Chapter VII: Geography of the Mississippi.vii-1 (2)

[VII-2] The form of the word _Mississippi_ was not fixed with eleven letters till after 1800. President Jefferson, a scholar of his times and especially interested in linguistics, used nine or ten letters. Our fashion of doubling all the consonants except the first is distinctly an innovation which has no advantage over _Misisipi_, but on the contrary the undesirable effect of obscuring the pronunciation of the Algonquian elements by neutralizing the vowels. Analysis of the eleven letters shows three consonantal sounds, one of them repeated, and each of these four followed by a short if not neutral vowel: _Mi-si-si-pi_. The initial _m_ is a nasolabial, not likely to vary, and in fact constant. This is followed by a sibilant surd, repeated, with probable and actual variation to _s_ of _c_ or _ch_ in one or both places. The final consonant _p_ is a labial surd, easily and actually variant to its sonant _b_. The name is really a term of two words: Misi Sipi=Misi River--whatever Misi may mean. Waiving this, and taking the name as one word, the _actual_ variations which I have noted from time to time may be thus displayed as regards the eleven letters: (1) _M_, constant; (2) _i_, variant to _a_ and _e_; (3) first _s_, var. to _c_, or missing; (4) second _s_, var. to _c_ and _ch_, or missing; (5) second _i_, nearly constant, when present; (6) third _s_, var. to _c_, not to _ch_, when present; (7) fourth _s_, same as third _s_; (8) third _i_, var. to _e_ and _y_; (9) first _p_, var. to _b_; (10) second _p_, constant, if not dropped after the third _p_, never present if the third _p_ becomes _b_; (11) final _i_, var. to _e_ and _y_. The permutations possible under the several variants indicated may be ciphered out by those who have leisure for amusement; probably not one-tenth of the possibilities are actualities in print; and of those actually existent probably no complete list has ever been made. We might expect to find 30 forms without much trouble. Some of the examples I have noted are: _Mischipi_, Freytas, from Spanish Relations of 1661, pub. 1663, perhaps the first appearance of the word in print; _Messipi_, Allouez, in French Relations of 1667, said to be the original form in that language; _Mississipy_, 1671; _Messisipi_, Joliet, after 1673; _Micissypy_, Perrot; _Masciccipi_, La Salle, qu. misprint in first syllable? _Meschasipi_ and other forms in Hennepin, 1683, and his editors; _Messchsipi_ on an old map, about 1688; _Michi Sepe_, Labal, as cited by Brower; _Mechesebe_, etc. The general evolution of the present word has been: early elimination of _c_ or _ch_; tendency of all the vowels to _i_, with _e_ in the first place and _y_ in the last place longest persistent; and then the doubling of the _s_'s and the _p_, all the possible cases of this process being not only extant, but neither very old nor very rare. The unconscious _motif_ here seems to have been to give the longest river the longest name. There are many other names of the "Mycycypy" river, aboriginal, Spanish, and French, for the whole or certain parts of its course. Spanish relations from De Soto yield for lower parts of the river _Chucagua_ in variant forms; _Tamalisieu_; _Tapatui_; and _Mico_. Also, for about the mouth, we have _Malabanchia_ or _Malabouchia_, from French narration, D'Iberville, Mar. 2d, 1699. An Iroquois name, _Gastacha_, is cited. Spanish relations yield several of the earliest names, all of which have been translated; _e. g._, _El Rio_, The River, Knight of Elvas, pub. 1557; _Rio Grande_, Grand r., Great r., ref. to Hernando de Soto, near Quizquiz, Sunday, May 8th, 1541, and at Guachoya, Apr. 17th, 1542; _Rio del Espiritu Santo_, as De Biedma, River of the Holy Ghost, with variant spellings of the phrase, _cf._ Chavez map, in Ortelius, Antwerp, 1580, and Cortés map for Spanish Charles V., 1520; _Rio de las Palmas_, River of Palms, Admiral map, 1507, pub. in ed. Ptolemy, 1513 (I cite these two without prejudice to the question whether they did actually apply or were only supposed to apply to the Mississippi); _Rio de los Palisados_ (as I find it cited, though it seems to me _R. de las Palizadas_ would be better Spanish for Palisade r., the connotation of this term being what a steamboat man would mean if he said Snag or Sawyer r.); and _Rio Escondido_, Hidden r., because it was hard to find the right channel through the delta. Certain genuflexions of French knees to powers that were and happily be no longer, are reflected in the names _Rivière de la Conception_, _sc._ of the B. V. M., which Marquette conceived in one of the unisexual transports of his morbid imagination, June 15th or 17th, 1673, trans. Immaculate Conception r.; _R. de Buade_, _sc._ Frontenac r., as Joliet, who had an eye to a visible patron; _R. de Colbert_, as Hennepin, who kept one eye on St. Anthony and the other on King Louis; _R. de Louis_, _R. de St. Louis_, _R. de Louisiane_ of various F. relations (_St. Louis_ occurring in letters patent of Louis XIV. to Crozat, Sept. 14th, 1712); from descriptive phrases which are found in Radisson's relations, Forked r. and River That Divides Itself in Two have been evolved as names with the aid of capitals; the upper section of the stream, flowing from Lake Itasca, has been called _R. à la Biche_, Elk r., from the former F. name Lac à la Biche, translating Ojibwa Omoshkos Sogiagon; the next section, _Bemidji-sibi_, with many variants of this, in Ojibwa, French, Italian, and English; the next section, _R. aux Cèdres Rouges_, Red Cedar r., Cassina r., Cass r.; next section, _Winnibigoshish r._, in many variants; and below the confluence of the Leech Lake fork, _Kitchi-sibi_, Great r. There are also several forms of the Sioux name, to the same effect as Kitchi-sibi. I am ignorant of any English name originally given as a genuine appellation, and not a translation or mere epithet, like "Father of Waters," and the like. It is text-book tradition that this phrase translates the Algonquian term; which tradition is too untrue and too popular to ever die--let it rest in peace, along with Washington's hatchet and Tell's apple. It is Featherstonhaugh, I think (I have mislaid the mem. I once made), who remarks with great gravity and great truth, that "Father of Waters" is a misnomer, because the river resulting from the confluence of other rivers is the Son of Waters and not the father of them at all. This is a sober sort of statement, for a witticism; it is not a figurative locution or a flight of fancy; it is a solemn fact. It only stops short of the most comprehensive statement that can be made regarding the origin of rivers, which is, that all rivers arise in cloudland.

