person to execute your duties, &c., and I think there would
be no difficulty in procuring permission from the government. I speak,
however, _without book_. Think of the matter. I see incalculable
advantages which would result to you from it, and you would go under
very favorable auspices, and with a rich harvest of literary fame."

_23d_. B. F. Stickney, Esq., writes on the occasion of not having
earlier acknowledged my memoir on the Fossil Tree of the Des Plaines, in
Illinois. "How little we know of the laws of nature," he observes, "of
which we profess to know so much."

CHAPTER XX.

Incidents of the year 1824--Indian researches--Diverse idioms of the
Ottowa and Chippewa--Conflict of opinion between the civil and military
authorities of the place--A winter of seclusion well spent--St. Paul's
idea of languages--Examples in the Chippewa--The Chippewa a pure form of
the Algonquin--Religion in the wilderness--Incidents--Congressional
excitements--Commercial view of the copper mine question--Trip to
Tackwymenon Falls, in Lake Superior.

1824. _Jan. 1st_. As soon as the business season closed, I resumed my
Indian researches.

General C. writes: "The result of your inquiries into the Indian
language is highly valuable and satisfactory. I return you my sincere
thanks for the papers. I have examined them attentively. I should be
happy to have you prosecute your inquiries into the manners, customs,
&c., of the Indians. You are favorably situated, and have withal such
unconquerable perseverance, that I must tax you more than other persons.
My stock of materials, already ample, is rapidly increasing, and many
new and important facts have been disclosed. It is really surprising
that so little valuable information has been given to the world on
this subject."

Mr. B.F. Stickney, formerly an agent at Fort Wayne, Indiana, writes from
Depot (now Toledo): "I am pleased to see that your mind is engaged on
the Chippewa language. It affords a field sufficiently extensive for the
range of all the intellect and industry that the nation can bring into
action. If the materials already collected should, after a scrutiny and
arrangement, be thrown upon the literary world, it would excite so much
interest as not to permit the inquiry thus to stop at the threshold. It
is really an original inquiry concerning the operations of the human
mind, wherein a portion of the human race, living apart from the rest,
have independently devised me