SOURCE OF ST. PETER'S RIVER. 7 



ports were groundless, and that this excursion would be 

 inconvenient to him, as it would deprive him of the oppor- 

 tunity of laying in a store of buffalo meat for winter, we 

 reluctantly acquiesced in his wish to be released from his 

 promise. 



The first day of our journey was unpleasant; it was 

 across dry prairies. We stopped to dine upon the banks of 

 what is termed Mushtincha Watapan, (Hare river.) At the 

 time that we crossed it, the sti-eam had disappeared ; a lit- 

 tle stagnant water, collected in hollows, offered but an un- 

 pleasant drink for ourselves and our horses. This valley is 

 a mere trench in the prairie, into which the waters collect 

 after heavy rains ; it affords them a passage to the more per- 

 manent streams. Its bed is about fifteen yards wide. The 

 woods became very scarce as we advanced, only a few 

 points being seen at a distance ; the plain upon which we 

 were travelling was apparently boundless ; it was covered 

 with a short grass of a pale or yellowish-green hue. The 

 eye of the mineralogist could not detect a single stone 

 within a mile's travel, and the few that were observed 

 during the day, were rolled and uninteresting. In some 

 places pebbles were very thick, as if we had been travel- 

 ling upon the bed of some foi'mer river or lake ; but the 

 mind endeavours in vain to establish limits to the vast ex- 

 panse of water, which certainly at some former day over- 

 flowed the whole of that country. 



On the bluff which encloses the lake we saw a few small 

 tumuli, the last that were observed by our party ; we have 

 not been able to hear of the existence of any to the north-west 

 of this place. Thus have we, during this expedition, traced 

 these ancient Indian works from Irville in Ohio to the head 

 of Red river, upon a distance of upwards of eight hundred 

 miles in a direct line, and nearly double that amount ac- 