[VII-3] See note 12, p. 7, and add: I suspect that _Noir_ is not the F. adj. which means "black," but a perversion of the noun _Noix_, _Noyau_, or _Noyer_, meaning "nut" or "walnut." Beck's Gazetteer, 1823, gives the name as Noyer cr.

[VII-4] An opinion of Mr. Ewing occupies note 18, p. 15. A hitherto unpublished letter of General William Clark, Indian Agent for Louisiana, to the Secretary at War, is in part as follows:

"Saint Louis 22nd. June 1807.

"Sir

"... William Ewing's Account for provisions, hired men and Squars [squaws] appears to be unatherized by any person in this Country. M^r. G. Chouteau informs me that he never empowered him under any authority which he possessed to incur such expences to the U : States as [are] charged in his account.--And further says that he has always given such provisions and other articles to M^r. Ewing as he thought the Public Service required, for which he either paid himself or included in the account of Rations settled with the Contractor.--The public clammer [clamor] at this place is very much against M^r. Ewing; many unfavourable relation has been made of his conduct, such as purchaseing the Indians Guns for whisky and selling them again to the Indians for a high price.--Selling his corn to the Traders for trinkets for his Squar, hireing men on the behalf of the United States and sending them to work for his private benefit, makeing an incorrect report to me, &^c. &^c. I am induced to believe from the report of M^r. Bolvar [Nicholas Boilvin] and others who are willing to sweare that M^r. W^m. Ewing has behaved incorrectly and his example is degrading to the institution, and calculate to give the Indians an unfavourable impression of the public Agents in this Country. The Conduct of public Agents in this distant quarter, I fear will never be under sufficent check until there is a person to whome all are obliged to account resideing in this Country, with full power and descretion to inspect their actions &^c. &^c.

"A copy of Mr. Ewings report is inclosed in which he states the situation of his establishment and his prospects &^c....

"Your most Obedent
"Humble Servent,
[Signed] "W^M. CLARK. I. A. L."

[VII-5] Being letter to General Wilkinson, from that place at that date, which formed Doc. No. 2, p. 2, of the App. to Pt. 1 of the orig. ed. See Art. 2, p. 223. The lead mines are of course identifiable with the location of Dubuque; but the precise situation of Julien Dubuque's house, where Pike stopped both ways, was Catfish cr., about 2 m. below. Mr. Dubuque died Mar. 24th, 1810, aged 45½ years, and was buried on the eminence close by, which became known as Dubuque's bluff, and still bears this name. The peculiar character of his claim to the property occasioned much litigation, which was carried up to the Supreme Court of the U. S., and there decided in favor of the settlers, in or about 1853.

[VII-6] This description makes in the orig. ed. a 3-page footnote, which I reset in the main text, as no confusion will come from this obvious digression, the reader returning to Prairie du Chien in due course. It was furnished to Pike by (Robert) Dickson, whose name appears at the end. In spite of the mangling of the geographical names, and one or two sentences that seem to have got awry, it is a very telling piece of work--perhaps the most concise and correct statement extant in 1810 of what is one of the most memorable routes in the annals of American exploration. It was by this famous Fox-Wisconsin traverse from the Great Lakes to the Miss. r. that the latter was itself discovered to Europeans. For it is practically if not identically the route of Joliet and Marquette, 1673. Under the Canadian governorship of Comte Louis de Buade de Frontenac, who succeeded De Courcelle Apr. 9th, 1672, the Quebec trader Joliet, the priest Marquette, and five other Frenchmen, who were at Michilimackinac in Dec., 1672, passed thence by Green bay of Lake Michigan, Fox r., Lake Winnebago and Wis. r., to Miss. r. at Prairie du Chien, reached June 15th or 17th, 1673, and named Rivière Colbert after the French king's minister. Our esteemed antetemporary Jonathan Carver paddled that way too, and so did others too numerous to mention, among them the macronymous G. W. Featherstonhaugh, F. R. S., etc., whose canoe voyage up the Minnay Sotor, etc., made in 1835, furnished data for very readable and realistic gossip, 2 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1847, I. p. 151 _seq._ The clearest view of the Fox-Wisconsin traverse I have seen is on the map accompanying Bvt. Maj. C. R. Suter's Rep., being Doc. E of Bvt. Maj.-Gen. G. K. Warren's Prelim. Rep. Surv. Miss. River above Rock Island rapids, this being Ex. Doc. No. 58, Ho. Reps., 39th Congress, 2d Sess., 8vo, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1867, pp. 1-116. Accurate engineering operations always reduce the mileages guessed at by tired travelers or idle tourists, but Dickson's estimates come remarkably near Suter's measurements, some of which are: Lower Fox r., 37½ m.; traverse on Lake Winnebago, 15½ m.; Upper Fox r., 104 m.; canal at portage, 2⅓ m.; Wisconsin r., 112 m.; total, Green Bay to Prairie du Chien, 271⅓ m.

