19 [ 237 ] 



Next comes the region of country between the St. Peter's and the upper 

 „ .^ . portions of La Hontan and Lesueur rivers, above referred to. 



oib- rancs. ,^^^^ .^ ^^^ extensive district, thiclcly Set in forests, amidst which 

 there are reported to be many large lakes. 



The French give to the forests the name of Bots-francs, or Boisforts, 

 whenever they are not composed principally of trees belonging to the fam- 

 ily of the coniferoi. 



To complete an account of the physical geography of the country, ui- 

 cluding Undine Region with the last mentioned, I will now enumerate 

 some of the most important trees, shrubs, and plants, that characterize its 

 »ylva aiidjlora. 



The whole country embraced by the Lower St. Peter's and the Undine 



Botany of Region exceeds any land of the Mississippi above Wisconsin 

 Undine Re- river, as well in the quality and quantity of its timber as the fer- 



S^o'^- tility of its soil. The forests of the valley on the right bank are 

 connected by groves and small wooded streams of the adjoining prairies 

 with the forest called Bois-francs ; and they extend so far southwest as to 

 include the lands of the upper waters of the Mankato river. 



The forest trees, as reported to me by Mr. Geyer, are chiefly soft maple, 

 American and red elm, black walnut, the nettle tree, bass wood, red and 

 white ash ; the undergrowth, the common hawthorn, prickly ash. high 

 cranberry, red root, gray dogwood, fox grapes, horse briar, and moonseed. 

 Among the herbs, are the wild and bristly sarsaparilla, Indian turnip, the 

 gay orchis, and others ; rushes and the flowering ferns are abundant along 

 the low banks of the rivers. The valley prairies are rich in pasture grasses 

 and leguminous and orchideous plants, such as the yellow ladies' slipper, 

 American and tufted vetch, and others. The lowest parts near the borders 

 of the woods, and those subject to inundations, are filled with the high 

 weeds common to such places — as the ragged cup, tall thistle, great bitter- 

 weed, the tuberous sunflower, and others. 



Swamps are frequent, and some of them contain extensive tracts of tam- 

 arack pines. Cedars grow intermixed wiih red birch on the rocky decliv- 

 ities of the lower Mankato river. Red and bar oak, with hazel, red root, 

 peterswort, and the wild rose, are the frees and shrubs of the uplands. 

 There are, besides, thickets of poplar- birch, that are frequent in the eleva- 

 ted prairies near the river. The prairies are very luxuriant, and generally 

 somewhat level and depressed; the gum plant, and button snake-root are 

 their most abundant and conspicuous herbs. 



To give animation to the Undine Region and to the valley of tiie St. 

 Peter's, as well as to develop trade between the British possessions, the Ter- 

 ritory of Iowa, and the State of Missouri, it would be necessary for govern- 

 ment to open routes of communication between St. Peter's and the Traverse 

 des Sioux, through the Bois-francs mentioned above; between St. Peter's 

 and the Prairie du Chien ; between Dubuque and the Lac-qui-parle ; 

 through the Undine Region, with a fork in the direction of the Traverse des 

 Sioux, passing by Fremont and Okoman lakes, (which latter is at the 

 headwaters of La Hontan river,) and in other directions that would natur- 

 ally suggest themselves. 



The geological formation that characterizes the Undine Region, as well 

 as the St. Peter's, as far nearly as the mouth of the Waraju, is the same as 

 that of Fort Snelling, which 1 shall describe further on. It consists 

 mainly in a thick stratum of friable sandstone as the basis, succeeded by 



