214 EXPEDITION TO THE 



Indian, whose occupations must have accustomed him to 

 such excursions, appeared to have received an accession of 

 spirits, and the loud whoops which he occasionally gave, 

 as he raised the summit of a hill, enlivened the ride. Our 

 course was a winding one along the glens which divide the 

 bluffs; and whenever we rode in the direction of the 

 moon's rays, the vivid flashes of light, reflected by our 

 military accoutrements, contributed to impart to the whole 

 a character entirely new to many of the gentlemen of the 

 expedition. It was impossible to be a sharer in this splen- 

 did prospect, without joining in the enthusiasm to which 

 it naturally gave rise; and however much disposed the 

 mind may be at such an hour, and in such a solitude, to 

 recall, with deep feeling, the image of abodes endeared 

 by the presence of far distant fi'iends, it would have 

 been impossible for any one of us to wish himself at that 

 moment on any other spot, but in the deep and narrow val- 

 leys, or on the smooth prairies, which have imparted to this 

 portion of the scenery of the Mississippi, a character of sub- 

 limity and beauty, which we would perhaps vainly seek 

 for on any other point of the long extended course of the 

 " Father of Rivers." 



At Prairie du Chien we sojourned for five days; the ob- 

 ject of this delay was to obtain the escort which was to 

 accompany the party up the St. Peter. While Major 

 Long's attention was engaged in superintending these pre- 

 parations, the gentlemen attended to their respective 

 departments. The distance from Chicago to Prairie du 

 Chien, by the route which the party travelled, is two 

 hundred and twenty-eight miles, which, having been per- 

 formed in nine days, give an average of twenty-five miles 

 per day. No person had ever gone through this route in a 

 direct line before we did, which is surprising, when we 



