HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



1823, Bcltrami.] 



45 



considerably earlier than the appearance of any of the official papers ot 

 Major Long, and several years earlier than Keating's "Narrative.'" It was 

 subsequently enlarged and reprinted in London in English.* Although his 

 " letters," constituting as they do a gossipy and literary curiosity in the field 

 of exploration, maybe justly styled a romance in the discovery of the upper 

 Mississippi, and although they are characterized by numerous errors, both 

 historical and geographical, as well as ethnological and zoological, they 

 still give some additional information respecting the geography of the 

 upper Mississippi and Red lake. The Minnesota legislature having set 

 aside a large tract, under the name of Beltrami county, covering the Julian 

 sources of the Mississippi, it is to be hoped that the names applied by Mr. 

 Beltrami to the lakes and streams he visited may be preserved in the future 

 settlement of the region, which, however, is still nearly as wild and unin- 

 habited as when Mr. Beltrami passed through it. 



FIGURE 4. 



BELTRAMI'S MAP OF THE JULIAN SOURCES. 

 [Fac-simile.] 



The above fac-simile of that portion of Beltrami's map embracing the 

 region of the Julian sources of the Mississippi, coincides with his statement 



with a < 

 court in 



Europe and America, leading to the discovery of the sources of the Mississippi and Bloody river 



' by J - c - Beltrami - E5tl - formerly Jud 