I may here summarize as curtly as I can the main points of the probable fact that the Upper Mississippi was reached by practically this route, by Menard and Guerin, before its long-alleged and generally accepted discovery by Joliet and Marquette, as above noted. In 1659 Fond du Lac was approached by two traders, Groseilliers and Radisson; the former was Medard Chouart, the latter Pierre d'Esprit. Groseilliers, Grozayyay, Desgrozeliers, etc., was b. near Meaux in France; traded on Lake Huron in 1646; in 1647, married Veuve Étienne of Quebec, daughter of Abraham Martin; in Aug., 1653, married Marguerite Hayet Radisson, sister of Radisson. Radisson was b. St. Malo, France; came to Canada 1651, married Elizabeth Herault 1656; was at Three Rivers in Canada in 1658, and arranged to go with Groseilliers to Lake Superior. The two built the first trading-post on Lake Superior, at Chaquamegon bay (old Chagouamikon, etc.). Groseilliers was back at Montreal Aug. 21st, 1660; he returned to Lake Superior and was at Keweenaw bay Oct. 15th, 1660. Some of the traders of his party wintered here 1660-61; with them was the Jesuit Menard, the first missionary on the lake. Menard and one Jean Guerin left the lake June 13th, 1661, for the region of the Ottawa lakes in Wisconsin. Perrot says that Menard and Guerin followed the Outaouas to the Lake of the Illinoets (Lake Michigan), and to the River Louisiane (_i. e._, the Mississippi), to a point above the River Noire (Black r.), where they were deserted by their Huron Indians. One day in August, 1661, they were ascending a rapid in their canoe, which Menard left to lighten it; he lost his way, and perished; Guerin survived. Menard's breviary and cassock, it is said, were later found among the Sioux. Justin Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. Amer. IV. p. 206, gives a sketch map on which a place is marked as that where Menard was lost. This seems to be toward the sources of Chippewa r. If Perrot's relation be true, and not misunderstood, Menard and Guerin reached the Mississippi via the Wisconsin from Green bay, ascended it to the Black or the Chippewa, and left it that way in the summer of 1661, 12 years before Joliet and Marquette came to the Mississippi.

[VII-7] Dickson's use of the term "La Baye" requires qualification to prevent misreading him. 1. The old Baye des Puans or Puants, Stinkers' bay, so called from the malodorous fish-eating Winnebagos who lived thereabouts, became from its verdure la Baie Verte, our Green bay, _i. e._, the whole water of that great N. W. arm of Lake Michigan, into the head of which Lower Fox r. empties. The last 7 m. of this river makes a sort of estuary from the foot of the last rapids, or head of natural river navigation, to the waters of Green bay; and this whole estuarian course was La Baye or La Baie of various early writers. 2. The earliest French footing on the estuary was the Jesuit mission at the foot of the rapids called Rapides des Pères (Priests' rapids), whence the modern name De Pere or Depere for the town now at or near the spot, on the E. bank of the river. The earliest French fort there was called Fort La Baye or La Baie; and this is the implication of the term as the name of a spot or place on the estuary also called "La Baye" or "La Baie." 3. When settlement was made under English occupation it crept down the estuary on the E. side to near the bay, and "La Baye," _i. e._, La Baie Verte, furnished the local habitation as well as the name of our Green Bay (town), a mile or two above the mouth of the estuary. 4. Under our régime, La Baie of the American Fur Company period was at a place called Shantytown, say halfway between the old French La Baye (present town of Depere) and the less old English La Baie (present county town of Green Bay, Brown Co., Wis.). 5. There were other settlements along the estuary, on the same side too. Thus, writing of 1835, Featherstonhaugh speaks of the new American settlement of Navarino, "a short distance" from Shantytown; he describes the latter as "a small bourgade," and locates Navarino opp. Fort Howard, _i. e._, where Green Bay now is. 6. On the left bank, nearly opp. present Green Bay, but rather nearer Green bay, was the site of our Fort Howard, which flourished say 60 years ago, and bequeathed the name to the town of Howard or Fort Howard, now opposite Green Bay. On the left bank higher up, opp. Depere, is a town called Nicollet, no doubt a belated bud of promise, as no such place appears on maps of 25 years ago. 7. None of the foregoing localities or establishments on Fox r. must be confounded with the recent outgrowth called Bay Settlement, which is out on the S. E. shore of Green bay, toward Point Sable.

