HISTORICAL SKETCH. 51 



1832, Schoolcraft.] 



(now lake Pemidji), which is the Chippewa for Lac Trovers, Mr. School- 

 craft saw a good reason for rejecting in favor of Queen Anne, whose name 

 he applied to that lake. The little lake immediately south of it he dedi- 

 cated to Washington Irving. Half a mile above this he reached what he 

 styled the "primary forks of the Mississippi," that from the west, or Itascan 

 fork, bearing the larger volume of water. Under the guidance of Oza- 

 windib, the party took the southern fork, through which, by a series of 

 lakes, they attained a point nearly east from Itasca lake. They then made 

 a grande portage over the drift hills intervening, to Itasca lake, descending 

 the other fork to Pemidji lake the following day. He bestowed the 

 name of Marquette on the first of the lakes of the south fork, and on the 

 second that of La Salle. The third lake, of larger dimensions, deemed by 

 Lieut. Allen to be ten miles long, he named Plantagenet. Passing the 

 junction of the Naiwa river and at the same time ascending a rapid by 

 means of a portage trail of about two miles, the stream was again struck at 

 a point a few miles below Assawa or Perch lake. A short distance above 

 this lake the party left the south fork, by portage to Itasca lake,* the eleva- 

 tion passed over being estimated at 1695 feet above the gulf of Mexico. 



In descending the other fork of the river, from Itasca lake, Mr. School- 

 craft found the outlet to be " quite a brisk brook, with the mean width of 

 ten feet and the depth of one foot." After passing some severe rapids he 

 mentions a river by the name of Chemaun, entering on the right bank, 

 which nearly doubles the volume of the stream. Further down enters a 

 stream, with a lake near its mouth, which the Indians styled Piniddiwin 

 (or Carnage) river, but which he denominated De Soto river. Both these 

 streams enter the Mississippi in T. 146, R. 35. A small stream below, orig- 

 inating in a lake, in T. 146, R. 34, coming in on the left, he designated 

 Allenoga, " putting the Iroquois local terminal in oga to the name of the 

 worthy officer who traced out the first true map of the actual sources of the 

 Mississippi.'' He also applies names to a series of lakes between Leech lake 

 and the headwaters of the Crow Wing river, but his descriptions cannot be 

 made to agree with any published maps of that country, particularly in 

 respect to distances traveled, and the sizes of the lakes, although they are 



^"Having previously got an inkling of some of their mythological and necromantic notions of the origin and mutations 

 of the country uhich permitted the use of a female name for It, I denominated it Rasca." -Schoolcraft Disc. Sources Miss 

 Mr. Neill lias stated on the authority of Rev. W. T. Boutwell, who accompanied the expedition, that the name Itasca 

 waa derived by Schoolcraft from the Latin words veritas and caput, meaning true source. 



