e to my late dinner. We then continued
our way, passing through Dodgeville to Porter's Grove, where we stopped
for the night, and were made very comfortable at Morrison's.

On the 19th we drove to breakfast at Brigham's at the Blue Mounds. I
here found in my host my old friend with whom I had set out from
Pittsburgh for the western world some thirteen or fourteen years before,
and whom I last saw, I believe, fighting with the crows on the Illinois
bottoms for the produce of a fine field of corn. I went on to the mound
with him to view the extraordinary growth of the same grain at this
place. The stalks were so high that it really required a tall man to
reach up and pull off the ears.

Ten miles beyond Brigham's we came to Sugar Creek and a tree marked by
Mr. Lyon. From this point we found the trail measured and mile stakes
driven by Mr. Lyon's party, but the Indians have removed several. From
Sugar Creek it is ten miles to the head of the Four Lakes. We then
crossed the Seven Mile Prairie. To the left as we passed there rose a
high point of rocks, on the top of which the Indians had placed image
stones. Night overtook us soon after crossing this prairie. We took the
horse out of the shafts and tied him to the wagon. My friend Bennet,
though _au fait_ on these trips, failed to strike a fire. We ate
something, and made shift to pass the night.

Next morning we drove twelve miles to a house (Hasting's), where we got
breakfast. We drove through Duck Creek with some ado, the skies
threatening rain, and came in to Fort Winnebago by one o'clock, during a
pouring rain. The canoes sent from Galena had not yet arrived. I spent
the next day at the Winnebago agency, Mr. John H. Kinzie's, where I was
received with great kindness. The canoe with Dr. Houghton and his
companions did not arrive till the 23d, and I embarked the same day on
my return to St. Mary's. It will not be necessary to describe this
route. We were three days in descending the Fox River and its portages
to Green Bay. It required eight days to traverse the shores and bays to
Mackinack, and three more to reach St. Mary's, where I arrived on the
4th of September.

During my absence on this expedition, there were some things in my
correspondence that require notice. Gen. Cass had been transferred to
the War Office at Washington. He writes to me from Detroit (July 22d):
"Very much to my surprise I have found myself called to another sphere
of action. The change I am