from reading books.  Books are, after all, but men’s holiday opinions.  It requires observation on real life to be able to set a true estimate upon things.  The instances in which an Indian is enabled to give proofs of a noble or heroic spirit cannot be expected to occur frequently.  In all the history of the seaboard tribes there was but one Pocahontas, one Uncas, and one Philip.  Whereas, everyday is calling for the exercise of less splendid, but more generally useful virtues.  To spare the life of a prisoner, or to relieve a friend from imminent peril, may give applause, and carry a name down to posterity.  But it is the constant practice of every day virtues and duties, domestic diligence, and common sense, that renders life comfortable, and society prosperous and happy.  How much of this everyday stamina the Indians possess, it would be presumptuous in me, with so short an opportunity of observation, to decide.  But I am inclined to the opinion that their defect of character lies here.

Our express for Detroit, via Michilimackinack, set out at three o’clock this morning, carrying some few short of a hundred letters.  This, with our actual numbers, is the best commentary on our insulated situation.  We divert ourselves by writing, and cling with a death-grasp, as it were, to our friends and correspondents.

5th.  Gitche ie nay gow ge ait che gah, “they have put the sand over him” is a common expression among the Indians to indicate that a man is dead and buried.  Another mode, delicate and refined in its character, is to suffix the inflection for perfect past tense, bun, to a man’s name.  Thus Washington e bun would indicate that Washington is no more.

I read the Life of Pope.  It is strange that so great a poet should have been so great a lover of wealth; mammon and the muses are not often conjointly worshiped.  Pope did not excel in familiar conversation, and few sallies of wit, or pointed observation, are preserved.  The following is recorded:  “When an objection raised against his inscription for Shakspeare was defended by the authority of Patrick, he replied, ‘horresco referens,’ that he would allow the publisher of a dictionary to know the meaning of a single word, but not of two words put together.”

In the evening I read a number of the “London Literary Gazette,” a useful and interesting paper, which, in its plan, holds an intermediate rank between a newspaper and a review.  It contains short condensed criticisms on new works, together with original brief essays and anecdotes, and literary advertisements, which latter must render it a valuable paper to booksellers.  I think we have nothing on this plan, at present, in the United States.

6th.  I received a specimen of slaty graywacke from Lake Superior.  The structure is tabular, and very well characterized.  If there be no mistake respecting the locality, it is therefore certain that this rock is included among the Lake Superior group.[29] It was not noticed in the expedition of 1820.  I also received a specimen of iron sand from Point aux Pins.