Report of a Geological Reconnaissance made in 1835, from the seat of government, by the way of Green Bay and the Wisconsin Territory to the Coteau de Prairie…(excerpt)

              Featherstonhaugh^s Geological Report. 129
the right bank, and not from the east, the intervening space being occupied by the present main channel.   From the top of Trempe a Peau^ its whole history is seen at a glance : the eastern bluffs are distant at least five miles from it, and in one part recede still more; an extensive prairie, having few or no trees, extending east and west about twenty-five miles, and from five to six miles wide, north-by-east, by compass, sep¬ arating this out-lier from those bluffs to the east. It is evident that the Mississippi has once passed north of this out-lier, has covered the prairie, then a lake, and has coasted the dis¬ tant eastern  bluffs.     This affords  another  incontrovertible instance of that remarkable reduction of the fresh-water level of this continent, before alluded to, at which period the con¬ tracted channel left the then lake, and cut off the Trempe a Veau from the  right bank.    Ompedo  Wakeen,  brother   to Wabeshah, a celebrated chief of a neighboring band of Naco¬ tahs, told me, on the evening of the day I visited the place, that the Indians called it Minnay Chonkahah, or Bluff in the water, and that they resorted to it at the beginning of the wild-geese season, to make offerings to Wakon, or the deity, for success in hunting.
A few miles higher up, there is another prairie on the right bank, where Wabeshah's band have their lodges ; and about half way from this place to Lake Pepin, is another, on the same side of the river, still more extensive, arid bordered with cedar trees. Having a copy of Carver's Travels with me, and having always found his descriptions deserving of very great confi¬ dence, I had been anxious to discover a remarkable locality he speaks of,* and which, from the doubts expressed by other
* ** One day, having landed on the shore of the Mississippij some miles below Lake Pepin, whilst my attendants were preparing ray dinner, I walked out to take a view of the adjacent country. I had not proceeded far before I came to a fine, level, open plain, on which I perceived, at a little distance, a partial elevation, that had the appearance of an intrenchment. On a nearer inspection I had greater rea¬ son to suppose that it had really been intended for this many cpturies ago. Not¬ withstanding it was now covered with grass, I could plainly discern that it had
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