SOURCE OF ST. PETER S RIVER. 103 



kept up to a level far superior to that to which it now attains, 

 by barriers which we shall not attempt to trace, has broken 

 its bounds, and the country has been very extensively 

 drained. Whether this operation is still continued to this 

 day, can be but a matter of conjecture ; we see, however, 

 nothing that makes it either impossible or even improbable. 

 That at one time the Mississippi was one of the great out- 

 lets, appears to us equally probable ; and that the innume- 

 rable boulders which cover its valley, and which are ana- 

 logous in character to the rocks which we have observed 

 in situ on the Winnepeek and elsewhere, have been de- 

 rived from the great convulsions to which we allude, ap- 

 pears to us equally apparent. We are not prepared to enter 

 into any discussion as to the manner in which these boul- 

 ders have been dispersed ; we profess ourselves as little 

 satisfied as any geologists can be, with the various theories 

 which have been suggested in Europe to account for the 

 boulders of the Jura, or for those which cover the north of 

 Germany, and which are probably analogous to the rocks 

 observed, in place, in the Scandinavian peninsula. We are 

 not prepared to admit that the boulders of the state of 

 Ohio have been projected by a subterraneous explosion, or 

 have been washed by the mere force of the stream, or 

 floated down upon masses of ice, &c. &c. ; but we can- 

 not resist the conclusion of our senses, that they have 

 not always lain where we now find them, that they have 

 been removed from their original site, that every thing 

 makes it probable that they were formerly connected with 

 the primitive formations of the St. Peter, the Winnepeek, 

 the Lake of the Woods, &c. Thus far we think ourselves 

 warranted to proceed from observations. The rest must be 

 a matter of speculation, and we are not disposed to indulge 

 in it. We shall therefore i-cstrict ourselves to the follow- 



