324 EXPEDITION TO THE 



rapidly diminishing in size. He also ascribes to it " a 

 great depth," which is not the case at any distance above 

 its mouth. 



We saw no branch of the river coming in from the 

 north but a few small tributaries not entitled to notice. 

 Carver's river, which had been inserted on most of the 

 maps made since the publication of his book, has therefore 

 been omitted on that which accompanies this work. It is 

 scarcely possible that if Carver had ascended the St. Peter 

 two hundred miles, he would have reported without con- 

 tradicting them, the exaggerated accounts of the great ex- 

 tent of this river, or attributed to it a rise near the Shining, 

 (Rock)'",) Mountains ; but besides these inaccuracies, some 

 of which may perhaps be partly accounted for by his hav- 

 ing seen the river at a time when it was unusually high, 

 and when a mere brook may have been so much swollen 

 as to be mistaken for a small branch of the river, yet we 

 cannot place any confidence in him on account of the many 

 misrepresentations contained in his work. Almost all that 

 he relates as peculiar to the Naudowessies, is found to ap- 

 ply to the Sauks, or some other nation of Algonquin ori- 

 gin. Thus on reading to Renville, Dickson, (the son of 

 the late Colonel Dickson,) and to several other of the half- 

 Indian interpreters whom we saw on the St. Peter, that 

 part of chapter 12th of his work, in which he relates that 

 " the Naudowessies have a singular method of celebrating 

 their marriages which seems to bear no resemblance to 

 those made use of by any other nations that he passed 

 through," these men all exclaimed that it was fabulous, 

 that such a practice had never prevailed among any of the 

 Dacotas, though they believed it to be in use with some 

 of the Algonquin tribes. The practice of having a totem 

 or family distinction, exists, as we have already stated, 



