2 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Champlain, 1615. 



The design has been to note the steps of geographical, as well as geological 

 exploration as authenticated by governmental or semi-official publications. 

 At the conclusion of peace between Great Britain and France, in 1763, 

 the territory which is now embraced within Minnesota was divided by a 

 line running south from the international boundary to the source of the 

 Mississippi river, and thence southward along the Mississippi. France 

 retained that portion lying to the west of the line, and that to the east was 

 declared subject to the British crown. The name Louisiane, which was 

 applied by the French to the lower portions of the Mississippi, was extended 

 northward so as to include all their possessions south of the forty-ninth 

 parallel. That portion of the state which lies east of the division line of 

 1763 became, in 1783, a part of the original area of the United States, 

 included in the "Territory northwest of the Ohio river." In 1803 France 

 ceded the "province of Louisiana'' to the United States. Minnesota was 

 admitted into the Union, as a State, in the year 1858. The history of 

 exploration may hence be divided into three parts : 1. Period prior to 

 1783; 2. Period of Territorial Exploration; 3. Period of State Exploration 

 and Survey. 



I. PERIOD PRIOR TO 1783- 



The map of Champlain shows the knowledge he obtained of the 

 western country from the Hurons at the time of his visit to their country 

 in 1615.* This represents the " Grand Lac," which is the French for Kitchi 

 Gummi, the Chippewa name of lake Superior, with a large stream entering 

 it from the south, called " La Grande Riviere." This probably refers to the 

 Mississippi, of which he could have had only a vague idea, and especially 

 since no such stream, commensurate with the importance which he has 

 given this, enters lake Superior from the south. The accident of its being 



*The pr'ncipal authorities consulted on the earliest (teographioal explorations in Minnesota urn the following: 

 Notts pour servir a Vkixtoire et a la bibliographic et la cartographic de la Xourelle- France et des /'ays atljacents, I, r 45-1 70"; par 

 1'auteur de la Bib'.iotheca Americana vetustissiina, Paris, Librairie Tross, 1872. 77w Collections of the Minnesota Historical 

 Society, four volumes, and the Publications of the Department of American History, of the Minnesota Historical Society 

 Decouvertes et etablissemtnts des Francais danslouesl el dVm.s le sud de I'Amerique septentrional* ; by Pierre Marffry. Paris. 

 Helinepin's Louisiana, a translation from the Kr.-ncu of Hennepin's fir-it, or Paris, edition of his work on the Mississippi. 

 by John Gilmiry Shea, New York. 1880. Neill's History of Minnesota from the earliest French explorations to the present 

 time; third edition, t87l, Minneapolis History of the discovery and xtttlemmt of the Valley of the Mississippi, by the great 

 European Powers, .Spain, Fr*t*ce and Great lliitain; by John \V. Monette, two vo'umes. New York, 1Mb 13y the cour- 

 tesy of Rev. E. D. Neill, several manuscript copies of documents in the Archives de la Marine, Paris, and tracings of an- 

 published old maps from the same place, have been consulted. Journal d'un voyage fait par ordre du Roi dans I'Amerique 

 Heptentrionale, par le P De Charlevoir, 1744, 3 tomes. Paris. Mcmoire sur les Maurs, Coutumes et Religion drs Sanragesde 

 I' Ameriqui septenlrionale par Xicolas Perrot, publi^e pour la premiere foii, par le K. P. Tailhan, Historical Collections of 

 Louisiana, 4 vols, B. F. French. Hisloire de la Lvuutiane, par M. Le Page Du Pratz, 1768 The Works and Voyages of 

 Champlain, published in English by the Prince Society, Boston, 1S80. The Discovery of the Great West, Francis Parkman 



