.MTM1OA.MTE0OTA4

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the "five sisters" and at a distance of six hundred feet the quarries consist of a series of pits dug on the line of out crop. It is most likely that the stone was discovered by the outcrop in former days protruding at the surface now however the grass has grown over the face of the country and repeated seasons have buried the stone, at these quarries the superimposed earth is forty three (43) inches, then a stratum pf pink quartz, of the same thickness and then follows the pipe stone in a stratum eight (8) inches thick broken up into layers the thickest of which is two (2) inches. this is the layer from which the stone for the pipes is procured the others being too narrow for the purpose. beneath the pipe stone is a second stratum of pink quartz. the dip of these strata is 10º ten degree to the east. It has always been the custom with the indian to secrete the stone and when a quarry was made it was invariably covered up when the stone was removed. so that the place could not be found the result is that we find these old pits with the debris scattered about extending for some distance of recent years the red men have become [?cooler?] about filling up the pits and quite a number are open. The surface of the prairie is almost level. a very easy rise extends from the Five Sisters to the summit of the prairie it being in six hundred feet. Sixteen and a half feet (16½ ). Near the fall and Gitchi Manito is a quarry which seems to be an old indian working and would seem to be of more recent origin and that the pipe stone is of a different stratum than that of the old quarries it being on a little higher horizon. In discussing the merits or demerits of the Cattin picture we must remember that in 1836 AD Mr Cattin visited the place under difficulties and under protest from the indians. when the writer visited the locality in 1892 he went in a pullman car and had nothing to disturb him and made his notes and measurements unmolested. The presence of the [?boulders?] of gray granite in the middle of the prairie is a mystery. not only to the indians but [?suspense?] the white man [?] as there is not a fragment of granite any where in the country except these boulders the fact naturally impressed the natives with solemnity and they pay reverences to these rocks as "Manito" The tradition is extant among the Dakotas that under these boulders lied two squaws. the guardian spirits of the quarry and that they live there eternally. In former days before an indian attempted to dig the pipe stems he in great reverence he approached the five sisters and stopping before he got too close, made a supplication by throwing tobacco to the Spirits solicited permission to quarry the pipe stone. It is not told us whether or not the Spirit replied or in what method they signified