SOURCE OP ST Peter's river. 361 



east, passes east of tlie group of small lakes called Devil 

 Lake, divides the tributaries of the St. Peter from those of 

 the Missouri, and extends southerly as far as the head of 

 the Blue Earth, where it gradually widens and sinks to 

 the level of tlie surrounding country. 



A second ridge or Coteau des Prairies is said to run 

 in a direction nearly parallel to that which we have 

 just described. It commences at the southern bend of 

 Mouse river, near the 4Sth parallel of latitude, and pro- 

 ceeds, in a course nearly south-east, for about eighty miles, 

 when it turns to the west of south, and continues probably 

 beyond the 44th, where it likewise sinks and disappears. 

 In the valley between these two ridges, the Riviere de 

 Jacques, or James River, runs and empties itself into the 

 Missouri about the 43d degree of latitude. Thus the Co- 

 teau des Prairies may probably be considered as changing 

 the course of the Missouri, above the Mandan villages, 

 from an easterly to a southerly direction, and as keeping 

 it in that direction for nearly three hundred miles, when 

 the river reassumes a course east of south, which it keeps 

 until it unites with the Mississippi. It is to the vicinity 

 of the Coteau to the St. Peter, on the one side, and of the 

 Mississippi, on the other, that we are to attribute the small 

 size of the tributaries of the St. Peter. In fact, they are 

 mere brooks conveying the waters on the east side of the 

 ridge ; but, probably, about the spring of the year, they 

 are much swollen by the thawing of the snow and ice up- 

 on the ridge ; it is in this manner that we may account for 

 the water-marks found along the bluffs which enclose their 

 comparatively large valleys. 



Its distance from our course prevented us from visiting 

 the Coteau, which we should otherwise have done. It was 

 intended that Mr. Keating should examine this remarka- 



VoL, I. 46 



