Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 2): With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existingCatlin, George
History
Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 2): With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing
Catlin, George
Indians of North America
The direction of this ridge, I consider, pretty clearly establishes the
course of the diluvial current in this region, and the erratic stones
which are distributed along its base, I attribute to an origin several
hundred miles North West from the Côteau. I have not myself traced
the Côteau to its highest points, nor to its Northern extremity; but
it has been a subject, on which I have closely questioned a number of
traders, who have traversed every mile of it with their carts, and from
thence to Lake Winnepeg on the North, who uniformly tell me, that there
is no range of primitive rocks to be crossed in travelling the whole
distance, which is one connected and continuous prairie.
The top and sides of the Côteau are everywhere strewed over the surface
with granitic sand and pebbles, which, together with the fact of the
five boulders resting at the Pipe Stone Quarry, shew clearly that every
part of the ridge has been subject to the action of these currents,
which could not have run counter to it, without having disfigured or
deranged its beautiful symmetry.
The glazed or polished surface of the quartz rocks at the Pipe Stone
Quarry, I consider a very interesting subject, and one which will
excite hereafter a variety of theories, as to the manner in which it
has been produced, and the causes which have led to such singular
results. The quartz is of a close grain, and exceedingly hard,
eliciting the most brilliant spark from steel; and in most places,
where exposed to the sun and the air, has a high polish on its
surface, entirely beyond any results which could have been produced by
diluvial action, being perfectly glazed as if by ignition. I was not
sufficiently particular in my examinations to ascertain whether any
parts of the surface of these rocks under the ground, and not exposed
to the action of the air, were thus affected, which would afford an
important argument in forming a correct theory with regard to it; and
it may also be a fact of similar importance, that this polish does not
extend over the whole wall or area; but is distributed over it in parts
and sections, often disappearing suddenly, and reappearing again, even
where the character and exposure of the rock is the same and unbroken.
In general, the parts and points most projecting and exposed, bear
the highest polish, which would naturally be the case whether it was
produced by ignition, or by the action of the air and sun. It would
seem almost an impossibility, that the air passing these projections
for a series of centuries, could have produced so high a polish on so
hard a substance; and it seems equally unaccountable, that this effect
could have been produced in the other way, in the total absence of all
igneous matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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