80 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Allen, 1844. 



that river about eighty -six miles. Below that we could not see any recent 

 signs of them. We found antelope in the same range with the buffalo, but 

 no elk, and very seldom a common deer. While among the buffalo we 

 killed as many as we wanted, and without trouble." 



THE UPPER DBS MOINES RIVER. 



Upon approaching the region of the boundary line between Iowa and 

 Minnesota he became penned among numerous lakes, and was compelled 

 to cross a narrow strait by swimming 200 yards. This was probably across 

 a narrow spot in Swan lake, in Emmett county, Iowa. From there he sent 

 a party to examine the country toward the east. This party reached Iowa 

 lake (on the boundary line) and explored its outlet toward the east and into 

 the East Chain of lakes, reaching the conclusion that the water was tribu- 

 tary to the Blue Earth, " or of an unknown tributary of the Big Cedar." 

 He passed by Eagle lake, and Independence lake, camping at each, and 

 arrived in the vicinity of Windom where he describes the country as a 

 " wonderfully broken surface, rising and falling in high knobs and deep 

 ravines, with numerous little lakes in the deep valleys, some of them clear 

 and pretty and others grassy." A party which visited the Blue mounds, 

 near Windom, found an artificial mound of stone on the highest peak. He 

 visited Talcott lake, where he rested his men in camp, and himself visited 

 lake Shetek, which he pronounced the highest source of the Des Moines 

 worth noticing as such, though he also mentions an inlet from the north- 

 ward, "but of no size or character." He crossed the Cottonwood nearly 

 north from lake Shetek, also the Redwood river still further north, and the 

 latter again near Redwood falls. From the mouth of the Redwood he 

 explored the south shore of the Minnesota several miles up and down, and 

 returned to lake Shetek. He crossed the Coteau des Prairies in Cottouwood 

 county, styling it the " Big Prairie." He reached the Big Sioux river without 

 finding any such stream as that which had been shown on the maps as 

 "Floyd's river." 



CAPT. E. v. SUMNER'S EXPEDITION IN 1845. 

 The expedition of Capt. E. V. Sumner* seems to have been made more 



Executive Documents, 1st Seas., 29th Congress, 1845-46. No. 2. p. 217. 



