652 A TRIP TO PIPESTONE QUARRY. 
cover the two squaws mentioned in the legend. Along the 
low and less abrupt portions of the ridge of rock, the sur- 
face has a glazed and sometimes even a polished appearance, 
which the legend refers to the effects of the fire through 
which the squaws passed beneath the Medicine Rocks, but 
being a geologist and not an Indian, I would suggest that it 
was produced by grains of sand carried by the almost con- 
stant winds, and taken up from the soil, which, although 
fertile, contains a perceptible quantity. 
Many square yards of the glacier-smoothed surface at 
the Medicine Rocks are covered thickly with Indian hiero- 
glyphics, made by pecking the hard surface with sharp- 
pointed stones. These are of various grotesque forms, 
intended to represent persons, animals of the region, tur- 
tles, and very many also in the form of the tracks of a large 
bird. It is getting dark, and we defer collecting specimens 
of Pipestone until morning, and repair to camp and to bed. 
But memories and passing incidents crowd so thickly upon. 
us that we cannot sleep. A summer storm is sweeping 
along to the northward of us. We see its dim flashes and 
hear its mutterings in the direction of the “Thunder’s nest.” . 
That thunder was surely not hatched there, but before dark- 
ness overtook us at the “nest”—which by the way is a 
scarcely perceptible rise of surface— we had found upon the 
bare rock two or three pairs of the eggs of that “small bird” 
mentioned in the legend. Itis the Night-hawk ( Chordeiles 
Henryi?). We smiled at the strange conceit that the hatch- 
ing of the eggs causes thunder, but we were, nevertheless, 
startled at the unearthly rumbling cry of the parent bird, as 
it swooped down over our heads while we were carrying its 
treasures away. 
morning comes and we ramble along the creek to re- 
plenish our wasting bundle of faggots. A few stunted Com- 
mon Willows (Salix longifolia?) grow along the banks, but 
no “Red Willow” (Cornus stolenifera), the bark of which, 
under the name of Kinnikinnick, is smoked by the Indians 

