344 EXPEDITION TO THE 



mile further, we passed a small stream about fifteen yards 

 wide, and eighteen inches deep, having a white sandy bot- 

 tom ; it is designated by the name of the liiviere aux 

 Licn^s, (Cottonwood,*) from the abundance of this tree 

 on its banks ; by the Indians it is called W^rhoju Wa- 

 tapa. A bloody fray is stated to have occurred at the junc- 

 tion of the Aux Liards and St. Peter ; it arose between two 

 tribes of Sioux, who met there with traders. The latter 

 having furnished them with liquor, the Indians drank to in- 

 toxication, quarrelled among themselves, and killed seven 

 of their number. In travelling through an Indian country, 

 many places are pointed out that have acquired a similar 

 melancholy celebrity, and that tend to confirm the travel- 

 ler in the conviction of the heavy responsibility which at- 

 taches to those who have introduced, and still persist in 

 canying, liquor among the Indians. 



Our journey during the afternoon was continued along 

 the valley of the St. Peter, which was observed to be from 

 one to one and a half mile wide. The adjacent prairie is 

 elevated about eighty feet above the level of the river. A 

 feature which struck us was the abundance of fragments of 

 primitive rocks which were strewed in this valley. They 

 were for the most part deeply imbedded in the ground, and 

 bore but few traces of attrition : their bulk was very large. 

 For a while we doubted whether we were not treading 

 upon the crest of a formation of primitive rocks, which 

 pierced through the superincumbent formations, but a close 

 observation evinced such a confusion and diversity in the 

 nature of the primitive blocks, as well as such signs of fric- 

 tion, as satisfied us that these were out of place, still they 

 appeared to warrant the geologist in his prediction, that 



• Popalus angulata. 



