244 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



when it gradually slopes again to the north, throwing out from its base the head- 

 waters and tributaries of the Saint Peter's on the east ; the Red River and other 

 streams which empty into Hudson Bay on the north, La Riviere Jaque and several 

 other tributaries to the Missouri on the west, and the Red Cedar, the Iowa, and the 

 Des Moines on the south. 



This wonderful feature, which is several hundred miles in length, and varying from 

 fifty to a nundred in width is, perhaps, the noblest mound of its kind in the world. 

 It gradually and gracefully rises on each side, by swell after swell, without tree, or 

 bush, or rock (save what are to be seen in the vicinity of pipestone quarry), aud every- 

 where covered with green grass, affording the traveler, from its highest elevations, 

 the most unbounded and sublime views of — nothing at all — save the blue and bound- 

 less ocean of prairie that lie beneath and all around him, vanishing into azure in the 

 distance without a speck or spot to break their softness. 



The direction of this ridge I consider pretty clearly establishes the course of the 

 diluvial current in this region, and the erratic stones, which are distributed alougits 

 base, I attribute to an origin several hundred miles northwest from the Cdteau. I have 

 not myself traced the Coteau to its highest points, nor to its northern extremity ; but 

 it lias been a subject on which I have closely questioned a number of traders who have 

 traversed every mile of it with their carts, and from thence to Lake Winnepeg on the 

 north, who uniformly tell me that there is no range of primitive rocks to be crossed in 

 traveling the whole distance, which is one connected and continuous prairie. 



The top and sides of the Coteau are everywhere strewed over the surface with 

 granitic sand and pebbles, which, together with the fact of the five bowlders resting 

 at the pipestone quarry, show clearly that every part of the ridge has been subject 

 to the action of these currents, which could not have run counter to it without hav- 

 ing disfigured or deranged its beautiful symmetry. 



The glazed or polished surface of the quartz rocks at the pipestone quarry I con- 

 sider a very interesting subject, and one which will excite hereafter a variety of the- 

 ories as to the manner in which it has been produced and the causes which have led 

 to such singular results. The quartz is of a close grain, and exceedingly hard, elicit- 

 ing the most brilliant spark from steel ; aud in most places, where exposed to the sun 

 and the air, has a high polish on its surface entirely beyond any results which could 

 have been produced by diluvial action, being perfectly glazed as if by ignition. I 

 was not sufficiently particular in my examinations to ascertain whether any parts of 

 the surface of these rocks under the ground, and not exposed to the action of the air, 

 were thus affected, which would afford an important argument in forming a correct 

 theory with regard to it; and it may also be a fact of similar importance that this 

 polish does not extend over the whole wall or area ; but is distributed over it in parts 

 and sections, often disappearing suddenly, and reappearing again, even where the 

 character and exposure of the rock is the same and unbroken. In general, the parts 

 and points must projecting and exposed, bear the highest polish, which would natu- 

 rally be the case whether it was produced by ignition or by the action of the air and 

 sun. It would seem almost au impossibility that the air passing these projections for 

 a series of centuries could have produced so high a polish on so hard a substance ; and 

 it seems equally unaccountable that this effect could have been produced in the other 

 way, in the total absence of all igneous matter. 



I have broken off specimens aud brought them home, which certainly bear as high 

 a polish and luster on the surface as a piece of melted glass ; and then as these rocks 

 have undoubtedly been formed where they now lie, it must be admitted that this 

 strange effect on their surface has been produced either by the action of the air and 

 sun, or by igneous influence ; and if by the latter course, there is no other conclusion 

 we can come to than that these results are volcanic ; that this Avail has once formed 

 the side of a crater and that the pipestone, lying in horizontal strata, is formed of 

 the lava which has issued from it. I am strongly inclined to believe, however, that 

 the former supposition is the correct one ; and that the pipestone, which differs from 



