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The old Indians assert that the discovery of the red pipestone is due to 

 the annnai passage of the buffaloes, which, in following and wearing 

 down their accustomed migratory path, at length reached the bed that con- 

 tains it. 



It may be well imagined how interesting such a discovery must have 

 been to a people who attach so much importance to the pipe, and who were 

 thus furnished with a material bearing their favorite red color, and of a na- 

 ture to be easily cut and polished. 



This bufialo path of discovery is still visible for the whole length of a 

 mile, over which there are evidences that the Indians had extracted speci- 

 mens long before they were reduced to the necessity of quarrying, accord- 

 ing to their unskillful methods, the main bed. Hence, for several years past 

 they have expressed regret at the difiiculty of obtaining it. To reach it 

 now, it is necessary to blast a superincumbent stratum of quarzite four and 

 a half feet thick, which could not have been effected with their limited 

 means ; so that they were delighted to see us coming in this particular to 

 their assistance. 1 set my men at work upon it ; and in three days the 

 quarry was opened and disencumbered. In the mean time, I took advan- 

 tage of every favorable occasion to continue my astronomical observations, 

 and to vaccinate the Indians who had joined our party. 



The valley of the " Ked Pipestone" extends from KNW. to SSE. 

 Valley of i" t^e form of an ellipsis; being about three miles in length, 

 the Red with a breadth at its smaller axis of half a mile. It is cradle- 

 Pipebtone. shaped, and its slope to the east is a smooth sward, without trees 

 and without rocks. Its slope to the west is rugged, presenting a surface of 

 rocks throughout its whole length, that form a very picturesque appear- 

 ance, and would deserve a special description if this were the place to do 

 so. But I am now more particularly interested in defining its geological 

 features. 



The principal rock that strikes the attention of the observer in this re- 

 markable inland bluff, is an indurated (metamorphic) sand-rock or quarzite, 

 the red color of which diminishes in intensity from the base to the summit. 

 It is distinctly stratified ; the upper beds being very much weather worn 

 and disintegrated into large and small cubic fragments. 



The whole thickness of this quarzite, which immediately overlies the 

 bed of the red pipestone, is 26j^- leet. Its strata appear to have a small dip 

 to the NE. The floor of the valley, which is higher than the red pipe- 

 stone, is formed by the inferior strata of the quarzite, and in the spring of the 

 year is most generally under water ; the action of which upon the rock is 

 apparent in the great quantity of fragments strewed over the valley, so as 

 to render it uncomfortable to walk over them. The creek by which the 

 valley is drained, feeds in its course three distinct small basins at different 

 elevations, that penetrate down as far as the red pipestone. 



This red pipestone, not more interesting to the Indian than it is to the 

 man of science, by its unique character, deserves a particular description. 

 In the quarry of it which 1 had opened, the thickness of the bed is one 

 foot and a half; the upper portion of which separates in thin slabs, whilst 

 the lower ones are more compact. As a mineralogical species, it may 

 be described as follows : compact ; structure slaty ; receiving a dull pol- 

 ish ; having a red streak ; color blood-red, with dots of a fliinter shade of 

 the same color ; fracture rough ; sectile; feel somewhat greasy; hardness 



