n
dances and ball-plays. In order to persuade the Indians to do their
part, Lawrence Taliaferro told them on July 3rd that if they would come
the next day and entertain the visitors, the great gun at the fort would
be fired twenty-one times for their amusement. As this was the salute
for the national holiday, he was safe in making the prophecy.
Accordingly, on the fourth of July the prairie near the fort, for two
hours, rang with the excited shouts of the ball-players; and when this
pastime was finished the "beggar's-dance", the "buffalo-dance", the
"bear-dance", the "eagle-dance", and the "dance-of-the-braves" furnished
entertainment for three hours more.[454]

On the sixteenth of July General Robert Patterson of Philadelphia with
his sister and daughter arrived on the steamboat "Warrior". For their
amusement the Indians staged the "dog-dance", using for their victims
two dogs which were presented to them by the officers of the garrison.
Accompanied by a soldier George Catlin left for Prairie du Chien on July
27th. "About this lovely spot", he wrote, "I have whiled away a few
months with great pleasure, and having visited all the curiosities, and
all the different villages of Indians in the vicinity, I close my
notebook and start in a few days for Prairie du Chien, which is three
hundred miles below this; where I shall have new subjects for my
brush and new themes for my pen, when I may continue my epistles."[455]

In the thirties began that series of geological surveys which has
continued ever since, under both the national and State governments. In
the fall of 1835 George William Featherstonhaugh and William Williams
Mather, geologists in the service of the government, made a survey of
the Minnesota Valley. The detailed scientific report of the survey was
published by the government;[456] while a popular description of the
trip, written by Mr. Featherstonhaugh, appeared in London in 1847
entitled, "A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor".

From September 12th to September 15th on the up-journey and from October
16th to October 22nd on the return, the scientist was entertained at the
fort. The reception which he received did not impress him with its
cordiality. "I could not but reflect upon the contrast betwixt the very
kind attentions I had received at the other American posts, and the want
of them I experienced here."[457] But the feeling was mutual. The keen
Indian agent characterized him by saying: "He attempted to