[VII-8] Kakalin and Konimee of the above text, also Cockien of p. 295, are three forms of one word which has other curious shapes. Featherstonhaugh I. p. 162, speaks of rapids "called in the Menominie tongue Kawkawnin, literally 'can't get up,'" and says that the voyageurs make it Cocolo. Suter's text has Kankarma; his map, Kankana. Present usage favors Kaukauna; so G. L. O. maps, railroad folders, etc. With the qualifying terms Petit and Grand, or Little and Great, etc., the word denotes different places and things on the river; _i. e._, certain lower and upper rapids themselves, together with certain settlements at or near each of these obstructions to navigation. Petit Kakalin, Petite chute, Little Konimee, Little shoot, Little rapids, designated the lower rapids; and the town 6 m. above Depere received the name of Little Rapids or Little Kaukauna. Some miles above this place is now Wrightstown, on the right or E. bank of Fox r. Between Little Kaukauna and Wrightstown are obstructions in the river which are or were called Rapides Croches, from their crookedness. All the foregoing are in present Brown Co. Passing to Outagamie Co., we find what Dickson called the fall of Grand Konimee, and others knew as Grand Kakalin, Grand chute, etc. This is now simply styled Kaukauna falls, without any qualifying term; and the town there is Kaukauna Falls. Above Kaukauna falls and town, say 2 or 3 m., are rapids called Little chute (duplicating a different application of the name), and within a mile of them are others known as Cedar rapids. In this vicinity is also the town of Little Chute, 7 or 7½ m. below Appleton, seat of Outagamie Co. From Appleton we pass into Winnebago Co., and it is only 6 or 8 m. to where Dickson says "the river opens into a small lake," _i. e._, Lake Winnebago discharges into Lower Fox r. This outlet is by two channels, N. and S., separated by Doty or Doty's isl.; here are the Puant, or, as now known, Winnebago rapids; here was the first Puant or Winnebago village; here are now the cities of Menasha on the N. channel, and Neenah on the S. channel. The rapids are strongest in the latter.

[VII-9] Formerly Lac des Puans or des Puants, Stinkers' l., etc. This is the large body of water in Winnebago, Calumet, and Fond Du Lac cos., 35 m. long, 9 to 14 m. wide, and 12 to 25 feet deep, thus being an extensive overflow of Fox r., which enters at Oshkosh, Winnebago Co., about the middle of the W. side of the lake, and leaves by Neenah and Menasha, at the N. W. corner. The distance between these points, which was the usual canoe traverse, is 15½ m. There is a small island in this distance, known by the name of Garlic, which Featherstonhaugh calls Hotwater, from a droll incident he describes, I. p. 174. The Puant village which Dickson mentions as being at the upper end of the lake was at or near present Fond Du Lac, the county seat, and one of well known places in Wisconsin. Dickson's midway "Fols Avoine" village was the Menomonee settlement on the E. side of the lake, in Calumet Co. (Stockbridge and Brotherton Res.). Lake Winnebago conveniently divides Fox r. into the Upper Fox, which runs into it, and the Lower Fox, which runs out of it into Green bay; it also acts as a sort of reservoir or regulator to prevent freshets in the Lower Fox. The western shore is now skirted with railroads all the way from Menasha to Fond du Lac, and various towns are strung along this distance. Just before Fox r. falls in, it suffers dilatation into what was and is still called Lac Butte des Morts, the head of which is about 7 m. from Oshkosh; town of the same cheerful name there now. In this vicinity Loup or Wolf r. falls into the Upper Fox, after passing through an expansion known by some such perversions of the Chippewa name as Pawmaygun, Pauwaicun, Poygan, etc.

[VII-10] This is easier to locate than to tell the name of. It is that dilatation of Upper Fox r. which lies mainly in Green Lake Co., and for some little distance separates this from Marquette Co. The lake is 14½ m. long, but very narrow. Rush l. would be the English translation of the Indian name, a few of the variants of which are Apachquay, Apuckaway, Apukwa, Puckaway, Packaway, Pokeway, Puckway, Pacaua, etc. Before this notable lake was reached, the canoes passed the mouth of Wolf r., as above said; of Waukan r., discharging from a certain Rush l. in Winnebago Co., in the vicinity of places called Omri, Delhi, and Eureka; a couple of small streams at and near Berlin, Green Lake Co.; Puckegan cr., the discharge of Green l., which falls in at Fiddler's (qu. Fidler's?) Bend, on the S.; near this White r., on the N.; present site of Princeton, Green Lake Co., 12¼ m. above Fiddler's Bend; and lastly Mechan or Mecan r., whence it is only 6 m. to Lake Puckaway. The town of Marquette, Green Lake Co., is on the lake near its foot; and 7 m. above its head is Montello, seat of Marquette Co. A stream absurdly called Grand r. falls in on the S. between Lake Puckaway and Montello. From Montello to Packwaukee is 8 m.; this is on Bœuff, Beef, or Buffalo l., a dilatation of the river like Lake Puckaway, but not so wide. There was an old French fort or factory here, whose name is given as Ganville (qu. Bienville?). The "forks" of Fox r. of which Dickson speaks is the confluence of Necha r.; but there seems to be some copyist's mistake about the situation of his Lac Vaseux "ten leagues above the forks"; for there is no 28½ m. of the river left. Lac Vaseux of the text, otherwise known as Muddy, Rice, and Manomin, immediately succeeds Buffalo l., being below (north of) Moundville and Roslin or Port Hope. It seems to be reckoned a part of Lake Buffalo, for the distance hence to the Wisconsin r. is given as only about 14 m. The canal which Dickson recommends was long since cut, with a length of 2⅓ m. to Portage, seat of Columbia Co. From this place along the Wisconsin r. to the Mississippi, given by Dickson and repeated by Long as 60 leagues = 165 m., is 112 m. I have not the clew to the exact location of Dickson's Détour du Pin or Pine Bend; but I imagine it was about the situation of Lone Rock, Richland Co., above the mouth of Pine r., and below the place that Mr. Whitney named Helena, when he had his curious shot-tower there some 60 years ago.

