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CHAPTER I
                        THE LAND
  The imposing geographic arch formed by the Mississippi
lands on the one hand and those of the Great Lakes and the
St. Lawrence basin on the other has for its keystone the ter-
ritory embraced within the boundaries of Wisconsin. Resting
lightly on Lake Superior but with a long shore line on both
Lake Michigan and the Father of Waters, that territory also
holds the most convenient line of communication between the
two systems, the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, separated by a
single short portage. This explains why so much of the early
history of the state not only connects but mingles and blends
with the French history of Canada and Louisiana, while its
Indian lore holds in one all-embracing story the traditions of
the Winnebago, the Six Nations, the Hurons, the Menominee,
Potawatomi, Sauk, Foxes, Chippewa, and the Sioux.
  Wisconsin, on the small-scale physiographic map of the
United States here reproduced (Fig. 1), seems almost feature-
less so far as surface is concerned. A little less than one-half
its total area, the northern and northwestern portions par-
ticularly, is shown to have an altitude of between 1000 and
2000 feet, while the southern and eastern portions lie at an
elevation of less than 1000 feet. A few small tracts in each
of these divisions vary from the mass. There is no land in
the state that rises above the 2000-foot limit or falls below
that of 500 feet.
  From such indications one might infer that the land of Wis-
consin is a vast, uniform plain-land like that of Illinois to the
south or of Iowa to the west. But a closer examination of
surface characteristics shows this to be an error. Wisconsin
has a         i which, within the elevation limits specified,
is very attractively diversified. This is brought out in a meas-