"Captain Willard Glazier:

"_Dear Sir_:--I have been somewhat interested in your discussion
regarding the source of the Mississippi. Even had you never
proclaimed to the world your discoveries, from information received
by me from Indians and old mixed-blood Indian voyageurs, there
would have always been a doubt existing with me as to whether
Itasca was the head of the Mississippi.

"Henry Beaulieu, a brother of Paul Beaulieu, always maintained that
LAKE GLAZIER was the true source of the Mississippi. I remember
that, after his return from Itasca with Mr. Chambers of the New
York _Herald_, I think in 1872, he said that Winnibegoshish or Cass
Lake might as well be called the source of the Mississippi as
Itasca. Other mixed-blood have repeatedly stated the same thing. I
mention this to show you what the general opinion is among Indians
and those of mixed blood.

"Chenowagesic's theory concerning the head of the Mississippi is
this: That while Itasca presents a larger surface than LAKE
GLAZIER, it does not contain as much water as the latter. He
arrives at this conclusion from the fact that Itasca freezes over
two or three weeks before LAKE GLAZIER. This, he says, is a sure
sign that the latter lake is the deeper of the two, and contains
more water. His arguments in favor of LAKE GLAZIER are rather
novel, and, as a matter of course, are taken from an Indian's
standpoint.

"Yours truly,

"Gus. H. Beaulieu.

"White Earth, Minnesota, December 17, 1887."

IV. PUBLIC OPINION IN MINNESOTA.

The evidence here presented in support of LAKE GLAZIER, is, in our
judgment, most conclusive; we may add, overwhelming. Many of the most
prominent citizens of the State in which the Great River takes its rise
volunteer their endorsement of a claim, of the merits of which, they
must necessarily be better informed than persons living at a remote
distance from the head of the river. State authorities, including the
Governor and his staff; senators and representatives, many of whom have
resided from twenty to forty years in Minnesota; pioneers, clergymen,
and school-teachers, with many of the leading citizens; editors,
school-superintendents, professional men, and others, strongly affirm
that Lake Itasca is not the source of