[VII-11] The Montreal or Kawasidjiwong r. is a small stream which separates Wisconsin from Michigan for some little distance, and falls into Lake Superior at Oronto bay, E. of Point Clinton. The connection with Sauteur or Chippewa r., of which Pike speaks, was made by portages from the main E. fork of the Chippewa--that is, from Manidowish, Flambeau, or Torch r. But we should note here that there was more than one recognized route by way of the Chippewa from the Mississippi to Lake Superior, and in Carver's case, for example, confusion has arisen in consequence. Thus, some say that Carver left the Mississippi by way of Chippewa r. This is true; but he did not reach Lake Superior by way of Flambeau r. and Montreal r. Observing this, some say he reached Lake Superior by way of the St. Croix and the river he calls Goddard's. This is true; but he did not leave the Mississippi by St. Croix r. In June, 1767, Carver came from Prairie du Chien up the Miss. r. to the Chippewa; he went up this for the Ottawaw lakes, as he calls the present Lac Court Oreilles and some lesser ones close by; visited the Chippewa town whence the river took its name, he says, "near the heads of this river;... In July I left this town, and having crossed a number of small lakes and carrying places that intervened, came to a head branch of the river St. Croix. This branch I descended to a fork, and then ascended another to its source. On both these rivers I discovered several mines of virgin copper, which was as pure as that found in any other country. Here I came to a small brook," which by confluence of others soon "increased to a most rapid river, which we descended till it entered into Lake Superior.... This river I named ... Goddard's River," Trav., ed. 1796, pp. 66, 67. A small river west of Goddard's Carver named Strawberry r., "from the great number of strawberries of a good size and flavor that grew on its banks."

[VII-12] Pike was sadly misinformed on this point. No place on the river is better known than St. Croix falls, above Osceola Mills, Polk Co., Wis., and Franconia, Chisago Co., Minn., where the descent is quoted at 5 feet in 300 yards. Higher up, the river has many rapids--toward its head so many that Nicollet's map legends "Succession of Rapids"; Schoolcraft's marks about a dozen; Lieut. Allen, when abandoned by Mr. Schoolcraft, encountered "almost interminable rapids"; La Salle cited Du Luth for "forty leagues of rapids," in his letter from Fort Frontenac, Aug. 22d, 1682; and Hennepin called the St. Croix "a river full of rapids." They are most numerous and most nearly continuous above Yellow and Namakagon rivers, two of the principal branches of the Upper St. Croix, both of which drain from the region about the Ottawa lakes and others in Sawyer and Washburn cos., Wis. Pike's Burnt r. is supposed to be the same as Carver's Goddard r.; it is also called Burnt Wood r., from the F. Bois Brûlé, and the latter name is still in use. Burnt r. is called by Nicollet Wissakude and by others Misacoda--a name no doubt the same as Nimissakouat, Nemitsakouat, Nissipikouet, etc., _de l'ancien régime_; on Franquelin's map, 1688, it stands Neouoasicoton. This last is a specially notable case, as Franquelin marks "Fort St. Croix" and "Portage" near the head of his river at a certain "Lac de la Providence" in which he heads his "R. de la Magdelaine"; for these are the Upper St. Croix l. and the St. Croix r. (This post was probably established by Du Luth before 1684 or 1685; he had been in Paris in 1683; at Montreal, Quebec, etc., 1682 and 1681; and in June, 1680, made the Bois Brûlé-St. Croix trip from Lake Superior to the Mississippi.) Franquelin's early map, 1683-84, is said to be the first to delineate the Bois Brûlé-St. Croix route: this shows R. de la Magdelaine connecting by Lac de la Providence with R. Neouaisicoton, but no Fort St. Croix is there marked. This river is said well enough to head in this lake; but more precisely, its sources are in the feeders of this lake. One of these, which is situated on a pine ridge a couple of miles off, offers the always interesting, though not very rare case of a sheet of water running two ways; for this small Source l., as it is called, discharges one way into the St. Croix stream, hence into the Gulf of Mexico, and the other way into Burnt r., which takes water to Lake Superior and finally to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Burnt is navigable, though much obstructed with shoals, rapids, and falls; it runs in the main northward, near the E. border of Douglas Co. (named for Stephen A. Douglas), and falls into the Kichi Gummi, Sea of the North, West Sea, Grand Lac (Champlain's Voy., 1632, map), Lac de Condé, Lac de Tracy, Lac Supérieur, Lacus Superior (De Creux, 1664, map), Lake Algona, etc. There were Chippewa villages along nearly the whole line of both the rivers at various points, including one on an island in the Upper St. Croix l. Islands and peninsulas in lakes were always favorite sites, for in such cases these Indians enjoyed some additional immunity from the Sioux in what we may style their "moated granges." On the St. Croix r., low down, was the Chippewa-Sioux boundary line, marked for some years by cedar trees which stood there a few miles below St. Croix falls: see note 17, p. 101.

[VII-13] Keating, I. 1824, p. 287, cites Long's MS. 1817, fol. 12, that Major Long's "boat crossed it, from a dead start, in 16 strokes." Referring to note 69, p. 70, for some historical remarks on St. Pierre's r., I wish to add here that this remarkable stream was at one period the main course of the Mississippi. The evidence of the rocks supports the opinion that the Falls of St. Anthony were once opposite the position of Fort Snelling. The Mississippi above the mouth of St. Pierre's differs in various particulars from the character it acquires below that point, and was once tributary to a then greater stream. This case does not seem to have attracted the attention to which it became entitled after its forcible presentation by General Warren. It is not so well marked as the obvious case of the Missouri _vs._ the Mississippi, in which there is no question which is the main and which the subsidiary stream; but it is similar. In other words, what the Mississippi is to the Missouri above St. Louis, that the Mississippi has been to the Minnesota above Fort Snelling.

[VII-14] The "rough draft" herein mentioned was published in the orig. ed. as a plate of page size, and is reproduced in facsimile for the present ed.

