SOURCE OF ST. PETER S RIVER. 277 



cations covering near a mile of ground, upon a prairie that is 

 not more than two and a half miles wide, it was probable 

 that this traveller had mistaken a natural for an artificial 

 embankment. Agreeing in the fact that there were no ar- 

 tificial works here, Mr. Keating considered this as proof 

 that the Grand Encampment was not the spot alluded to 

 by Carver; for although the general description agrees 

 with that given by the traveller, yet the same might be 

 said of many other spots ; the minuteness of the descrip- 

 tion which Carver gives of these remains, precludes, as he 

 thought, the opinion that he had mistaken a natural era^ 

 bankment. Although no gentleman of the party would 

 be willing to ascribe to Carver a scrupulous adherence to 

 truth, (personal observation having convinced them all of 

 the many misrepresentations contained in his work,) yet 

 the description of these mounds appeared to one of them 

 entitled to more credit, because, as it is believed to be 

 the first which was given by travellers in America, 

 it cannot be supposed to have been copied from others; 

 because the authority of Mr. Hart's testimony seems to 

 be on that side of the question, as well as that of General 

 Pike, who probably saw the spot mentioned by Carver, as 

 we find in his journal this observation: " Stopt at a prairie 

 on the right bank descending, about nine miles below Lake 

 Pepin ; went out to view some hills, which had the ap- 

 pearance of the old fortifications spoken of, but I will speak 

 more fully of them hereafter."* Whether these were simi- 

 lar to those which he describes as having seen oh the 

 Prairie de la Crosse,t we have not been able to ascertain. 

 But the strongest argument in favour of the existence of 



* An account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi, &c. 

 by Major Z. M. Pike, Phihick-lphia, 1810, p. 98. 

 t Idem, p. 18. 



