RED RIVER OF THE NORTH. 179 
stones, fifty or a hundred feet above, are detached, and come tumbling down at 
such an alarming rate, that the climber is glad to make his escape. 
If any coal was ever found in this deposit, it must have been small pieces washed 
in by the same force which brought the pebbles and shingle; for certainly there is 
no regular bed of coal in the sections which I had an opportunity of inspecting, and 
there is every reason to believe, that the whole terrace is composed of similar mate- 
rials, none of which possess the characters of the intercalated beds of a coal formation. 
As for the ores said to have been found there, I suspect they were only pieces of 
pyrites and mica mixed with the gravel and sand. 
Three observations were taken for latitude at the base of the terrace, near where 
the Pembina River emerges into the plain,—one of Polaris, one for the meridian 
altitude of Altair, and one for the meridian altitude of the sun. The mean of these 
gives for the latitude of the place, 48° 54’ 36”. The mean of two observations for 
longitude, gave 97° 50’ 30”; but this is probably some minutes too far to the west, 
as there appeared to be a slight change in the rate of the chronometer, from the 
land-carriage over the prairie. 
The Pembina Mountain is at least five miles within the limits of the United 
States, that is, that part of it where the Pembina River issues from it into the 
plain; but the terrace of land, of which it is only a part, stretches away to the 
north beyond the parallel of 49°, as well as south, on the opposite side of the river. 
Indeed, I believe it could be traced over a considerable district of country, perhaps 
to the high land near the head of Shienne and Devil’s Lake. 
On the prairie, about half way between Red River and Pembina Mountain, an 
observation was taken for latitude, by meridian altitude of the sun, which gave 48° 
59’ 44”; also near the Pembina River, on our return, about twelve miles from Red 
River, by Polaris, which gave 48° 59’ 15”. Before leaving Red River for Pembina 
Mountain, and also on our return, several observations were taken for latitude, both 
of the sun and stars, close to Mr. James M’Dermott’s Trading-House, and about 
three-fourths of a mile north of the spot where we were told Major Long had 
planted a post, marking the limits of the United States on the parallel of 49°. 
Five observations in all were taken, but those by Polaris are probably the nearest 
correct; one of these, on the night of the 6th of July, gave the latitude 49° 1’ 13”; 
one, on the night of the 9th of July, gave 49° 1’ 12”; and one, the same night, by 
meridian altitude of Altair, gave 49° 0’ 22”. 
From inquiries which I made, while in the colony, I learned that the boundary 
of the territory of the Hudson’s Bay Company does not follow the parallel of the 
49th degree of latitude, but runs from where that line crosses Red River, to a moun- 
tain lying to the north-northwest, called by the Indians Ne-pa-que-win. The country 
south of that line, including the so-called Pembina Mountain, formerly belonged to 
the Stone Indians, who, some fifty or a hundred years since, left the country, and 
gave it, until they should return, as a hunting-ground, to the Ozib-ways, or Chippewa 
Indians. This tribe of Stone Indians never again returned to reclaim it; they 
* This post, we were told, had been removed and burnt, some years since, by a party of Indians, who 
encamped near the spot. 
