SOURCE OP ST. PETERS RIVER. 87 



"which it has excavated basins of irregular dimensions con- 

 nected by narrow channels, through which the whole vo- 

 lume of waters, which is very considerable, proceeds with 

 an inconceivable rapidity. The rocks through which it 

 passes are decidedly primitive, but assume that chaotic 

 appearance, (if we may be permitted to apply the term,) 

 which we had already observed in the primitive rocks of the 

 valley of the St. Peter. We can account for the features 

 which they present but by supposing that they were formed 

 under the influence of a very great crystalline force, which 

 was disturbed by some extraneous causes. Hence we observe 

 within a small compass a number of different centres of crys- 

 tallization at which different rocks were probably forming at 

 the same time ; within a few feet of each other there was a 

 tendency to form gneiss, or sienite, granite, or mica-shist, 

 &c. ; the consequence of which is that, at those centres, 

 we observe distinct and well characterized rocks, while 

 the intermediate space is filled by an irregular and rapid 

 transition from the one into the other. We observed no 

 distinct signs of stratification. At first we were inclined 

 to refer this mode of formation, though on a much more 

 gigantic scale, to that of the Schnecken-stein or topaz rock 

 of Saxony. But we soon observed that the difference was 

 immense, for while this exhibits an union of masses of ho- 

 mogeneous composition, differing only in position ; the 

 rocks of the Winnepeek do not present the '' platten und 

 grosmassigen absonderung" of the W^ernerian school ; they 

 display no such homogeneous composition, and no division 

 into masses ; they on the contrary exhibit a connexion be- 

 tween all the parts, a fusion of Uie one into the other. 



At one spot, (Portage de I'lllet,) we observed a granite 

 with an excess of feldspar throughout the mass, which oc- 

 casions in it a fine lamellar sli'uctiu'c : this is however in- 



