THE GEOEGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 243 



red stone for bis pipes. The surface of these bowlders are in every part entire and 

 unscratched by anything, wearing the moss everywhere unbroken, except where I 

 applied the hammer to obtaiu some small specimens, which I shall bring away with 

 me. 



The fact alone that these blocks difl'er 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 iu my mind an unanswerable question as regards the location 

 of their native bed and the means bj' which they have reached their isolated posi- 

 tion; like live brothers, leaning against and sujjportiug each other, without the ex- 

 istence of another bowlder within many 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 Saint Peter's and Mississippi, 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, though strayed away 

 from its original position, bears incontestible proof of the character of its native bed. 

 The tract of country lying between the Saint Peter's Eiver and the C6teau, over which 

 we i)assed, presents innumerable specimens of this kind ; and uear the base of the 

 C6teau they are strewed over the prairie in countless numbers presenting an .almost 

 incredible variety of rich and beautiful colors, and undoubtedly 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 

 liorse and count within my sight some twenty or thirty different varieties of quartz 

 and granite, in rounded bowlders, of every hue and color, from snow white to iutense 

 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 char- 

 acters of these blocks I became completely surprised and charmed, and I resolved to 

 procure 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 a hundred different varieties containing all the tints and colors of a painter's 

 palette. 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 some- 

 times from week to week. 



Whether these varieties of quartz and granite can all be traced to their native beds, 

 or whether they all have origins at this time exposed above the earth's surface, are 

 equally matters of much doubt iu my mind. I believe that the geologist may take the 

 different varieties, which he may gather at the base of the C6teau in one hour, :ind 

 travel the continent of North America all over without being enabled to put them all 

 in place ; coming at last to the unavoidable conclusion that numerous chains or beds 

 of primitive rocks have reared their heads on this continent, the summits of which 

 have been swept away by the force of diluvial currents, and their fragments jostled 

 together and strewed about, like foreigners in a strange land, over the great valleys 

 of the Mississippi and Missouri, where they will ever remain and be gazed upon by 

 the traveler as the only remaining evidence of their native beds which have again 

 submerged or been covered with diluvial deposits. 



There seems not to be, either on the COteau or in the great valleys on either side, so 

 far as I have traveled, any slaty or other formation exposed above the surface ou 

 which grooves or scratches can bo seen lo establish the direction of the diluvial cur- 

 rents in those regions ; yet I think the fact isjiretty clearly established by the general 

 shapes of the valleys and the courses of the mountain ridges which wall them in on 

 their sides. 



The C6teau des Prairies is the dividing ridge between the Saint Peter's and Missouri 

 Rivers ; its soutlierii termination or slope is about in the latitude of the Fall of Saint 

 Anthony, and it stands equidistant between the two I'ivers; its general course being 

 two or three degrees west of north for the distance of two or three hundred miles, 



