THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 21 
Between Watab and Rice the railway runs in a flat valley that 
extends as far as the eye can reach. It is well cultivated, and the 
fields of grain and potatoes are broken only by some 
mall lakes that are to be seen on the right of the 
track, but these have low shores and are not par- 
ticularly attractive. As the train glides through mile 
after mile of waving grain or pasture fields, with here 
and there a farmhouse nestling beneath the shadow of some ancient 
oak, it is hard to realize that a little more than a century ago this 
was a wilderness in which roving bands of Indians found only a 
scanty subsistence and trappers and traders made journeys with the 
greatest hardship and discomfort. 
Although there are no exposures of rock between Rice and Royal- 
ton, the route map opposite page 26 shows many isolated outcrops 
of granite and slate; and it will be noticed that all 
the areas of granite ‘be east of a line passing nearly 
through Royalton and that all the hard rocks which 
appear at the surface west of that line are slates or 
schists (for definition see footnote on p. 155) with the 
exception of one exposure of Cretaceous shale on the west side of the 
river nearly opposite Royalton. 
A short distance beyond milepost 95 a branch of the Soo Line 
(Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway), extending from 
Brooten to Duluth, crosses the valley and the Northern Pacific track 
by a long, high fil. North of Royalton, on the right, some rather 
_prominent morainic hills give a pleasing variety to the landscape; 
and at Gregory the traveler is about opposite the point where Pike’s 
party spent the winter of 1805-6. 
Rice. 
Elevation 1,086 feet. 
Population 262. 
St. Paul 90 miles 
Royalton. 
Elevation 1,103 feet. 
ion 676. 
St. Paul 97 miles. 
finally reached the vicinity of Little 
vates. He found settlements and vil- 
iri Falls, but here the river was so rough that 
lages as far up the river as Prairie du 
Chien, but above that place there was 
He reached the mouth of St. Peter (Min- 
nesota) River on Espiner 21, and 
‘spent some time visiting the Indians and 
acquiring for the bvaishon: the title to 
100,000 acres of land, including the site 
of Fort Snelling and the Falls of St. 
Anthony. 
He then portaged around the falls and 
proceeded up the river, but at many 
places he had considerable difficulty in 
getting his boats over the rapids. He 
he decided it was useless to take the boats 
farther, so on October 16, 1805, he went 
into winter quarters on the west bank of 
the river about 4 miles below the present 
town of Little Falls. 
Pike with a few companions pushed on 
afoot and endeavored to find the source 
of the great river. He succeeded in a 
general way in settling the question, 
though he did not discover Lake Itasca. 
Pike returned to Little Falls on March 6, 
1806, and on April 10 the = party 
embarked once more, reaching St. Louis 
on the 30th. 
