Fe Journey to the Céteau des Prairies, Sc. 139 
souri tribes. From the exceedingly strange nature of these tradi- 
tions and the great estimation in which this place is held by 
the savages, as well as froma full conviction in my own mind, 
that this pipe stone differing in itself from all other known miner- 
als, might be a subject of great interest to science, I determined to 
see it #7 situ, and not only to understand its position and relations, 
but also to enable myself to give to the world, with more confi- 
dence, the strange and almost incredible traditions and legends 
which I have drawn from the different tribes, who have visited 
that place. 
For this purpose I had made all the necessary preparations, and 
Was to start ina day or two, accompanied by several officers and 
men of the garrison, whom Maj. Bliss, then in command, had 
allowed to accompany me. Just at this time however, we got 
news by a steamer which arrived from below, that Mr. Feath- 
erstonhaugh, was near the fort with fifteen men, in a bark ca- 
noe, on his way up the St. Peter’s, having been sent by govern- 
ment to explore the Céteau des Prairies. At this intelligence, I 
| immediately abandoned the journey, and taking a corporal with 
| me from the garrison; descended the Mississippi in a bark canoe, 
to Prairie du Chien, and afterwards to Rock Island and St. Louis. 
In that city I learned on the return of Mr. Featherstonhaugh, 
that he did not go to the Pipe Stone Quarry, and I returned to 
New York in the fall, and in the succeeding spring, made a jour- 
hey from that city, by the way of Buffalo, Detroit, Green Bay, 
Prairie du Chien, and Falls of St. Anthony, to the Coteau des 
Prairies, and the Red Pipe Stone Quarry, a distance of 2,400 
miles, for which purpose I devoted eight months, travelling at a 
considerable expense, and for a great part of the way with much 
fatigue and exhaustion. At Buffalo I was joined by a young 
gentleman from England, of fine taste and education, who ac- 
companied me the whole way and proved to be a pleasant and - 
amusing companion. 
From the Falls of St. Anthony we started on horseback with 
an Indian guide, tracing the southern shore of the St. Peter’s 
__ River about eighty miles, crossing it at a place called “ Traverse 
de Sioux,” and recrossing it at another point about thirty miles 
above the month of “Terre Bleue,” from whence we steered ina 
; direction a little north of west, for the “ Cdteau des Prairies,” 
-» . leaving the St. Peter’s River, and crossing one of the most beau- 
* 
