Note 79 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
Under this date Hamilton wrote to Haldimand from “Camp at Petite Riviere,” concerning the portage path from the Maumee to Little River, as follows: “This carrying place is free from any obstructions, but what the carelessness & ignorance of the French have left, & would leave from Generation to Generation. An intelligent person at a small expense might make it as fine a road as any within 20 miles of London. The Woods are beautiful, Oak, Ash, Beech, Nutwood, very clear & of a great growth ... in a ridge near the road I found a sea fossil, to find Marine productions on this hauteur des terres is to my mind more curious than their being found in the Alps—there are no mountains in view from Detroit to this place so that these appearances cannot readily be accounted for from volcanoes of which there is no trace to be observed.”—Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. xi, p. 179.