11 [ 237 ] 



There are, besides, other 6ne lakes that would furnish, on their borders, 

 aligihle sites for such villages as were formerly occupied by some of the 

 Ndakotah tribes previous to the war of extermination waged against them 

 by the Sac and Fox Indians. Among them may be numbered the series of 

 lakes designated as the Shetek, Benton, Ti^an-kahi, Poinsett, Abert, Spirit, 

 and Tizaptonafi lakes. 



Whatever people may fix their abode in this region must, necessarily, 

 become agriculturists and shepherds, drawing all their resources from the 

 soil. They must not only raise the usual agricultural products for feed- 

 ing, as is now but too generally done in some parts of the west, but they 

 will have to turn their attention to other rural occupations — such as tend- 

 ing sheep for their wool ; which would greatly add to their resources, as 

 well as finally bring about a more extended application of the industrial 

 arts among them. 



Reverting now to another subject: the future inhabitants of this region, 



Botan ' ""^0".? ifs ^^^^^ interesting specimens of vegetation will find, as 



trees, the American and red elm, lime tree, bar oak, white ash, 



ash-leavcd maple, nettle tree, large American aspen; as shrubs, the hazel, 



red root, peterswort, (fee; as herbs, alum-root, tufted and American vetch, 



wood sorrel, sedge and pasture grasses. 



The intermediate prairies are characterized by small depressions, filled 

 with rough grasses, and bordered by the Canadian cinquefoil, the ger- 

 mander, southern lily, and button snake-root. Extensive beds of the 

 Virginia strawberry are frequently met with in low places; and in the 

 vicinity of salinas, a species of clover called bvffalo clover. On the arid 

 slopes is the pink milk vetch, inhabited by millions of Spanish flies. 

 Sandbrakes are generally full of mustard and dwarf amaranths ; whilst 

 the stony-grassy borders are fringed with dense bushes of the mimosa tribe 

 and long-leaved willows. Finally, all the high prairies abound with the 

 silver-leaved psoralia, which is the prairie turnip of the Americans, the 

 pomme des prairies of the Canadians, and furnishes an invaluable food to 

 the Indians. 



The plateau of the Cotean des Prairies is composed, in a great measure, 

 of the materials belonging to what 1 have named the eriatic deposiie, 

 as is evidenced by the nature of its soil, the physiognomy of the ridges 

 and hillocks that diversify its surface, the deep ravines by vi^hich it is 

 flanked, and the innumerable erratic blocks strewed over the borders of its 

 lakes. 



We have no data by which to determine the inferior limits of this de- 

 positc; still, there is reason to think that it rests upon such primary rocks 

 as show themselves along the line of rapids of the Upper St. Peter's, con- 

 sisting of granite, sienitic and other metamorphic rocks. Nevertheless, over 

 the vast extent of this plateau, there is, apparently, but one spot where the 

 subjacent rock makes its appearance — and this is at the Indian Red Pipe- 

 stone Quarry, so called. 



This locality, having acquired some celebrity, may be specially noticed. 

 i shall first describe the route by which I was led to it. 



I started from St. Peter's, ascending the river of the same name: and, 

 as the latter has been well described in the narrative of the second expe- 

 dition of Major Long, and subsequently, with equal accuracy and in more 

 detail, by Mr. G. W. Featherstonhaugh, in his " Report of a Geological 



