"This morning early, before our departure, we saw a large
herd of the big-horned animals, which were bounding among
the rocks on the opposite cliff with great agility.
These inaccessible spots secure them from all their enemies,
and their only danger is in wandering among these precipices,
where we would suppose it scarcely possible for any animal to stand;
a single false step would precipitate them at least five hundred
feet into the water.
"At one and one fourth miles we passed another single cliff on the left;
at the same distance beyond which is the mouth of a large river
emptying from the north. It is a handsome, bold, and clear stream,
eighty yards wide - that is, nearly as broad as the Missouri - with a
rapid current, over a bed of small smooth stones of various figures.
The water is extremely transparent; the low grounds are narrow,
but possess as much wood as those of the Missouri. The river has
every appearance of being navigable, though to what distance we
cannot ascertain, as the country which it waters is broken and mountainous.
In honor of the Secretary of War we called it Dearborn's River."
General Henry Dearborn, who was then Secretary of War,
in Jefferson's administration, gave his name, a few years later,
to a collection of camps and log-cabins on Lake Michigan;
and in due time Fort Dearborn became the great city
of Chicago. Continuing, the journal says:
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