492 DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY BORDERING 



river. Its height is about ten feet. On the prairie, a short distance beyond, are 

 other outliers of the same rock. Two miles further on it appears again, and it 

 occurs frequently at intervals of a few miles, to the mouth of the Red Wood River. 



Two or three miles below the mouth of this river is one of the most interesting 

 exposures of granite, on the left bank of the river. It rises in irregular, smooth 

 knobs to the height of a hundred and twenty-five feet. At an elevation of forty to 

 fifty feet above the present channel, an ancient bed of the river is distinctly recog- 

 nisable. The bottom of the bed, as well as the sides, to the height of eight or ten 

 feet, are worn into polished grooves, five to twelve inches deep ; there are besides 

 smoothly worn pot-holes, not only in the former bed, but also at various heights, 

 even to the top of the rock, and most of the granite surface is rounded and almost 

 polished ; all giving evidence of having been laved for a very long period of time, 

 by a swift current, and corroborating the conclusions heretofore drawn, from the 

 existence of level terraces of alluvial land far above the present highest water- 

 mark, and from the position of strata containing fresh-water shells in elevated 

 positions, that the St. Peter's once flowed at a higher level, or rather, that the land 

 has been elevated at a very recent period of time. 



The Bois Rouge, or Red Wood River, as it is termed by Nicollet, is a small 

 creek, only five or six yards wide, with only a few inches of water, and unfit even 

 for canoe navigation. 



It was fortunate that by this time the main objects of the expedition up the St. 

 Peter's had been accomplished, since I was attacked, at this stage of my investiga- 

 tions, with a severe acute pleurisy, from which I did not recover for several months, 

 and which in all probability would have carried me off, but for the kind exertions 

 of my friends in camp, and the hospitality and nursing care of Mr. Hopkins and 

 family at Traverse des Sioux, and Captain Eastman and family at Fort Snelling. 



In conclusion, I may here review, cursorily, the most important facts ascertained 

 in performing this part of my duty. 



With the exception of the Bois Franc District, the whole country may be con- 

 sidered as prairie, the streams only being skirted with wood. On the whole, there 

 is a Avant of timber for ordinary farming purposes in a thickly inhabited district ; 

 but if the growth of timber be encouraged, as the population gradually increases, 

 a deficiency may never be experienced. 



Throughout the greater part of the St. Peter's country the traveller is surprised 

 and charmed with the ever-changing variety and beauty of the scenery. 



The alluvial land bordering upon the river varies in width from a quarter of a 

 mile to a mile or more. The greater portion of this constitutes numerous natural 

 meadows, covered annually with a luxuriant growth of grass. A small proportion 

 of these alluvial lands is well timbered with ash, elm, sugar and white maple, 

 butternut, white walnut, lime, linden, box-elder, cotton-wood, and hickory. A 

 considerable portion of these flats, being subject to annual overflow, are wet and 

 marshy ; in their vicinity, at least in the early settlement of the country, intermit- 

 tents may be expected to prevail in the autumnal months. 



A remarkable feature of this country consists in the small lakes and ponds scat- 

 tered over it. Many of these are beautiful sheets of water, having the appearance 



