36 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Keating, 1823. 



has a fine crystalline grain and a color varying from white to yellow."* 

 Apparently not observing that this sandstone rises gradually higher in 

 ascending the valley, he refers to several " hills " located near the river, 

 one of which, "composed principally of loose sand," was estimated at about 

 one hundred and fifty feet in hight. At Camp Crescent (old Travers des 

 Sioux), Major Long's party abandoned the canoes and followed the trail 

 to Redstone, thus cutting off the great bend where the Blue Earth river 

 enters the Minnesota, and losing the opportunity of examining the copper 

 mine of Le Sueur. 



Up to the point of abandoning the canoes the banks of the Minnesota 

 are stated to be composed chiefly if not altogether of sandstone. On the 

 last day of travel in the canoes, a bluff was seen rising sixty to eighty feet, 

 consisting of white sandstone, and called White Rock, probably near Ottawa. 

 He also observed at a distance horizontal ledges of rock that he considered 

 "the limestone that lies on the sandstone." This point was probably at or 

 near Kasota. The only streams that are regarded worthy of mention up to 

 Camp Crescent, are the Elk, entering on the right bank, said to be about 

 twenty miles above the fort, now called Credit river, and "the small rivulet 

 which comes in from the left bank about forty miles above the fort, and which 

 is probably the same as Carver's river." The forest was found to consist 

 chiefly of maple, white walnut, hickory, oak, elm, ash and linden, inter- 

 spersed with grapevines, &c., and the absence of black walnut was particu- 

 larly observed. 



The party seem not to have passed near enough to the red quartzyte 

 outcrop near New Ulm to have noticed it, since Keating makes no mention 

 of it. The Blue Earth is said to take its rise "in the Coteau des Prairies, 

 a highland that stretches in a northerly direction between the Missouri 

 and the St. Peter." This is the first mention of this natural phenomenon 

 under that name. 



BOULDERS OF PRIMITIVE ROOK IN THE MINNESOTA VALLEY. 



In reference to the granite and gneiss of the valley Keating makes the 

 following observation: 



*The sandstone here mentioned by Keating i> the Jordan sandstone lying below the Shakopee limestone. 



