24 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Carver, 1766. 



This shows that these parts are the highest lands in North America ; and it is an instance 

 not to be paralleled on the other three quarters of the globe, that four rivers of such magnitude 

 should take their rise together, and each, after running separate courses, discharge their waters 

 into dffereut oceans at the distance of two thousand miles from their sources. 



CARVER'S OPINION OF THE MINNESOTA VALLEY. 



The river St. Pierre, which runs through the territories of the Naudowessies, flows through 

 a most delightful country, abounding with all the necessaries of life that grow spontaneously, and 

 with a little cultivation it might be made to produce even the luxuries of life. Wild rice grows here 

 in great abundance ; and every part is filled with trees bending under their loads of fruit, such as 

 plnms, grapes and apples ; the meadows are covered with hops, and many sorts of vegetables ; 

 whilst the ground is stored with useful roots, with angelica, spikenard, and ground-nuts as large as 

 hen's eggs. At a little distance from the sides of the river are eminences from which you have 

 views that cannot be exceeded even by the most beautiful of those I have already described ; 

 amidst these are delightful groves, and such amazing quantities of maples that they would produce 

 sugar sufficient for any number of inhabitants. 



THE ST. PETER SANDSTONE. 



A little way from the mouth of this river, on the north side of it, stands a hill, one part of 

 which, that toward the Mississippi, is composed entirely of white stone, of the same soft nature as 

 that I have before described ; for such indeed is all the stone in this country. But what appears 

 remarkable is, that the color of it is as white as the driven snow, The outward part of it was 

 crumbled by the wind and weather into heaps of sand, of which a beautiful composition might be 

 made ; or, I am of opinion, that when properly treated, the stone itself would grow harder by time, 

 and have a very noble effect in architecture, 



Near that branch which is termed the Marble river, is a mountain , from which the Indians 

 get a sort of red stone, out of which they hew the bowls of their pipes. [This, doubtless, is a 

 reference to the catlinite of Pipestone county. N. H. W.] 



Carver's work contains a dissertation on the origin, manners, customs, 

 religion and language of the Indians, followed by a chapter on the leading 

 species of animals, particularly the game animals, and on the trees, shrubs, 

 roots, herbs and flowers of the interior parts of North America, but as he 

 assigns none of them to their habitats, they cannot be claimed as indigenous 

 to Minnesota, though doubtless most of them are. 



Carver gives a description and location of many of the lakes northwest 

 from Grand Portage, and of some in northern Minnesota, about the head- 

 waters of the Mississippi and the Eed river of the North, but as he did not 

 visit them, and his account is based wholly on descriptions derived from the 

 Indians and traders, it is quite incorrect in some particulars. He states that 

 "the most remote source" of the Mississippi river is a lake not far from Red 

 lake, a little to the southwest, called White Bear lake, of about the same 

 size as Red lake.* It is now known as lake Whipple. 



*The map accompanying Carver's book (London edition) shows the general inaccuracy of Carver not only in 

 depicting his own observations, but also in reproducing those of earlier writers. "The country of peace]' and the Red 

 Marble river, are so named doubtless from the red quartzyte and catlinite (the latter used for making the peace 



calumet) about the headwaters of the Watonwan and Cottouwood rivers, and should be represented on the w^st Fork of 

 the Verd river instead of the east. The mountains of "The country off 

 " Mountains o? the Prairie." Compare Keating's strictures upon Carve 



the Verd river instead of the east. The mountains of "The country of peace" are a poetic exaggeration, like Hiawatha's 



" jating's strictures upon Carver in Long's Expedition in 1823, Vol. 1, p. 336. 



