked objects in the landscape and
serve the traveler in the unsettled portions of the country,
as guides by which to direct his course.
The country immediately bordering on Lake
Superior has a very abrupt descent towards
the Lake, hence the streams entering the Lake, are full of rapids
and waterfalls, being comparatively worthless for
all purposes of navigation, but offering
a vast superabundance of water power, which
may at some future time be brought into