Excerpt from Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Lake Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, &C, Vol. 2 of 2: Performed in the Year 1823 The first day of our journey was unpleasant; it was across dry prairies. We stopped to dine upon the banks of what is termed Mushtincha Watapan, (hare river.) At the time that we crossed it, the stream had disappeared; a lit tle stagnant water, collected in hollows, offered but an um pleasant drink for ourselves and our horses. This valley is a mere trench in the prairie, into which the waters collect after heavy rains; it affords them a passage to the more per manent streams. Its bed is about fifteen yards wide. The woods became very scarce as we advanced, only a fei'v points being seen at a distance; the plain upon which we were travelling was apparently boundless; it was covered with a short grass of a pale or yellowish-green hue. The eye of the mineralogist could not detect a single stone within a mile's travel, and the few that were observed during the day, were rolled and uninteresting. In some places pebbles were very thick, as if we had been travel ling upon the bed of some former river or lake; but the mind endeavours in vain to establish limits to the vast ex panse of water, which certainly at some former day over flowed the whole of that country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.