SOURCE OF ST. PETER's RIVER. 349 



\o exist on its banks, at three days' journey from its 

 source. 



At the confluence of these two valleys, a very interest- 

 ing fragment of rock was observed ; it was evidently out 

 of place ; its mass was enormous ; it was of an irregular he- 

 mispherical form, about forty or fifty feet in circumference ; 

 it had been cleft, as we thought, by lightning. The rock 

 was blackened, and a few bushes and trees near it, bore 

 signs of having been on fire. The conflagration does not 

 appear to have spread to a distance ; and from its situation, 

 the fire could scarcely have been made by a traveller. We 

 searched in vain, during the short time that we stopped near 

 it, for traces of fusion upon the rock. This mass is granitic, 

 and presents very distinctly the appearance of a formation 

 in concentric shales. Rocks were observed at some distance 

 which, from their white colour, were presumed to be sand- 

 stone. Above the junction of the rivulet with the St. Pe- 

 ter, a rapid occurs in the river, called Patterson's rapid. 

 We were too far to see it, but it is not very considerable. 

 We were, from observations made higher up on the river, 

 induced to consider the rocks which occasion it, as pri- 

 mitive. 



On the evening of the 18th of July, we encamped on 

 the banks of the river. When descending into the valley 

 from the prairie, with a view to select a suitable spot for 

 our evening's camp, our attention was suddenly called to 

 the new features which it displayed. High rocks of a 

 rugged aspect arose in an insulated manner in the midst of 

 the widened valley, through which the St. Peter winds its 

 way. We improved the rest of the afternoon in examin- 

 ing them, and experienced no little satisfaction in finding 

 them to be primitive rocks in situ. The pleasure we ex- 

 perienced sprang not from the mere associations of home, 



