242 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



wall for the distance of two miles, is now left to glide for some distance over a perfectly 

 level surface of quartz rock, and then to leap from the top of the wall into a deep 

 basin below, and from thence seek its course to the Missouri, forming the extreme 

 source of a noted and powerful tributary, called the "Big Sioux." 



This beautiful wall is horizontal, and stratified in several distinct layers of light 

 gray, and rose or flesh-colored quartz ; and for most of the way, both on the front of 

 the wall and for acres of its horizontal surface, highly polished or glazed as if by ig- 

 nition. 



At the base of this wall there is a level x^rairie of half a mile in width, running 

 parallel to it, in any and all parts of which the Indians procure the red stone for 

 their pipes, by digging through the soil and several slaty layers of the red stone, to 

 the depth of four or five feet.* From the very numerous marks of ancient and modern 

 diggings or excavations it would appear that this place has been for mauy centuries 

 resorted to for the red stone ; and from the great number of graves and remains of 

 ancient fortifications in its vicinity, it would seem, as well from their actual tradi- 

 tions, that the Indian tribes have long held this place in high superstitious estima- 

 tion; and also that it has been the resort of different tribes, who have made their 

 regular pilgrimages here to renew their pipes. 



The red pipestone, 1 consider, will take its place amongst minerals as an interesting 

 subject of itself; and the " Coteau des Prairies" will become hereafter an important 

 theme for geologists ; not only from the fact that this is the only known locality of 

 that mineral, but from other phenomena relating to it. The single fact of such a table 

 of quartz, in horizontal strata, resting on this elevated plateau, is of itself (in my 

 opinion) a very interesting subject for investigation; and one which calls upon the 

 scientilie world for a correct theory with regard to the time when, and the manner in 

 which, this formation was produced. That it is of a secondary character, and of a 

 sedimentary deposit, seems evident; and that it has withstood the force of the diluvial 

 current, while the great valley of the Missouri, from this very wall of rocks to the 

 Rocky Mountains, has been excavated, and its d6bris carried to the ocean, there is also 

 not a shadow of doubt; which opinion 1 confidently advanee on the authority of the 

 following remarkable facts: 



At the base of the wall, and within a few rods of it, and on the very ground where 

 the Indians dig for the red stone, rests a group of five stupendous bowlders of gneiss, 

 leaning against each other; the smallest of which is twelve or fifteen feet, and the 

 largest twenty-five feet in diameter, altogether weighing, unquestionably, several 

 hundred tons. These blocks are composed chiefly of feldspar and mica, of an exceed- 

 ingly coarse grain (the feldspar often occurring in crystals of an inch in diameter). The 

 surface of these bowlders is in every part covered with a gray moss, which gives them 

 an extremely ancient and venerable appearance, and their sides and angles are 

 rounded by attrition to the shape and character of most other erratic stones, which are 

 found throughout the country. It is under these blocks that the two holes, or ovens, 

 are seen, in which, according to the Indian superstition, the two old women, the 

 guardian spirits of the place, reside; of whom I have before spoken. 



That these five immense blocks, of precisely the same character, and differing ma 

 terially from all other specimens of bowlders, which I have seen in the great valleys 

 of the Mississippi and Missouri, should have been hurled some hundreds of miles from 

 their native bed, and lodged in so singular a group on this elevated ridge, is truly 

 matter of surprise for the scientific world, as well as for the poor Indian, whose 

 superstitious veneration of them is such that not a spear of grass is broken or bent by 

 his feet within three or four rods of them, where he stops, and in humble supplication, 

 by throwing plugs of tobacco to them, solicits permission to dig and carry away the 



*From the very many excavations recently and anciently made, I could discover that these layers 

 varied very much in their thickness in different parts ; and that in some places they were overlaid 

 with four or five feet of rock similar to, and in fact a part of, the lower stratum of the wall. 