[VII-15] Pike's phrase "Le Mille Lac" brings up an orthographic case unique in some respects. No Minnesota lake is better known than this one; but what shall we call it? Shall we say Mille Lac, and then call the county in which it is partly situated Mille Lacs, as the G. L. O. map of 1887 does? Is the single body of water Le Mille Lac, as Pike says, or Les Mille Lacs? Is this one lake of a thousand, or a thousand lakes in one? Nobody seems to know; hence a crop of phrases, _e. g._, Mille Lac, Mille Lacs, Milles Lac, Milles Lacs; also, Mille Lac Lake, Lake Mille Lac, Lake Mille Lacs, Mille Lacs Lake; item, Mil Lac, Mill Lake, and other vagaries too many and too trivial to cite, all of which the student of Minnesota geography will discover sooner or later. The phrase being French, we naturally turn to see what a pure French scholar who was also a great geographer has to say on the subject. Speaking of the Sioux having their principal hunting-camps on Leech l. and on "_Minsi-sagaigon-ing_, or Mille Lacs," Nicollet explains in a note, Rep. 1843, p. 66: "This name is derived from _minsi_, all sorts, or everywhere, etc.; _sagaigon_, lake; and _ing_, which is a termination used to indicate a place; so the meaning of the word is 'place where there are all sorts of lakes,' which the French have rendered into Mille Lacs." Whence it appears that _Mille Lacs_ is short for some such phrase as _le pays aux mille lacs_, _l'entourage des mille lacs_, the country full of lakes, the environment of a thousand lakes, etc. Now it so happens geographically that this one lake among the thousand is vastly larger than any of the rest, perhaps than all the rest put together; it is _par excellence le lac des mille lacs_, the one among a thousand; furthermore, that it was a Sioux rendezvous, which became known as Mille Lacs by a sort of unconscious figure of speech on the part of those who very likely never heard of the rhetorical trope synecdoche, but called a part by the name of the whole, to suit themselves. I imagine, therefore, that the seeming solecism of a plural phrase for a singular thing is logically correct; that Nicollet was right in writing Mille Lacs; that Lac Mille Lacs would be grammatically defensible, though inelegant; and that we could say in English Lake Mille Lacs, or Lake Thousand-lakes, with equal propriety, though we should avoid such forms as Lake Mille Lac, or Mille Lac lake. In fine, the phrase Mille Lacs has ceased to concern any question of grammatical number, and become a mere _name_ of two words. As for the pleonasm or tautology of such phrases as Lac Mille Lacs, or Lake Mille Lacs, etc., this need not disturb us as long as we continue to talk of "Mississippi river," for example, as that means "Misi River river." There are several earlier names of this remarkable body of water. The memoir of Le Sieur Daniel Greysolon Du Luth on the discovery of the country of the Nadouecioux, addressed in 1685 to Monseigneur Le Marquis de Seignelay, as translated from the original in the archives of the Ministry of the Marine, has this passage, as given, _e. g._, in Shea's Hennep., 1880, p. 375: "On the 2nd of July, 1679, I had the honor to plant his Majesty's arms in the great village of the Nadouecioux, called Izatys, where never had a Frenchman been, no more than at the Songaskitons and Huetbatons," etc. De or Du Luth, Lhut, Lhu, Lut, Lud, whatever the trader's name was, had come from Montreal (Sept. 1st, 1678) with six or eight men to this part of Canada and was in the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie on Apr. 5th, 1679, under the patronage of Comte Louis de Buade de Frontenac, who had succeeded De Courcelle as governor of Canada Apr. 9th, 1672; consequently he named the lake Lac de Buade or Lac Buade; this was its original denomination in French, and such name appears on many old maps, _e. g._, Hennepin's, 1683, Franquelin's, 1688, De L'Isle's, 1703, etc., some of which also mark a place by the name of Kathio, supposed to be the site of a large Sioux village, on the W. side of L. de Buade, near the base of the peninsula later known as Cormorant Point. Du Luth's Izatys were Gens des Mille Lacs, _i. e._, Sioux who lived about Lake Mille Lacs in the country of that "number of small lakes called the Thousand Lakes," as Carver phrases it; they were the Issati or Islati, Issaqui, Issanti, Issanati, Issanoti, Issayati, etc., meaning those who lived in lodges on sharp stones, _i. e._, Knife Indians, at one of the Mille Lacs called Lake Isan or Knife l. However loosely Du Luth's term Izatys may have come to be used, it designated and most properly designates the genuine original Gens du Lac, or People of Lake Thousand-lakes, our modern Mdewakontonwans. Du Luth's Houetbatons are supposed to be our Wakpatons, Warpetonwans, or Waqpatonwans; his Songaskitons, our Sisitonwans, Seseetwawns or Sissetons, _i. e._, lake-dwellers (_sisi_, marsh or lake, _tonwan_, people); these two tribes are located on old maps eastward of Lake Mille Lacs. In 1689, date of Pierre Lesueur's and Nicholas Perrot's visit to Sioux dominions, we hear that N. E. of the Mississippi lived the Menchokatonx or Mendesuacantons, _i. e._, the same Sioux as Du Luth's Izatys of Lac Buade. According to E. D. Neill, Macalester Coll. Cont. No. 10, in 1697 Aubert de la Chesnaye said that "at the lake of the Issaqui, also called Lake Buade, are villages of the Sioux called Issaqui; and beyond this lake are the Oetbatons; further off are the Anitons who are also Cioux." Neill also cites a certain doc., dated Quebec, 1710, which states that "the three bands with which we are acquainted are the Tintons, the Songasquitons, and the Ouadebaetons." Two of these are obviously the same as two of Du Luth's; the third (Tintons) are the same as the Izatys, or rather a band of Indians who came under this more general denomination. This connection is established in Hennepin, whose Tintonbas, Tintonhas, or Thinthonhas were Sioux who lived on the St. Francis (or Rum r., the main discharge of Lake Buade) near the Issantis, and were the Indians who captured his companions and himself. This dig at the roots of primitive Sioux ethnology is merely to bring up the next name of Lac Buade; for, from such intimate connection as this body of water had with certain Sioux, it immediately became known as Lac des Issatis, and soon as Lac des Sioux, or Sioux l.; moreover, St. Francis or Rum r., which runs out of the lake, became Sioux r.; _e. g._, Franquelin's map, 1688, marks "R. des François ou des Sioux." De L'Isle's map, 1703, letters the lake "Mississacaigan ou L. Buade," and the issuant river "R. de Mendeouacanion." The first of these two Indian names is the one which Nicollet adopts for the lake in the form Minsi Sagaigoning; the other is the same word as Mdewakantonwan. Nicollet's remark on this subject, like all his pregnant writing, requires attention here, especially as it raises a geographical besides a nomenclatural point, Rep. 1843, p. 67: "We still find some confusion on the maps as regards the name of _Minsi-sagaigon-ing_. Some have laid it down as _Mille Lacs_; others as Spirit lake; and on others, again, it appears as two lakes, with (separately) both names. The ambiguity arises from the fact that the same lake has been named by two nations. The one which I have adopted is from the Chippeways; that by which it is known to the Sioux is _Mini-wakan_--meaning literally, water spirit; but, in this case, intended to signify _ardent spirits_. The river that issues from this lake has been named Rum river by the traders; which appellation the Chippeways have translated into _Ishkode-wabo_, or ardent spirits; and the Sioux into _Mdote-mini-wakan_, or outlet of the ardent spirits." That is a dismal aboriginal pun which mixes up nature-spirits with the artificial product, turns the lake into a bottle, and the river into its neck; it is bad enough to have been perpetrated "next morning," and it is too bad that the debauches to which the traders allured the Indians should have been perpetuated in geographical nomenclature. Spirit l. is the name under which Long, for example, maps Lake Mille Lacs, and the Gens du Lac he calls People of Spirit Lake; and Schoolcraft, Narr. Journ. of 1820, pub. 1821, p. 214, has Great Spirit lake and Missisawgaiegon--the latter name also applied to its discharge (Rum r.). Spirit is not now a name of Lake Mille Lacs; the one for which Nicollet conserved the name Mini-wakan, and which hence became known as Spirit l. and Devil's l., is the large body of water in N. Dakota, tributary to the Red River of the North; Spirit l. of modern Minnesota geography is a little one of the collection in Aitkin Co., between Lower Red Cedar l. and Mille Lacs l. The latter is the second largest lacustrine body of water in the State. It is situated across the intercounty line between Aitkin and Mille Lacs, about half in one and half in the other of these two counties. Its figure is more regular than usual, being squarish, with three corners rounded off and the S. E. one drawn out a little; there is also some constriction about the middle, where points facing each other run out from the E. and W. shore respectively; the shore line is said to be about 100 miles in all. The lake is readily accessible, being only some 12 m. S. of Aitkin, and is a favorite resort for outings. One of the 14 present Ojibwa reservations is on its S. shore.

