waters of the Mississippi,
and that he had always asserted, when maps were shown him, that a
lake above Itasca would in time change a feature of those maps and
confirm his statement that Lake Itasca could not longer maintain
its claim to being the fountain-head of the Great River.

"Three days were spent at Leech Lake, during which time we secured
an interpreter, Indian guides and birch bark canoes. Everything
being in order we launched our canoes on the morning of July
seventeenth. Wishing, as previously explained, to approach Itasca
by a different route from that adopted by Schoolcraft and Nicollet
who went up the Mississippi from Lake Winnibegoshish, I crossed
Leech Lake and ascended the Kabekanka River, thence proceeding in a
direct westerly course through twenty-one lakes, alternated by as
many portages, reaching Itasca between two and three o'clock on
the afternoon of the twenty-first. The region traversed, we were
told by the guides, had never before been trodden by white men; and
considering the nature of the country it is not to be wondered at,
as swamps, floating bogs, and dense undergrowth were encountered
throughout the entire journey.

"The work of coasting Itasca for its feeders was begun at an early
hour on the morning of the twenty-second. We found the outlets of
six small streams, two having well-defined mouths, and four
filtering into the lake through bogs. The upper or southern end of
the south-western arm of Lake Itasca is heavily margined with reeds
and rushes, and it was not without considerable difficulty that we
forced our way through this barrier into the larger of the two open
streams which enter at this point. This stream, at its mouth, is
seven feet wide and about three feet deep.

"Slow and sinuous progress of between two and three hundred yards
brought us to a blockade of logs and shallow water. Determined to
float in my canoe upon the surface of the lake towards which we
were paddling, I directed the guides to remove the obstructions,
and continued to urge the canoes rapidly forward, although opposed
by a strong and constantly increasing current. On pulling and
pushing our way through a network of rushes, similar to that
encountered on leaving Lake Itasca, the cheering sight of a
tranquil and limpid sheet of wa