waters of the mighty
stream. He therefore went there, for with him to think is to determine,
to determine is to act. Friends tried to persuade him he was engaging in
a useless and extravagant expedition, and those to whom he applied for
information respecting the country through which he must pass warned him
that he would have to undergo many hardships; but to all this advice he
turned a deaf ear. His active, energetic, and enterprising temperament
was proof against all fear of discomfort, and his desire to know the
truth overruled every other feeling. And, when at last he stood by the
beautiful lake, the goal of his search, all the trials and annoyances of
his arduous journey sank into insignificance--lost in the depths of his
content.

His companions gazed with delight upon the peaceful scene which lay
before them; and, as they noted the peculiar outline of the lake, what
wonder that the thought came--this was indeed the heart of the
Mississippi, pulsating with life for the great stream flowing onward and
ever onward, enriching and ennobling the land, until at last it loses
itself, by reason of its own vastness, in the waters of the Ocean.

They rejoiced, too, that the first white man to stand at the
fountain-head of America's greatest river was an American--an American
who had fought bravely and suffered many privations for his country. And
as they watched the eagle, whirling in his flight over their heads, they
felt glad that he had chosen this spot for his home, in which to rear
his young in the same proud, free spirit which made him so fit an emblem
for their glorious land.

Much astonishment was expressed by those of the party who were aware of
Schoolcraft's expedition in 1832, that he should have missed finding
this lake so closely connected with Itasca, and various were the
surmises as to the cause of this remarkable oversight. One plausible
suggestion was, that the rushes and reeds had so obstructed the entrance
of the stream into Itasca, that not having a previous knowledge of its
whereabouts, there was nothing surprising in its being overlooked. By
far the most probable theory, however, was advanced by Captain Glazier,
who stated, quoting Schoolcraft himself as authority, that when he
reached Itasca he was too much hurried to make a thorough exploration.
He had made an engagement to meet some Indians in council at the mouth
of the Crow-Wing River, fully seven days' journey from this point, and
he had not