76 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[N (collet, 1836. 

 NICOLLET AT THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



The Mississippi holds its own from its very origin ; for it is not necessary to suppose, as has 

 been done, that lake Itasca may be supplied with invisible sources, to justify the character of a 

 remarkable stream, which it assumes at its issue from this lake. There are five creeks that fall 

 into it, formed by innumerable streamlets oozing from the clay-beds at the bases of the hills, that 

 consist of an accumulation of sand, gravel and clay, intermixed with erratic fragments ; being a 

 more prominent portion of the erratic deposite previously described, and which here is known by 

 the name of Hauteurs des Terres, hights of land. 



These elevations are commonly flat at top, varying in hight from eighty-five to one hundred 

 feet above the level of the surrounding waters. They are covered with thick forests in which 

 the coniferous plants predominate. South of Itasca lake they form a semi-circular region, with a 

 boggy bottom, extending to the southwest a distance of several miles ; thence these Hauteurs des 

 Terres ascend to the northwest and north, and then stretching to the northeast and east, through 

 the zone between 47 and 48 of latitude, make the dividing ridge between the waters that empty 

 into Hudson bay and those which discharge themselves into the gulf of Mexico. The principal group 

 of these Hauteurs des Terres is subdivided into several ramifications, varying in extent, elevation 

 and course, so as to determine the hydrographical basins of all the innumerable lakes and rivers 

 that so peculiarly characterize this region of country. 



One of these ramificationa extends in a southerly direction under the name Coteau du Grand 

 Bois ; and it is this which separates the Mississippi streams from those of the Bed river of the 

 North. 



The waters supplied by the north flank of these hights of land, still on the south side of lake 

 Itasca, give origin to the five creeks of which I have spoken above. These are the waters which I 

 consider to be the utmost ?ources of the Mississippi. Those that flow from the southern side of 

 the same hights, and empty themselves into Elbow lake, are the utmost sources of the Ked river 

 of the North ; so that the most remote feeders of Hudson bay and the gulf of Mexico are closely 

 approximated to each other. 



Now, of the five creeks that empty into Itasca lake (the Omoshkos Sagaigon, of the Chippe- 

 ways, or the Lac a la Siche, of the French, or the Elk lake of the British) one empties into the 

 east bay of the lake ; the four others into the west bay. I visited the whole of them ; and among 

 the latter there is one remarkable above the others, inasmuch as its course is longer and its waters 

 more abundant; so that, in obedience to the geographical rule "that the sources of a river are 

 those which are most distant from its mouth," this creek is truly the infant Mississippi ; all others 

 below, its feeders and tributaries. 



The day on which I explored this principal creek, (Aug. 29, 1836) I judged that, at its 

 entrance into Itasca lake, its bed was from fifteen to twenty feet wide, and the depth of water 

 from two to three feet. I stemmed its pretty brisk current during ten or twenty minutes; but the 

 obstructions occasioned by the fall of trees compelled us to abandon the canoe, and seek its 

 springs on foot, along the hills. After a walk of three miles, during which we took care not to 

 lose sight of the Mississippi, my guides informed me that it was better to descend into the trough 

 of the valley ; when, accordingly, we found numerous streamlets oozing from the bases of the 

 hills. The temperature obtained at a great number of places, by plunging the thermometer hi 

 the mud whence these springs arose, was always between 43 5' and 44 2' Fah.; that of the 

 air being between 63 and 70. Having taken great pains in determining the temperature, I have 

 a right to believe that it represents pretty accurately the mean annual temperature of the country 

 under examination. 



As a further description of these headwaters, I may add that they unite at a small distance 

 from the hills whence they originate, and form a small lake, from which the Mississippi flows 

 with a breadth of a foot and a half, and a depth of one foot. At no great distance, however, this 

 rivulet, uniting itself with other streamlets, coming from other directions, supplies a second minor 

 lake, the waters of which have already acquired a temperature of 48. From this lake issues a 

 rivulet, necessarily of increased importance a cradled Hercules, giving promise of the strength 

 of his maturity ; for its velocity has increased ; it transports the smaller branches of trees ; it 

 begins to form sand-bars ; its bends are more decided, until it subsides again into the basin of a 



