360 EXPEDITION TO THE 



ing harvest of wild rice, and informed us that they were 

 very promising ; the grain, they thought, would be ripe 

 in the middle of August ; the weather was, in fact, very 

 favourable to its growth, the temperature having kept up 

 for the last few days at near 90°. We were likewise in- 

 formed by them, that an inroad had been made by the 

 lower Sisitons upon the lands of the Sauks on the Des 

 Moines river, and that, not meeting with their enemies, 

 they had attacked the lawas, killed a number, and taken 

 many prisoners. 



It is interesting, as we proceed, to find that the same 

 devotional spirit which we observed below still exists. 

 Many rocks are used as consecrated spots, at which the 

 Indian pauses to offer a sacrifice to the ruling Spirits. A 

 very large block, covered with circles, crescents and 

 crosses, designed with red paint, was considered sacred to 

 the heavenly bodies, and these marks were held to be de- 

 signations of the sun, moon, and stars. The party were like- 

 wise occasionally gladdened with a view of fresh tracks of 

 the buffalo. 



On the 22d, w^e reached another, and the last, expansion 

 of the river. It is also improperly called a lake ; by the 

 Indians it is termed E'atakek^, which has been interpreted 

 " Lac des Grosses Roches," Big Stone Lake. Our view 

 to the west was this day bounded by an extensive ridge or 

 swell in the prairies, known by the name of the " Coteau 

 des Prairies." It is distant from our course about twenty 

 or thirty miles ; its height above the level of the St. Peter 

 is probably not short of one thousand feet. According to 

 the best information which we have obtained, this ridge 

 commences about the 49th parallel of north latitude, and 

 between the 9Sth and 99th degrees of west longitude, from 

 Greenwich. It proceeds in a direction nearly south-south- 



