SOURCE OF ST. PETEr's RIVER- 343 



and damaged. Proceeding the next day on our course, we 

 struck the St. Peter about noon, and found its current 

 very rapid, but its size reduced to nearly one-half of that 

 which it presented at the Crescent. This confirmed the 

 report of our guides, that the Terre Bleue almost equals 

 the St. Peter in the quantity of its waters. We had been 

 able to trace the course of the river during the morn- 

 ing, by the line of woods which skirts it, and by the bluffs 

 which border upon its right bank, rising to a height of 

 from sixty to eighty feet; on the left bank, the bluffs are 

 neither so high, nor so abrupt. The country, however, al- 

 most every where discovers its horizontal stratification by 

 the steep acclivities which it forms even in the prairies ; 

 the country presenting rather the appearance of steppes 

 than of the rounded swells which generally characterize 

 prairie land. At a small distance from our course, we ob- 

 served horizontal ledges of rock, which we were inclined 

 to consider as the limestone that overlays the sandstone. 

 Animals of every kind still continued very scarce. A gar- 

 ter-snake was killed near Swan Lake, upon which our 

 guides took occasion to inform us that the rattlesnake had 

 sometimes been found near these lakes, but never to the 

 north of them ; this appearing to be their northernmost 

 limit in this direction. The botany of the country was 

 diversified by the reappearance of the Gerardria, a plant 

 which we had not seen since leaving Chicago. Near Swan 

 Lake two elevations were observed, which appeared to be 

 artificial tumuli. Some depressions were also seen, and 

 these were by Renville called forts, but by whom they 

 were scooped out, if indeed they be artificial, he could not 

 inform us. 



We crossed the St. Peter, at noon, immediately above a 

 ripple ; our horses sank to their girths in the water ; one 



