142 Feather stonhaugh^s Geological Report. 



its name from a strong hold which the Nacotahs had on the 

 heights near it, during their wars with the Ha-hah-tona, or 

 People of the Falls, the name they give to the Chippewas. 

 About sixteen miles beyond this point, the bluffs on the left 

 bank are about one hundred and fifty feet high ; and here, 

 after a very severe struggle with the current, we got the canoe 

 into the mouth of the Makato Watapah, or Blue-earth river, 

 the principal tributary of the Minnay Sotor. This is a bold 

 stream, eighty yards wide at its mouth ; and the St. Peter's, 

 w^hose general course from its sources having hitherto been 

 about northwest, now joined by the Makato, forces its way 

 through the lowest part of the ridge, and gains the Mississippi 

 in a course nearly northeast. 



Having reached the Makato, it became my duty to enter it. 

 Expectations had been raised by the publication of Major 

 Long's* expedition, respecting some supposed copper mines 

 which M. Le Sueur was said to have discovered about the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century, not far from its mouth, 

 and which Major Long, in passing up the St. Peter's, had not 

 visited. The following passage,! with others, in the publica- 

 tion in question, gave so much importance to the alfair, that 

 it was deemed proper to make an investigation of the locality 

 part of my instructions : 



" Charlevoix states that Le Sueur was sent by M. D'lber- 

 ville to make an establishment in the Sioux country, and to 

 take possession of a copper mine Le Sueur had there dis- 

 covered. He ascended the St. Peter's 40 leagues, to la riviere 

 Verte, which comes in on the left. Though only the last of 

 September, the ice prevented him from ascending that river 

 more than a league : he therefore built a fort, and spent the 

 winter at that spot. In April, 1702, he went up the riviere 

 Yerte to the mine, which was only three-quarters of a league 



* Narrative of an expedition to the sources of St. Peter's river, &c. ; 2 vols. 

 Svo. By William H. Keating. Philadelphia, 1824. 

 t Vol. 1, p.SlG. 



