Journey to the Coteau des Prairies, Sfc. 139 



souri tribes. From the exceedingly strange nature of these tradi- 

 tions and the great estimation in which this place is held by 

 the savages, as well as from a full conviction in my own mind, 

 that this pipe stone differing in itself from all other known miner- 

 als, might be a subject of great interest to science, I determined to 

 see it i7i situ, and not only to understand its position and relations, 

 but also to enable myself to give to the world, with more confi- 

 dence, the strange and almost incredible traditions and legends 

 which I have drawn from the different tribes, who have visited 

 that place. 



For this purpose I had made all the necessary preparations, and 

 was to start in a day or two, accompanied by several officers and 

 men of the garrison, whom Maj. Bliss, then in command, had 

 allowed to accompany me. Just at this time however, we got 

 news by a steamer which arrived from below, that Mr. Feath- 

 erstonhaugh, was near the fort with fifteen men, in a bark ca- 

 noe, on his way up the St. Peter's, having been sent by govern- 

 ment to explore the Coteau des Prairies. At this intelligence, I 

 immediately abandoned the journey, and taking a corporal with 

 me from the garrison, descended the Mississippi in a bark canoe, 

 to Prairie du Chien, and afterwards to Rock Island and St. Louis. 

 In that city I learned on the return of Mr. Featherstonhaugh, 

 that he did not go to the Pipe Stone Quarry, and I returned to 

 New York in the fall, and in the succeeding spring, made a jour- 

 ney from that city, by the way of Buffalo, Detroit, Green Bay, 

 Prairie du Chien, and Falls of St. Anthony, to the Coteau des 

 Prairies, and the Hed Pipe Stone Q.uarry, a distance of 2,400 

 miles, for which purpose I devoted eight months, travelling at a 

 considerable expense, and for a great part of the way with much 

 fatigue and exhaustion. At Buffalo I was joined by a young 

 gentleman from England, of fine taste and education, who ac- 

 companied me the whole way and proved to be a pleasant and 

 amusing companion. 



From the Falls of St. Anthony we started on horseback with 

 an Indian guide, tracing the southern shore of the St. Peter's 

 River about eighty miles, crossing it at a place called " Traverse 

 de Sioux," and recrossing it at another point about thirty miles 

 above the mouth of " Terre Bleue," from whence we steered in a 

 direction a little north of west, for the " Coteau des Prairies," 

 leaving the St. Peter's River, and crossing one of the most beau- 



