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Journey to the Céteau des Prairies, §c. 141 
This beautiful wall is perfectly stratified in several distinct hori- 
zontal layers of light gray and rose or flesh colored quartz ; and 
through the greater part of the way, both on the front of the wall 
and over acres of its horizontal surface, it is highly polished or 
glazed, as if by ignition. 
At the base of this wall and running parallel to it there is a 
level prairie of half a mile in width, in any and all parts of 
which the Indians procure the red stone for their pipes by dig- 
ging through the soil and several slaty layers of the red stone to 
the depth of four or five feet. From the very numerous marks 
of ancient and modern diggings or excavations, it would appear 
that this place has been, for many centuries, resorted to for the 
red stone, and from the great number of graves and remains of 
ancient fortifications in its vicinity, (as well as from their actual 
traditions, ) it would seem that the Indian tribes have long held 
this place in high superstitious estimation, and also that it has 
n the resort of different tribes, who have made their regular 
pilgrimages here to renew their pipes. 
It is evident that these people set an extraordinary value on the 
red — independently of the fact that it is more easily carved 
and a better Pipe than any other stone ; for whenever an 
presents a pipe made of it, he gives it as something from 
Vasile Great Spirit ; and some of the tribes have a tradition that 
the red men were all created from the red stone, and that it 
: thereby i is “a part of their flesh.” Such was the superstition of 
the Sioux on this subject, that we had great difficulty in ap- 
proaching it, being stopped by several hundred of them, who 
ordered us back and threatened us very hard, saying “that no 
white man had ever been to it, and that none should ever go.” 
In my notes on Manners and Customs of North American In- 
dians, which will shortly appear, I shall give a very novel and 
Curious account of their traditions and superstitious forms about 
this great medicine or mystery place. 
The red pipe stone, will, I suppose, take its place amongst 
interesting minerals ; and the “ Cdteau des Prairies” will become 
hereafter an important theme for geologists, not only from the 
fact that it is the only known locality of that mineral, but from 
other phenomena relating to it. The single fact of such a table 
of quartz, resting in perfectly horizontal strata on this elevated 
Plateau, is of itself, as I conceive, a very interesting subject for 
investigation, and one which calls upon the scientific world for 
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