Journey to the Céteau des Prairies, §c. 143 
The fact alone that these blocks differ in character from all 
other specimens which I have seen in my travels, amongst the 
thousands of bowlders which are strewed over the great valley of 
the Missouri and Mississippi, from the Yellowstone almost to 
the Gulf of Mexico, raises in my mind an unanswerable question 
as regards the location of their native bed, and the means by 
which they have reached their isolated position, like five broth- 
ers, leaning against and supporting each other, without the exist- 
ence of another bowlder of any description within fifty miles of 
them. here are thousands and tens of thousands of bowlders 
Scattered over the prairies at the base of the Céteau on either 
side, and so throughout the valley of the St. Peter’s and Missis- 
sippi, which are also subjects of very great interest and im 
to science, inasmuch as they present to the world a vast variety of 
characters, and each one, although strayed away from its original 
position, bears incontestible proof of the character of its native 
bed. The tract of country lying between the St. Peter’s River 
and the Coteau, over which we passed, presents innumerable spe- 
cimens of the kind, and near the base of the Céteau, they are 
strewed over the prairie in countless numbers, presenting almost 
an incredible variety of rich and beautiful colors, and undoubt- 
edly traceable, (if they can be traced,) to separate and distinct — 
beds. Amongst these beautiful groups, it was sometimes a very 
easy matter to sit on my horse and count within my sight, some 
twenty or thirty different varieties of quartz and granite in round- 
ed bowlders, of every hue and color, from snow white to intense 
red and yellow and blue, and almost toa jet black, each one well 
characterized and evidently from a distinct quarry. With the 
beautiful hues and almost endless characters of these blocks, I 
became completely surprised and charmed, and I resolved to pro 
cure specimens of every variety, which I did with success, by 
dismounting from my horse and breaking small bits from them 
With my hammer, until I had something like an hundred differ- 
ent varieties containing all the tints and colors of a painter’s pal- 
let. These I at length threw away, as I had on several former 
occasions, other minerals and fossils, which I had collected and 
lugzed along from day to day, and sometimes from week to week. 
Whether these varieties of quartz and granite can all be traced 
to their native beds, or whether they all have originals at this 
time exposed above the earth’s surface, are generally matters of 
