31st.  Indian Mythology.—­Nothing has surprised me more in the conversations which I have had with persons acquainted with the Indian customs and character, than to find that the Chippewas amuse themselves with oral tales of a mythological or allegorical character.  Some of these tales, which I have heard, are quite fanciful, and the wildest of them are very characteristic of their notions and customs.  They often take the form of allegory, and in this shape appear designed to teach some truth or illustrate some maxim.  The fact, indeed, of such a fund of fictitious legendary matter is quite a discovery, and speaks more for the intellect of the race than any trait I have heard.  Who would have imagined that these wandering foresters should have possessed such a resource?  What have all the voyagers and remarkers from the days of Cabot and Raleigh been about, not to have discovered this curious trait, which lifts up indeed a curtain, as it were, upon the Indian mind, and exhibits it in an entirely new character?

August 1st.  Every day increases the interest which the question of the investigation of the Indian languages and customs assumes in my mind.  My facilities for pursuing these inquiries and for the general transaction of the official business has been increased this day by my removing into a new and more convenient office, situated some ninety or a hundred yards west of my former position, but on a line with it, and fronting, like the former room, on an ancient green on the river’s banks.  The St. Mary’s River is here about three-fourths of a mile wide, and the green in front of my office is covered with Indian lodges, and presents a noble expanse.  I have now a building some thirty-six feet square, built of squared timber, jointed with mortar and whitewashed, so as to give it a neat appearance.  The interior is divided into a room some twenty feet by thirty-six, with two small ante-rooms.  A large cast iron Montreal stove, which will take in three feet wood, occupies the centre.  The walls are plastered, and the room moderately lighted.  The rear of the lot has a blacksmith shop.  The interpreter has quarters near by.  The gate of the new cantonment is some three hundred yards west of my door, and there is thus brought within a small compass the means of transacting the affairs of the agency during the approaching and expected severe winter.  These are the best arrangements that can be made, better indeed than I had reason to expect on first landing here.

3d.  I wrote to-day to Dr. Hosack, expressing my thanks for the extract of a letter, which he had enclosed me from Sir Humphrey Davy, dated London, March 24th, 1822, in which this eminent philosopher expresses his opinion on my Narrative Journal, a copy of which Dr. Hosack had sent him.  “Schoolcraft’s Narrative is admirable,” observes Sir Humphrey Davy, “both for the facts it develops, and for the simplicity and clearness of the details.  He has accomplished great things by such means, and offers a good model for a traveler in a new country.  I lent his book to our veteran philosophical geographer, Major Kennel, who was highly pleased with it.  Copies of it would sell well in England.”