SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river. 303 



curved manner, so as to produce an excavation, similar in 

 form to a Saxon arch, between the surface of the rock and 

 the sheet of water ; under this large arch we passed with no 

 other inconvenience than that which arose from the spray. 

 There is nothing sublime or awfully impressive in this cas- 

 cade, but it has every feature that is required to constitute 

 beauty ; it is such a fall as the hand of opulence daily at- 

 tempts to produce in the midst of those gardens upon 

 which treasures have been lavished for the purpose of imi- 

 tating nature; with this difference, however, that these 

 falls possess an easy grace destitute of the stiffness which 

 generally distinguishes the works of man from those of na- 

 ture. The stream that exhibits this cascade falls into the 

 Mississippi about two miles above the fort ; it heads in a 

 lake situated a few miles above. A body of water, which is 

 not represented upon any map that we know of, has been 

 discovered in this vicinity within a few years, and has re- 

 ceived the name of Lake Calhoun, in honour of the Secre- 

 tary at War. Its dimensions are small. Another lake of a 

 much larger size is said to have been discovered about 

 thirty or forty miles to the north-west of the fort. Its size, 

 which is variously stated, is by some supposed to be equal 

 to that of Lake Champlain, which, however, from the na- 

 ture of the country and the knowledge which we have of 

 the course of the rivers, appears scarcely possible. 



An object, which had appeared to us worthy of inquiry 

 long before we visited the Indian country, was to ascer- 

 tain whether the natives, who are accurate observers of 

 every natural occurrence, had any tradition or recollection 

 of having witnessed the fall of meteoric stones. Since the 

 fact of the fall of these heavy bodies from the atmosphere 

 has been proved to the satisfaction of the most sceptical, 

 numerous observations, recorded by jmcient bistoriaijs, 



