30 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Long, 1817. 



shoot not more than 20 yards. The water thus collected, runs down a flat rock which has an 

 elevation of about 30 degrees. Immediately above the fall is a small island of about 50 yards in 

 circumference, covered with sap-pine.* The portage, which is on the E. (or N.) side is no more 

 than 200 yards, and by no means difficult. Those falls, in point of consideration as an impedi- 

 ment to navigation, stand next to the falls of St. Anthony, from the source of the river to the 

 gulf of Mexico. The banks of the river, to the Meadow river, have generally either been 

 timbered by pine, pinenett, hemlock, sap-pine, or the aspen tree. From thence it winds through 

 high-grass meadows (or savannas), with the pine swamps at a distance appearing to cast a deeper 

 gloom on the borders. From the falls in ascending you pass the lake Packegamau on the west, 

 celebrated for its great production of wild rice ; and next meet with the Deer river on the east, the 

 extent of its navigation unknown. You next meet Riviere Le Cross, on the east side, which bears 

 nearly north, and has only a portage of one mile to pass from it into the lake Winipequef branch of 

 the Mississippi. We next come to what the people of that quarter call the Forks of the Mississippi, 

 the right fork of which bears N. W. and runs eight leagues to lake Winnipeque, which is of an oval 

 form of about 36 miles in circumference. From lake Winnipeque the river continues 5 leagues to 

 Upper Red Cedar lakej, which may be termed the upper source of the Mississippi. The Leech 

 lake branch bears (from the forks) S. W. and runs through a chain of Meadows. You pass Muddy 

 lake, which is scarcely anything more than an extensive marsh of 15 miles in circumference; the 

 river bears through it nearly N., after which it turns again W. In many places this branch 

 is not more than ten or fifteen yards wide, although 15 or 20 feet deep. From this to Leech lake 

 the communication is direct, and without any impediment. This is rather considered as the main 

 source, although the Winnipeque branch is navigable the greatest distance. To this place the 

 whole face of the country has the appearance of an impenetrable morass, or boundless savanna. 

 But on the borders of the lake is some oak, and large groves of sugar maple, from which the 

 traders make sufficient sugar for their consumption the whole year. Leech lake communicates 

 with the river De Corbeau by seven portages, and the river Des Feuilles also, with the Red river by 

 the Otter Tail lake on the one side, and by the Red Cedar lake and other small lakes to Red lake 

 on the other. Out of these small lakes and ridges rise the upper waters of the St. Lawrence, 

 Mississippi, and Red river,? the latter of which discharges itself into the ocean by lake Winipie 

 and Hudson's Bay. All those waters have their upper sources within 100 miles of each other, 

 which I think plainly proves this to be the most elevated part of the N. E. continent of America. 

 But we must cross (what is commonly termed) the Rocky Mountains, or a spur of the Cordeliers, 

 previous to our finding the waters whose currents run westward and pay tribute to the western 

 ocean. 



In this quarter we find moose, a very few deer and bear, but a vast variety of fur animals 

 of all descriptions. 



MAJOR S. H. LONG AT THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY. 



In 1817 Major Stephen H. Long, of the United States Army, made a 

 visit to the falls of St. Anthony, || and has made so correct a description of 

 them that, by comparison with that of Pike, in 1805, such changes are seen 

 to have taken place that some idea of their rate of recession can be gained. 



The perpendicular fall of the water at the cataract, as stated by Pike in his journal, is 

 16 J feet, which I found to be true by actual measurement. To this height, however, four or 

 five feet may be added for the rapid descent which immediately succeeds the perpendicular fall 

 within a few yards below. Immediately at the cataract the river is divided into two parts by an 

 island which extends considerably above and below the cataract, and is about 500 yards long. 



*Balsam Fir. fWumibigoshish. JCass Lake. 



gPike has this footnote: Red river discharges itself into Hudson's Bay by lake Winipie and Nelson's river. 

 (Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II. Voyage in a six-oared skiff to the falls of St. Anthony in 1817, by 

 Major Stephen H. Long, with an introductory note by Edward D. Neill. 



