SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river. 265 



sumcd their journey, and encamped at night above the 

 Painted Rock river, on the west bank of the Mississippi. 

 The distance travelled that day did not exceed nine miles. 

 The bluffs, which appear to be limestone, (but we were at 

 too great a distance to determine the fact with certainty,) 

 continue on both sides of the river, and rise to a considera- 

 ble height. In one place the rock is very steep and ap- 

 parently inaccessible ; the difficulty of the undertaking was 

 probably the motive which induced the Indians to attempt 

 to climb it; and having succeeded, they wished to perpe- 

 tuate the recollection of their success by painting upon it, 

 with red colours, a few grotesque figures. It is said that, 

 when these are effaced by time or washed away by the rain, 

 they are soon replaced by other sketches left there by the 

 Indians who are constantly passing up and down the river. 

 The Painted Rock, like every frail attempt to distinguish, 

 by artificial means, those things which nature, in her wild 

 designing, has clothed with an uniform garb, seizes more 

 powerfully upon the imagination of the trading voyager 

 on our western streams, than the finest natural features of 

 their splendid scenery ; it has become, therefore, as it were, 

 a landmark which assists the traveller in tracing his pro- 

 gress through these desert regions. The weather was fair 

 and warm ; the wind slight but adverse, so that the sail 

 was not hoisted. This first day's voyage on the Missis- 

 sippi was delightful to those who had never been on that 

 river before ; the magnificence of the scenery is such, 

 its characters differ so widely from those of the land- 

 scapes which we are accustomed to behold in our tame re- 

 gions, its features are so bold, so wild, so majestic, that 

 they impart new sensations to the mind ; the very rapidity 

 of the stream, although it opposes our ascent, delights us : 

 it conveys such an idea of the extensive volume of water 

 Vol. I. 34 



