DR. B. F. SHUMARD’S REPORT. 
CHAPTER I. 
DETAILED OBSERVATIONS ON THE ST. PETER’S AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 
Att preliminary arrangements having been made, we commenced our ascent of 
the St. Peter's or Minnesota River on the morning of the 31st of May, 1848. 
Our starting-point, the Bluffs of Fort Snelling, consist, as shown elsewhere by 
local sections, of fossiliferous limestones, F. 3, A, reposing on soft white sandstone, 
F. 2,c. This formation continues in view only for half a mile above the mouth. 
Beyond this the rocks are hidden from view for many miles by drift and soil, but 
the contour of the hills indicates the existence of the shell limestone as their nucleus 
for some distance beyond its last outcrop. 
The alluvial lands near the mouth of the river are rather low and wet, and are 
overflowed in periods of high water. They form, however, excellent meadows, and 
support a growth of good grass. The St. Peter’s winds through the flats to Ewing’s 
Trading-Post, about ten miles above the mouth. At this point the hills have an 
elevation of one hundred feet above the river, and seem to be composed chiefly of 
transported materials of sand, gravel, and small boulders. The alluvial bottoms 
are from half to three-quarters of a mile in width, and from four to eight feet above ~ 
the ordinary stage of water; on either side the upland prairie rises in graceful 
swells from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty feet above the river, the soil of 
which, though rather arenaceous, is of good second-rate quality, well adapted for 
the growth of oats. 
Six miles above the mouth, Credit River, a small stream flowing from the south, 
enters the main river, and one mile farther, on the left, is a range of gently sloping 
drift-hills, covered with a luxuriant greensward. 
Hight miles above this point, and, by estimate of our voyageurs, twenty-five miles 
from Fort Snelling, is Shacopee’s village, inhabited by a band of Sioux Indians. 
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