ter burst upon our view.

"This lake, the Chippewa name of which is _Pokegama_, is about a
mile and a half in its greatest diameter, covers an area of two
hundred and fifty acres, and would be nearly an oval in form but
for a single promontory, which extends its shores into the lake, so
as to give it in outline the appearance of a heart. Its feeders are
three small creeks, two of which enter on the right and left of the
headland, and have their origin in springs at the foot of sand
hills from two to three miles distant. The third stream is but
little more than a rivulet of a mile in length, has no clearly
defined course, and is the outlet of a small pond or lakelet to the
south-westward.

"The latitude of the lake in question is about 47 deg.; its height
above the Atlantic Ocean 1,582 feet, and its distance from the Gulf
of Mexico 3,184 miles.

"The statement that the lake now very generally accepted by
geographers, and educational publishers as the True Source of the
Mississippi was so regarded prior to the organization of my
expedition cannot be substantiated; for, on the contrary, both
press and people throughout Minnesota were ignorant of its
existence, so far as we were able to ascertain by diligent inquiry
from Saint Paul to Brainerd; and, in fact, I may add that the
missionary, Indian agent, and post-trader at Leech Lake knew no
other source of the Mississippi than Lake Itasca, except what they
had been told by my chief guide, Chenowagesic, and a few other
Chippewas in that vicinity. Barrett Channing Paine, fully confirms
this statement in his letters to the Brainerd, Minneapolis, and
Saint Paul papers of that period. These letters prove most
conclusively that the people of Northern Minnesota had no knowledge
whatever of the lake beyond Itasca until its existence was
announced by me through the medium of the press in 1881.

"If the assumption by some writers that the lake to the south of
Itasca had been seen before my visit to that region in 1881 is well
grounded, I need only say in reply that it had not been assigned
any geographical importance prior to my visit; in other words, it
had not been recognized by any one as the true source of the
Mississippi.

"When William Morrison, the fur-trader, pitched his tent on
Schoo