NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION 



TO THE 



SOURCE OF ST. PETER'S RIVER, 



CHAPTER I. 



The party leave Lake Travers. They fall in with large 

 herds of buffalo. Observations upon the ravings of 

 this animal. Meeting with a war party of the fVahk- 

 pakofas loho manifest hostile dispositions. Arrival at 

 Pembina. 



THE fort of the Columbia Fur Company has been de- 

 termined, by Mr. Colhoun, to be in latitude 45° S9' 52" 

 north, and in longitude 96° 34' 30" west; the magnetic 

 variation at this place amounts to 12° 28' 50" east. The 

 lake upon which it stands is about fifteen miles long; in 

 breadth it scarcely exceeds one mile. It is the handsomest 

 of the three lakes which we saw near the head of the St. 

 Peter. It is incased more than one hundred feet below the 

 adjoining prairies, but the valley in which it lies is about 

 double the breadth of the lake itself, and is filled with large 

 fragments of primitive rocks. A view of this lake has been 

 given in the Frontispiece to volume second, it includes the 

 Company's fort, the Indian lodges near it, and al«o a scaf- 

 fold, upon which tlae remains of a Sioux had been depo- 

 sited. The horizon is bounded by a distant view of the 

 Coteau des Prairies. The lake has received its present apr 



VojL. II 2 



