338 EXPEDITION TO THi: 



nitic boulders, which appear to be quite deficient in the 

 lower part of the river, are found tolerably abundant after 

 passing the village of Taoapa. In some cases they assume a 

 very large size; one of them was of an elliptical form; it 

 was twelve yards in periphery, and five feet high ; it is 

 evidently out of place, and forms a conspicuous object in tlie 

 prairie. The designs made upon it by the Indians, consisting 

 of thick lines divided by intermediate dots, prove that it 

 was with them an object of veneration. There are likewise 

 amphibolic boulders scattered over the country. The bed 

 of the river presents but few islands below the rapids, but 

 above these it is checkered with numerous small sandy 

 islands, which change the direction of the channel, and 

 contribute to the rapidity of the current. The largest 

 of these islands does not exceed three hundred yards in 

 length, and thirty in breadth. The river is a very mean- 

 dering one ; so much so, that the canoes were seldom steer- 

 ed for five minutes at a time in the same direction. The 

 courses of the river varied from south-west to north-east, 

 and in some cases even were south-east. The situation of 

 Camp Crescent was estimated, by Mr. Colhoun, from ob- 

 servations taken under unfavourable circumstances, to be 

 about latitude 44° 21' 27" north, longitude 94° 15' west; 

 so that, during our progress up the St. Peter, we had made 

 but 65' of westing, and 32' 22" of southing. The river re- 

 ceives in this extent no tributary of any importance ; a few 

 small rivulets, not exceeding ten or twelve in number, enter 

 it occasionally from the right or left bank. Those only 

 which deserve any mention are. Elk, which enters from 

 the right bank, about twenty miles above the fort ; and the 

 small rivulet which comes in from the left bank about 

 forty miles above the fort, and which is probably the same 

 as Carver's river ; at abovt twenty-five miles below the 



