HISTORICAL SKETCH. 71 



1838, Nicollet.] 



THE UNDINE REGION. 



I shall now proceed to give a short account of some of the regions of country adjoining the 

 Coteau des Prairies, omitting those which have already found a place in the geography of the' 

 United States, so as to be more particular concerning such as are but little or not at all known. 

 Among these, that which appeared to me the most favorable, is the one watered by the bold Man- 

 kato or Blue Earth river, and to which I have given the name of Undine region. 



The great number of the navigable tributaries of the Mankato, spreading themselves out in 

 the shape of a fan ; the group of lakes surrounded by well-wooded hills ; some wide-spreading 

 prairies with fertile soil ; others apparently less favored, but open to improvement ; the whole 

 together bestow upon this region a most picturesque appearance. It was while on a visit to lakes 

 Okmnanpidan and Tchanhassan( Little Heron and Maplewood lakes), that u occurred tome to give 

 it the name that I have adopted, derived from that of an interesting and romantic German tale, 

 the heroine of which belonged to the extensive race of water-spirits living in the brooks and rivers 

 and lakes, whose father was a mighty prince. She was, moreover, the niece of a great brook (the 

 Mankato) who lived in the midst of forests, and was beloved by all the many great streams of the 

 surrounding country, etc., etc. 



I do not know why I fancied an analogy between the ideal country described in the tale, and 

 that of the one before me ; but I involuntarily, as it were, adopted the name.* 



The limit of this region is the N. E. prong of the Coteau des Prairies, which takes in be 

 sources of the Mankato and of the La Hontan rivers, subdividing itself into undulations whence 

 proceed the waters of the Wazioju, or Pine river, Miniska, or White Water river, Okah, or Heron 

 run, &c., &c., all emptying into the Mississippi. 



The Mankato becomes navigable with boats within a few miles of its sources. It is deep, with 

 a moderate current along a great portion of its course, but becomes very rapid on its approach to 

 the St. Peter's. Its bed is narrowly walled up by banks rising to an elevation of from sixty to 

 eighty feet, and reaching up to the uplands through which the river flows. These banks are 

 frequently cliffs, or vertical escarpments, such as the one called by the Sioux Manya kichaksa, or 

 cleft elevation. The breadth of the river is pretty uniformly from 80 to 120 feet wide ; and 

 ttie average breadth of the valley through which it flows scarcely a quarter of a mile. The latter, 

 as well as the high grounds, are well-wooded ; the timber beginning to spread out on both shores, 

 especially since they have become less frequented by the Sioux hunters, and are not so often Bred. 

 But the crossings of the river are hard to find, requiring to be pointed out by an experienced 

 guide. I have laid down on the map my route over the Undine region, and the geographical posi- 

 tions of the crossing places will be fonnd in the table at the end of the report. 



On the left bank of the Mankato, six miles from its mouth, in a rocky bluff composed of 

 sandstone and limestone, are found cavitives in which the famed blue or green earth, used by the 

 Sioux as their principal pigment, is obtained. This material is nearly exhausted, and it is not 

 likely that this is the spot where a Mr. Le Sueur (who is mentioned in the narrative of Major Long's 

 Second Expedition, as also by Mr. Featherstonhaugh) could, in his third voyage during the year 

 1700, have collected his four thousand pounds of copper earth sent by him to France. I have 

 reason to believe that Le Sueur's location is on the river to which I have affixed his name, and 

 which empties into the Mankato three quarters of a league above Fort L'Huillier, built by him, 

 and where he spent a winter. 



This location corresponds precisely with that given by Charlevoix, while it is totally inap- 

 plicable to the former. Here the blue earth is abundant in the steep and elevated hills at the 

 mouth of this river, which hills form a broken country on the right side of the Mankato. Mr. 

 Fremont and myself have verified this fact he during his visit to Le Sueur river; and I upon 

 the locality designated by Mr. Featherstonhangh, where the Ndakotahs formerly assembled in 



*Thc beautiful poetic conceit of Nicollet in applying the name of Undine to this region should be perpetuated. 

 Undine was a water-sprite, that had control of the waters so as to accomplish her designs. Her uncle, Kuhleborn, who 

 possessed a great stream, was influential over many, and caused sudden floods to stop travel, and to intercept fugitives. 

 His passage from province to province was often subterranean, and brought him into numerous lakes, He made his 

 realm obedient to Undine, and aided her ambitious design to captivate a rich and noble knight. The story is one of the 

 eighteenth century, written by Fouque. The multiplicity of streams, springs, and lakes in this region, with occasional 

 subterranean channels ('see Geology of Klur, Earth County,) greatly in contrast with the monotonous, treeless prairies on 

 either side, make it an image of the domain of Kuhleborn, and suggest that it is the habitation of Undine, and her 

 associate water-nymphs. The valleys, and some of the uplands, in this region, are wooded and the streams sometimes 

 run in deep, rock-bound gorges. 



