lcraft Island in 1804, he evidently did not know that the
outlet of the lake on which he looked was a part of the mighty
river. Schoolcraft followed, at the head of an expedition
twenty-eight years later, and claimed the lake as the source of the
Mississippi. It is very generally admitted that Morrison had seen
Itasca before Schoolcraft, but no one questioned that the latter
was entitled to the credit of discovery, since he was the first to
establish the fact that the Mississippi was its outlet. My claim to
have definitely located the _true source_ in the lake beyond Itasca
stands on precisely the same ground.

"I do not desire to pass a reasonable limit in an effort to insure
justice, but having consumed considerable time and money in
locating lakes and streams in Northern Minnesota, and having
established that the lake to the south of Itasca is the primal
reservoir of the Mississippi, I do not feel disposed to allow
myself to be thrust aside by those who know comparatively little or
nothing of that region.

"Assuming that the statements of my party are incontrovertible
concerning the lake which we claim as the True Source of the Great
River, it follows naturally:

"I. That Lake Itasca cannot longer be recognized as the
fountain-head of the Mississippi, for the reason that it is the
custom, agreeably to the definition of geographers, to fix upon the
remotest water, and a lake if possible, as the source of a river.

"II. That the lake to the south of Itasca, and connected therewith
by a perennial stream, is the primal reservoir or True Source of
the Mississippi; that it was not so considered prior to the visit
of my expedition in 1881; and that my party was the first to locate
its feeders correctly, and discover its true relation to the Great
River.

"III. That Schoolcraft could not have seen the lake located by me,
else he would have assigned it its true character in the narrative
of his expedition.

"IV. That Nicollet, who followed Schoolcraft, could not have been
aware of its existence, as he gives it no place upon his maps, or
description in the accounts of his explorations.

"V. That the lake known as Pokegama by the Chippewas was not
christened 'Glazier' by me, or through my instrumentality, but was
so named by my compa