me to the territory, did not appear to be such as to justify
me in remaining on the island, while the question had been carried by
the Indians themselves to, and was, probably, to be decided at
Washington before another season. I determined, therefore, to proceed to
Washington, taking one of the latest vessels for the season, on their
return from the ports on Lake Michigan.

_Nov. 2d_. Mr. Featherstonehaugh writes to me from Galena, on his return
from his geological reconnoisance in the north-west, sketching some of
the leading events of his progress:--

"Desirous of giving you a passing notice of my progress, I make time, a
few moments' leisure, to say that, when I had entered the Terre Bleu
River, which you remember is that tributary of the St. Peter's I was
anxious to visit, I found I could not penetrate to the Coteau de Prairie
from that quarter, and no resource was left to me but to return, or go
about three hundred miles higher up, where I was aware I should meet a
pretty insolent set of fellows amongst the Yanktons and Tetons. The
Sioux, who had committed pretty bad Indian murders amongst the
Chippewas, were in great numbers about Lac qui Parle, and there was no
avoiding them. However, it was in the line of the duty I had undertaken,
and I was willing to run some risks to see them. They were a precious
set when I got to them, but by prudence and presents I got along with
them, and, having began to sputter a little Sioux, I took courage, left
my canoe and men there, and took a guide and interpreter and pushed on
to Lac Traverse, and from thence to Coteau de Prairie, the head waters
of the St. Peter's, and to within four days' march of the Mandan
Village, Here I wheeled about back, afraid of winter. Indeed, on my
arrival at Lac Traverse, the weather was bitterly cold, and wood and
water were sometimes found with great difficulty, in the intermediate
prairies. The day I left Fort Snelling, the thermometer was very low,
the snow six or eight inches deep on the ground; in fact it was quite
winter, and all were of opinion, at the fort, that ice would form and
drive in a few days.

"I found Mr. Keating's account of the Mississippi, and especially of the
St. Peter's, most surprisingly erroneous, and old Jonathan Carver's
book, which he is constantly denouncing, _very accurate_.

"I ascertained, to my perfect satisfaction, the termination of the
horizontal beds of sandstone of carboniferous limestone formation, and
ca