13 [ 237 J 



But to continue our narrative. We left the Sioux crossing-place for the 

 month of the VVaraoJu, or simply the Waraju ; otherwise, Cottonwood 

 river, the riviere au.v Liards of the P'rench. During this journey of 26 

 miles, we visiled the Big Swan, or Marrahtanka lake, represented by some 

 geographers as no more than a large swamp, mistaking it lor some marshy 

 spaces in its vicinity. The truth is, that Marrahtanka lake is a beautiful 

 sheet of water about 13 miles long, in the midst of which are several islands 

 sufficiently large to furnish a summer's retreat to the Sissitons, whose most 

 in)portant village is at the mouth of the Waraju. 



Leaving this village, we proceeded over the elevated prairies that border 

 the river last mentioned, and went on ascending from them to the Coteau 

 des Prairies, in passing through the sources of the Waraju, which we found 

 may be navigable for canoes about two-thirds of its whole length. 



I pitched my tents, during three days, about the group of Shetek, or 

 Shetek Pelican lakes, that occupy a portion of the space forming the 

 Jakes. plateau ot the Coteau des Prairies. This name belongs to the 

 language of the Chippeways, and has been given to them by the voyageurs. 

 The Sioux call this group of lakes Rabechy — meaning the place v/here the 

 pelicans nestle. Their v/aters are, in a great measure, supplied by a fork 

 from the sources of the Des Moines river! They contain an abundance of 

 fish, and their shores are amply supplied with wood to admit the location of 

 enviable farms. Hence we proceeded to the spot which I have designated 

 on my map as the Great Oasis, and called by the Sioux Tchan- 



reat asis. ^Haye-tanka, translated by the voyageurs la grande lisilre de 

 hois — the great skirt of wood. This spot is a forest of limited extent, com- 

 posed of lime trees, swamp ash, prickly ash, white birch, beaver- wood, white 

 oak, &c., and surrounded by large lakes garnished with aquatic plants, 

 swarming with muskrats, covered at certain seasons with wild fowl, and 

 offering a safe protection against the annual firing of the prairies. The 

 usual depth of these lakes is from 7 to 12 feet; and the soil of their borders 

 IS found well adapted to the cultivation of the potato, and the growth of 

 culinary vegetables. 



The spot which I have just described is an important one in the midst of 

 these solitudes. It was, for a long time, a trading-post depending on the 

 agency at St. Peter's. Mr. J. Laframboise, who accompanied me as a guide 

 and interpreter, and to whom I am indebted for much valuable information 

 obtained during my campaign of 1838, lived there for several years in the 

 capacity of agent for the American Fur Company. But it is no longer an 

 agency, having been suppressed ever since the Warpetoiis, the Sissitons, 

 and the Warpekuies, forming the second, third, and fourth tribes of the 

 Ndakotahs, have become so reduced in number by their wars with the Sac 

 and Fox Indians, and the recent ravages of the small-pox. 



In this region of country, now under consideration, the air is remarkably 

 pure and elastic ; but the winds are almost constantly high, because nothing 

 interrupts their movements. But the absence of trees preventing the con- 

 densation of the atmospheric vapors, springs are very scarce ; accordingly, 

 it has been observed that, for days in succession, rain fdlls at a distance, 

 without ever reaching the open spaces. 



After leaving the skirt of woods far behind us, and crossing the open 

 spaces just referred to, we reach the head-waters of the river Des Moines; 

 m i principal source of which flows at the bottom of a pretty vale, and forms 