[VII-16] There is an error here, as what Hennepin called the St. François in 1680 is Rum r. of Carver, 1766, and authors generally; while St. Francis r. of Carver, which he thought was Hennepin's St. François, is Pike's Leaf r., now known as Elk r. See note 7, p. 95, where this case is fully discussed.

[VII-17] Pike maps four on the W., above his Clear = Platte r., and below his Pine cr. = Swan r.: see note 19, p. 103.

[VII-18] The name of this branch of St. Pierre's r. in Minnesota duplicates that of a large branch of the Mississippi in Wisconsin. The Minnesota tributary is Miawakong r. of Long's map, 1823, and Manya Wakan r. of Nicollet's, 1843.

[VII-19] Lac à la Queue de Loutre of the F., whence the E. name. This is the largest body of water into which the Red River of the North expands in Minnesota, and may be called a principal source of that river, as Pike says, though it compares with the true source very much as Leech l. or Winnibigoshish l. does with that of the Mississippi. It is situated about the center of Otter Tail Co., some 60-70 m. S. W. of Leech l.; Pike's map tucks it up snug under Leech l. The Leech-Otter Tail traverse, or route by which one passed from Mississippian waters to those of Red r., as beyond indicated by Pike, is given in detail by Schoolcraft upon information of traders who were familiar with this chain of lakes. Using the nomenclature of his Narrative, etc., 1834, p. 105, it may be stated as follows: From Leech l. through lakes called Warpool, Little Long, of the Mountain and of the Island, to the Crow Wing series, or Longwater, Little Vermillion, Birch, and Plé. Lake Plé was the one where the route forked--one way leading on down the Crow Wing series, the other turning off to the Otter Tail series. The latter consisted in, first, a portage of four pauses to Island l.; portage of one pause into a small lake which led into another, and this into Lagard l.; half a pause to a small lake; pause and a half to another; four pauses into Migiskun Aiaub or Fishline l.; a pause into Pine l.; five pauses into a small river which runs into Scalp l. The latter has an outlet which expands into three successive and about equidistant lakes, and is then received into Lac Terrehaute, or Height of Land l. The outlet of this last expands into a lake, and again into water called Two Lakes from its form; whence the discharge is into Otter Tail l. It is not easy to pick this exact route up from a modern map; but I may add that it runs in Hubbard, Becker, and Otter Tail cos.; that some of the lakes on or near this series are known as Height of Land, Little Pine, Pine, and Rush (these being on the course of Otter Tail r., and therefore on the Red River water-shed); and that some places on or near the route are called Park Rapids, Osage, Linnell, Shell Lake, Jarvis, Erie, McHugh, Frazer City, Lace, Perham, and St. Lawrence. The N. P. R. R. from Moorhead to Brainerd crosses the route in two or three places, one of these being between Pine and Rush lakes.

