Journey to the Coteau des Prairies, ^c. 143 



The fact alone that these blocks differ in character from all 

 other specimens which I have seen in my travels, amongst the 

 thousands of bowlders which are strewed over the great valley of 

 the Missouri and Mississippi, from the Yellowstone almost to 

 the Gulf of Mexico, raises in my mind an unanswerable question 

 as regards the location of their native bed, and the means by 

 which they have reached their isolated position, like five broth- 

 ers, leaning against and supporting each other, without the exist- 

 ence of another bowlder of any description within fifty miles of 

 them. There are thousands and tens of thousands of bowlders 

 scattered over the prairies at the base of the Coteau on either 

 side, and so throughout the valley of the St. Peter's and Missis- 

 sippi, which are also subjects of very great interest and importance 

 to science, inasmuch as they present to the world a vast variety of 

 characters, and each one, although strayed away from its original 

 position, bears incontestible proof of the character of its native 

 bed. The tract of country lying between the St. Peter's River 

 and the Coteau, over which we passed, presents innumerable spe- 

 cimens of the kind, and near the base of the Coteau, they are 

 strewed over the prairie in countless numbers, presenting almost 

 an incredible variety of rich and beautiful colors, and undoubt- 

 edly traceable, (if they can be traced,) to separate and distinct 

 beds. Amongst these beautiful groups, it was sometimes a very 

 easy matter to sit on my horse and count within my sight, some 

 twenty or thirty different varieties of quartz and granite in round- 

 ed bowlders, of every hue and color, from snow white to intense 

 red and yellow and blue, and almost to a jet black, each one well 

 characterized and evidently from a distinct quarry. With the 

 beautiful hues and almost endless characters of these blocks, I 

 became completely surprised and charmed, and I resolved to pro- 

 cure specimens of every variety, which I did with success, by 

 dismounting from my horse and breaking small bits from them 

 with my hammer, until I had something like an hundred differ- 

 ent varieties containing all the tints and colors of a painter's pal- 

 let. These I at length threw away, as I had on several former 

 occasions, other minerals and fossils, which I had collected and 

 lugged along from day to day, and sometimes from week to week. 



Whether these varieties of quartz and granite can all be traced 

 to their native beds, or whether they all have originals at this 

 time exposed above the earth's surface, are generally matters of 



