NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION". 157 



ing that addled aspect of the water, to which the Dacotas, it is 

 believed, apply the term sola. 



The scenery around St. Peter's is of the most sylvan and delight- 

 ful character. About six miles west of the cantonment there are 

 several beautiful lakes, in the prairies. The largest of these is 

 about four miles in circumference, and is called Calhoun Lake, 

 in compliment to the Secretary of War. Its waters are stored 

 with bass and other varieties of fish. There are several pure 

 springs of sparkling water, issuing from the picturesque cliffs 

 which face the Mississippi at this place. I visited one about a 

 mile from the cantonment, which deposits a yellow sulphurous 

 flocculent mass along its course. On the prairies is found the holcus 

 fragrans, which is braided by the Indian females, and employed 

 in some instances to decorate their deer-skin clothing. This aro- 

 matic grass retains its scent in the dried state. Along the waters 

 of the St. Peter's is found the acer negundo, the inner bark of 

 which, mixed with the common nettle, is employed by the natives 

 in the state of a strong decoction, as a cure for the lues venerea. 



Mr. Carver having described certain antiquities near the foot of 

 Lake Pepin, in 1766, inquiries were made after objects of this 

 kind in the vicinity. I was informed that traces of such remains 

 existed in the valley of the St. Peter's, but can say nothing con- 

 cerning them from actual inspection.* 



Of the Dacotas, or Sioux, for which St. Peter's forms the central 

 point, some anecdotes have been related which denote that they 

 are, on certain occasions, actuated by exalted motives. It is re- 

 lated that the chief Little Crow, going out to the confines of the 

 Chippewa Territory, to examine his beaver-traps, discovered an 

 individual of that tribe in the act of taking a beaver from the trap. 

 As he Avas himself unperceived, the tribes being at war, and the 

 offence an extreme one, a summary punishment would have been 

 justified by Indian law. But the Sioux chief decided differently: 

 "Take no alarm," said he, approaching the offender: "I come to 

 present you the trap, of which I see you stand in need. Take my 



* The last known platform mound in the spread of the mound-builders north, is 

 at Prairie du Chien. The monuments, supposed to be mounds, in the St. Peter's 

 region, are found by Mr. Owen to be geological elevations. The remains on Blue 

 Earth River are attributed to a fort or inclosure built by Le Seur, in his search for 

 copper on that stream, in 1700. Other remains, in the St. Peter's valley, appear to 

 be old trading-houses, fallen in. 