[VII-20] Pinenet or pinenett is Pike's version of épinette of the French voyageurs, name of the tree we commonly call tamarac or hackmetack, and which the botanists know as black larch, _Larix americana_. It is so abundant and characteristic in some places that the wet grounds in which it grows are usually called tamarac swamps. The sap pine of the same sentence has been already noted as the balsam-fir, _Abies balsamea_: see note 44, p. 132. There is a Lac Sapin, called in English Balsam-fir lake. The supposed occurrence of hemlock, _Tsuga canadensis_, in this locality is open to question.

[VII-21] "R. le Crosse" of Pike's map, the discharge of the lake now universally known as Ball Club: see the account of it in note 56, p. 150.

[VII-22] The lake which Pike calls Winipie is the large body of water in British America, through which the combined streams of the Assiniboine and Red River of the North find their way into Hudson's bay, and which we know as Lake Winnipeg; but this does not further concern us now. Pike's Lake Winipeque is what we now call Lake Winnibigoshish, on the course of the Mississippi. The French forms of the latter name, such as Ouinipique, etc., whence our Winipeque, Winipec, Winipeck, etc., are diminutizing terms, as if to say Little Lake Winipeg. There can be no occasion for confounding the two lakes, notwithstanding the similarity and sometimes the identity of their names.

Lake Winnibigoshish is that very large dilatation of the Mississippi which lies next below Cass l.: see note 8, p. 159, for the distance between the two, and details of that section of the river which connects them. The variants of its name are moderately numerous: Winipeque, as above, but Winipec on Pike's map; Wenepec, Lewis and Clark's map, 1814; Little Winnepeck, Long; Winnipec, Beltrami, Schoolcraft; Winnepeg and Big Winnipeg, Allen; Winibigoshish, Nicollet, Owen--this last the only name now used, generally with doubled _n_, and with some variants, like Winnepegoosis, etc. This is the second largest body of water in the whole Itascan basin, exceeded only by Leech l., and much exceeding Cass l.; its area is probably not far from that of Lake Pepin, but the shape is very different. The figure is squarish, with the N. W. and S. W. corners rounded off, and the N. E. corner extended into a well-marked bay; the main diameters are about 11 m. from N. to S., and 7½ from E. to W.; the area thus indicated is little encroached upon by projecting points, so that the shore line is shorter than usual in proportion to the extent of waters; the collateral feeders of the lake are comparatively few and unimportant. The lake lies partly in no fewer than eight townships (each 6 × 6 m. sq.); but it only slightly encroaches on five of these, occupying nearly all of T. 146, R. 28, 5th M., the greater part of T. 145, R. 28, and about half of T. 146, R. 27: actual area thus equivalent to rather more than two townships, or over 72 sq. m. The construction of the government dam at the outlet has decidedly altered the shore line, and modified other natural features; the overflow due to this obstruction has inundated the original shore contour in the low places, formed some backwater expansions, and drowned countless trees. Many of these stand stark and black where they grew, far out from the present shore line, which itself is piled with drift-wood in most places. Snags also abound all along the wooded shores, and the water is so shallow that some beds of bulrushes rise above the surface a mile or more from land. The scene is desolate and forbidding. Add to this a danger of navigation to an unusual degree for the frail birch-bark canoes which alone are used on Winnibigoshish. The lake is too large to be safely crossed in such boats at any time. Even the Indians habitually sneak to the shore through the snags and rushes; for the water is very shallow, easily churned up to quite a sea. Sudden squalls and shifting currents are always to be expected, and one runs considerable risk in venturing where land cannot be made in a few minutes, if necessary. It would be nothing, of course, to a well-built keel-boat with sail and oars; but a birch-bark is quite another craft. I have seen Winnibigoshish as smooth as glass, and then in a few minutes been glad to put ashore, to escape a choice between swamping or capsizing, amid whitecaps and combers at least four feet from crest to hollow, breaking on a lee shore full of snags and piled with driftwood. Good landing places are not to be found all along; most of the shore is low, and much of it consists of floating-bog, in which a man may sink as easily, and less cleanly, than in quicksand, if he sets an incautious foot. The water is so impure as to be scarcely fit for drinking; the lake is a sort of cesspool for all the sewerage of the basin whose waters pass through it. Winnibigoshish, in short, is dreary, dirty, deceitful, and dangerous.

The Mississippi enters this reservoir in the S. W. part, at a point in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 36, T. 146, R. 29, 5th M., where it sweeps around a firm bank, steep enough to be cut in some places, and on which some Indians live; quite a little delta extends far out into the lake, overgrown with bulrushes to such an extent as to hide the opening. But it is not difficult to thread any one of several ways through these to the high bank just said, which is the land-mark; a more conspicuous one, from a distance, is a piece of high woodland whose point is due S. ½ m. from the inlet. Hence southward is the nearest approach of Leech l.; a traverse offers by means of Portage l. (Nicollet's Lake Duponceau), though the carrying-place is somewhat over 2 m. long.