GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



n Turtle lake in other words, that the present 

 furtle Lake river, which runs southeasterly into 

 J!ass lake, was the continuation and head stream 

 >f the Mississippi. Nor did they long remain 



r 



303 



to pretend to believe, that the river had its origin mouth of the said bay shrank into the present 



_ m.,_n~ !!, ; ^i,. ^ ^.^ +u _4- ghort stream, so that when the lines of the 



United States land surveys were extended over 

 this region in 1875 only a lake and creek were 

 to be seen, to which the surveyor gave the name 



ignorant of the "other large tributary of Cass of Elk, the abandoned appellation of the parent 



lake, the true Mississippi ; for that they knew 



the lake at its head is proved by its appearance 



on early printed maps under the name of Lac 



la Biche (Elk lake), though placed very much 



out of its true position. It is on record that 



one of them William Morrison wintered 



there in 1803-1804, though no mention of his 



visit appeared in print until fifty years later. 



In 1832, Messrs. Schoolcraft and Allen, Gov- 

 ernment officers, made a hasty journey to Elk 



lake, thereafter to be universally known as 



Itasca. They concluded that it was the "true 



source and fountain of the longest and largest 



branch of the Mississippi." There was still 



something beyond, however, for they were in- 

 formed by their Indian guide that there was 



a little creek flowing into the southwest bay 



of the lake, having its source at the base of a 



chain of high hills which they could see in the 



distance, near the present borders of Becker, 



Beltrami, and Hubbard Counties. In 1836, J. 



N. Nicollet, a private gentjeman from France, 



made a special visit to the lake and its en- 

 virons, " to take up the exploration of the 



sources of the Mississippi." In his report he 



only claimed to come after the explorers of 



1832. and to have " completed what was want- 

 ing for a full geographical account of these 



sources." Of the five creeks he noted fall- 

 ing into it (Lake Itasca), there was one that 



flowed into the west bay and " was remark- 

 able above the others, inasmuch as its course 



is longer and its waters more abundant." 



He found that it passed through two minor 



lakes, beyond the uppermost cf which was 



a third formed by the union of numberless 



streamlets that oozed from the bases of the 



hills. 

 But many years after the decisive voyages 



of Schoolcraft and Nicollet a spirit of enter- 

 prise or, possibly, a thirst for notoriety 



excusable only on the ground of ignorance of 



these previous examinations induced men 



to go into the field again. In this way was 



brought upon the geographical world an un- 

 necessary perplexity, and an immense amount 



of writing in the way of newspaper letters, 



pamphlets, etc. In 1872, a correspondent of 



the New York " Herald " undertook a canoe 



voyage to Lake Itasca, and having penetrated 



the west arm he ascended a creek until he came 



to a certain lake. In this lake he claimed that 



"he had found the fountains which give birth 



to the Mississippi." Nothing resulted from 



his discovery, however, unless it were a 



mischievous incitement to other similar expedi- lake. 



tions, only one of which made any permanent 



impression. The truth is, this correspondent 



SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



In 1881 occurred the expedition referred 

 to as making a permanent but somewhat pecul- 



, r iar impression. Another adventurous man of 



practically discovered nothing ; for his lake rep- letters repeated the exploit of his predecessor of 



rP^Pnfc nnlvr fVn-v -n^^^-^i- "U . _J? 1 A. -i c\f*r\ i i - - __! j_l 



rese nts only the recent shape of what appears on 1872 by discovering precisely the same stream 



Allen s and Nicollet's maps as a sort of bay. This and lake, and making precisely the same claim 



flange in shape is accounted for on the assump- that it was the source of the Mississippi, simi- 



lon that in the years between 1836 and 1872 the larly slighting the larger inlet lying only about 



irlace of Itasca lake had lowered so much by one fourth of a mile to the west, at the extreme 



erosion of the bed of its outlet that the wide head of the west arm. and in addition ignoring 



