At the mouth of the Big Sioux river Nuttall fell in with an old trapper who described to him the great falls which blocked navigation at a distance of one hundred miles up that stream, and who told him of the famous Indian pipestone quarries beyond. The analogy established by Nuttall between the general Carbonic section of Iowa and the Upper Mississippi valley and that of northern England was one of the important geologic discoveries in America. Its great significance was pointed out by Owen a couple of decades later. Its historical value grows with the advancing years. In the final recognition of a standard Carbonic section for this continent the sequence displayed in the Mississippi basin must prevail, since it is now generally conceded that the Appalachian succession of strata can never be considered as the typical development. So conspicuously botanical in character are Nuttall's services to science that one can but wonder under what circumstances he could have obtained his keen insight into matters geological. Elias Durand said of him immediately after his death: "No other explorer of the botany of North America has personally made more discoveries; no writer on American plants, except perhaps Asa Gray, has described more new genera and species. Lists of his published memoirs and papers quite generally omit all reference to his recorded geological observations, probably because their importance would hardly be appreciated by writers in other fields of science. In the present connection our main interest centers on the transplanting so early to the interior of the American continent of William Smith's novel ideas concerning fossils. Brief reference to some of the early events in Nuttall's life seems to offer a clue. Nuttall was born in Yorkshire, England, in the Mountain limestone belt and near the scene of Martin's labors on the Carbonic fossils of Derbyshire. He was early apprenticed to the printer's trade and after a few years removed to London. There he followed his trade until at the age of twenty-two years he set out for America, in 1808. He appears to have been a printer of the Benjamin Franklin order, since while engaged at his trade he became proficient in the knowledge of the sciences, Greek and Latin and kindred subjects. During the period of six or seven years that he was in London he seems to have made the acquaintance of a number of the scientific men of the day. At least it is probable that at this time he acquired some familiarity with Smith's discoveries which were at that date attracting wide attention from English scientists. It is also quite possible that Nuttall gained much of his scientific information through setting up the types for those very memoirs which have since become. geologic classics. It is not unlikely also that he even met Smith, since the latter is known to have been often in London at that time and to have taken up his permanent residence there several years before the printer-naturalist left his native country. At any rate Nuttall had been in America scarcely a year before he was putting his geological knowledge to test. His familiarity with Martin's Petrifacta Derbiensia and Smith's principles clearly indicates that he must certainly have acquired his information at least several years previous. Then, too, his acquaintance with that pioneer American geologist, William McClure, for twenty years president of the American Philosophical Society at this period should not escape notice. Two other papers, partly geological in nature but chiefly mineralogical in character, on the rocks and minerals of Hoboken and of Sparta, New Jersey, and the many keen observations on the rocks recorded in his journal of a trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, attest his unusual intimacy with matters in geology. Notwithstanding the fact that the brief memoir' which Thomas Nuttall published on Iowa-land and the contiguous regions was the only one which he seems ever to have printed on strictly geological subjects, so important are the principles set forth for the first time in this single, simple, short contribution to the literature of American terranal correlation that it places its author in the front rank among pioneer geologists, not only of Iowa, but of our country. Although 2Observations on Geological Structure of Mississippi Valley; Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Vol. II, pp. 14-52, Philadelphia, 1821. one of the foremost botanists of his day and an ornithologist of world-wide reputation, his great service in first pointing out by method and by means the fundamental concepts of modern historical geology in America should not be forgotten. REMOVAL OF THE POTTAWATTAMIES. The following account of the gathering of the Pottawatamy tribe of Indians for removal furnishes an interesting picture of frontier scenes. It is from the Logansport, Ia., Telegraph of the 15th ultimo: A small military force left Logansport on Wednesday, the 29th August, and having been reinforced on the route, reached the Indian chapel on Twin Lakes, in Marshall county, about 11 o'clock on Thursday. Here the principal chiefs with several other Indians were found and surrounded to prevent their escape. General Tipton then held a council with those present, and four chiefs appearing somewhat refractory, were taken and placed under guard in one of the rooms of the building which had been occupied as a chapel. The Indians present were then told that they must prepare to emigrate-that in three days they must be ready to go West; that they need not hope to remain on the lands which they occupied, for they would be compelled to leave them. They were further told that wagons would be provided to convey their furniture and utensils into camp, to be carried for them to their homes in the West; that their cornfields should be appraised by disinterested persons, and that they (the Indians) should receive the amount of their valuation; that the Government would furnish them with provisions and clothing and farming utensils for the term of one year from and after their arrival upon the lands assigned to them beyond the Mississippi; that they would not again be compelled to remove and that the Government would protect them in their new homes. Parties of dragoons were then dispatched in different directions with orders to bring the various bands of Indians into camp. The dragoons were also ordered to treat the Indians kindly, to preserve their moveable property and to burn their wigwams. * ** * The encampment occupied a space about one hundred yards square upon the banks of the Twin Lakes. This area was almost completely filled with Indian tents, ponies, pigs, public officers, dogs, cats, sentinels, wagons, &c. Throughout the whole proceedings great decision, energy and activity were displayed, accompanied by very little if any cruelty-that is, viewing the whole as a matter of settled national policy.Albany, N. Y.-The Jeffersonian, Nov. 10, 1838. SOME ADDITIONAL MATERIALS ON THE SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE, [When the memorial tablet in the Hamilton county courthouse and the monument at Lake Okoboji were respectively erected, materials upon the Spirit Lake massacre and on the various attendant features were extensively published. From time to time thereafter we have received materials adding somewhat to the record. We herewith present contributions on three phases of the subject. The first is a paper prepared by Prof. O. C. Howe at the time of the dedication of the monument. Professor Howe was one of the party of four who discovered the victims and carried the report back to Fort Dodge. The second is a communication from Mr. R. A. Smith of the relief expedition, who explains the division of the party in the face of a hazard from which Captain Johnson and Mr. Burkholder lost their lives. The third is a memorandum of the founder of the Historical Department upon his labors in connection with the commemoration of the service of Hamilton County men on the relief expedition, rather more frankly told than as published in the ANNALS during his life.-EDITOR.] THE DISCOVERY OF THE SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE. BY ORLANDO C. HOWE. On the 15th day of March, 1857, our party, consisting of Robert Wheelock, B. F. Parmenter, C. Snyder and O. C. Howe, after a tedious trip of more than three weeks, came in sight of the beautiful lakes in Dickinson County, Iowa. We had been exposed to the storms of that terrible winter and apparently had reached the promised land. The weather in the afternoon had softened, the clouds vanished for a time, and the shining sun over these groves seemed like a welcome. Our point of view was from the highlands east of the southern point of the Okoboji groves. Mr. Wheelock and I had been at the lakes in the preceding fall for a week or more, leaving on the last day of November, 1856. While there, we stayed at the cabin of Joel Howe and selected for a town site a tract near the southwesterly shore 'Mr. Smith's article following gives the date as the 16th, and that date corresponds with Mr. Howe's account of each day's happenings until they reached Ft. Dodge.-Ed. |