XXVI 



INTRODUCTION. 



The country through which I thus purposed reaching the British dominions, was 

 comparatively unknown. It is true, that Major Long and his party had, as early 

 as 1823, descended a considerable portion of the valley of Red River, not very far 

 from part of the line of route we proposed to ourselves. The knowledge, however, 

 which that expedition furnished regarding the geology of Red River amounted but 

 to this, — that there existed a secondary calcareous formation, which they found in 

 place near the settlement on Red River, and at another locality on the shore of 

 Lake Winnipeg ; which limestone, they conjectured, might underlie the prairie 

 country. But, in the present state of geological knowledge, the fact of there being 

 a secondary limestone at one or two points over a country larger than the whole 

 State of New York, conveys but very imperfect information. At the period when 

 Mr. Keating made his observations on that expedition, the science of Geology was, 

 comparatively, in its infancy ; and he did, doubtless, for his time, as much as could 

 be expected. In our day it is necessary, in order to convey a definite idea of the 

 sedimentary formations of a country, to identify them with some familiar group or 

 system that has been minutely studied on some other portion of this continent or 

 Europe ; the contents of which — minerals as well as fossils — have been carefully 

 observed. 



To determine, then, to which of these systems the calcareous rocks of Red River 

 belonged, was one object I had in view. Was it a member of the same system of 

 magnesio-calcareous formations that we had traced, in 1847, over so great an area 

 in the southern portion of the Chippewa Land District ? Some further light upon 

 the subject I am now able to furnish, though the nature of the country was such as 

 to offer to me no very numerous opportunities, beyond those enjoyed by my prede- 

 cessor, of gaining access to beds in situ. 



A portion of the route selected lay, indeed, beyond the boundaries of the District 

 which I was instructed to explore. Since, however, it was the deep-cut valley near- 

 est to the western frontier of the Chippewa Land District, and since we were com- 

 pelled, in order to obtain supplies for our subsistence on our homeward route, to go 

 on to the colony on Red River, the propriety, indeed the necessity, of the course 

 pursued, will be apparent. No land route near the line gave any hope of accom- 

 plishing the objects in view. 



Governed by these conclusions, in a few days after our arrival at Crow Wing, I 

 proceeded to hire the necessary voyageurs. As soon, however, as the line of our 

 proposed route became known, they positively refused to accompany us. Red River 

 was, for them, a terra incognita. Not only were they themselves wholly unac- 

 quainted with its rapids, but, so far as they had heard, no white man or half-breed 

 trader had ever descended the stream.* Add to this, that the Red River Valley 



* On reaching Pembina Settlement, we learned, in effect, that but one white man was ever known to 

 have navigated this river between Otter Tail Lake and the settlement, previous to our descent. 



