128 Feather stonhaugli's Geological Report. 



little higher up, at Prairie la Crosse, or Ball-game river, where 

 the Indians formerly used to convene to play at their favorite 

 game. The bluffs are about two miles inland, and before the 

 reduction of the water-level, this, like all the other prairies 

 similarly situated, must have been a lake. There are three 

 remarkable capes at the south end of this prairie, with singu- 

 lar mural escarpments, the most northerly one separated from 

 the rest by a coulee. Beyond this point all the Indians are 

 Nacotahs, or of the Sioux nations.* 



Beyond Ball-game river, on the left bank, is an important 

 stream, named Black river, down which stream a great deal of 

 fme pine timber is floated. The country all around here is re- 

 markable for its fertility and beauty. The most conspicuous 

 locality on this portion of the upper Mississippi, is a place 

 called by the French La Montague qui trempe a Veau^ or the 

 mountain which is steeped in the water. I ascended to the top 

 of this peak, which has a steep ascent of about 500 feet ; the 

 crest at the top runs about north and south for 200 yards, and 

 is not more than three or four yards wide, falling off" in a pre- 

 cipice to the west, and having a sharp slope of rich soil to the 

 east, well covered with trees and shrubs. From the top there 

 is an extensive view of the course of the Mississippi and the 

 country in the interior beyond its banks. The same constant 

 character of the valley is observed here : a rich bottom, two or 

 three miles wide, broken into islands and swamps and ponds, 

 and the main channel of the river flowing down between 

 Trempe a Veau and the right bank, about 1,200 yards wide. 

 This curious peak has been represented as "a rocky island, 

 separated from the left bank of the river," and to be " very 

 near the east bank of the river. "f This error was no doubt 

 occasioned by the writer's looking at it from the right bank, 

 and not stopping to examine it. It is, in fact, an isolated bluff, 

 about a mile and a quarter in circumference, separated from 



* Sioux is an abbreviation of Nahtowessioux, Men of the Woods, 

 t Keating's Narrative of an Expedition, &c. vol. 1, p. 271. 



