NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 133 



rapids, is at all times shallow, but it is particularly so this season ; 

 and that it is not practicable to reach these remote sources of the 

 river with boats, or large canoes of the size we have. 



On submitting these facts to the gentlemen composing his party, 

 Governor Cass asked each one to give his views, beginning with 

 the youngest, and to express his opinion on the feasibility of 

 further explorations. They concurred in opinion that, in the 

 present low state of the water on these summits, considering the 

 impossibility of ascending them with our present craft, and in the 

 actual state of our provisions, such an attempt was impracticable. 

 Thereon, he announced his decision to rejoin our party at Sandy 

 Lake, and to pursue the exploration of the river down its chan- 

 nel to the Falls of St. Anthony, to the inlet of the Wisconsin and 

 Fox Eivers, and to return into the great lake basins, and complete 

 their circumnavigation. 



Having reached the ultimate geographical point visited by, the 

 expedition, I thought it due to the energy and enlightened zeal 

 of the gentleman who had led us, to mark the event by naming 

 this body of water in my journal Cassina, or Cass Lake. There 

 was the more reason for this in the nomenclature of the geo- 

 graphy of the upper Mississippi, by observing that it embraces 

 another Eed Cedar Lake. The latitude of upper Red Cedar, or 

 Cass Lake, is placed by Pike at 47° 42' 40".* Its distance above 

 Sandy Lake, by the involutions of the river, is two hundred and 

 seventy miles, and from Fond du Lac, at the head of Lake Su- 

 perior, by the travelled route, four hundred and thirty miles. It 

 is situated seventeen degrees north of the Gulf of Mexico, from 

 which it is computed to be distant two thousand nine hundred 

 and seventy-eight geographical miles. Estimating the distance 

 to the actual origin of the river, as determined at a subsequent 

 period, at one hundred and eighty-two miles above Cass Lake, the 

 length of the Mississippi River is shown to be three thousand 

 one hundred and sixty miles,t making a direct line over the 

 earth's surface of more than half the distance from the arctic 

 circle to the equator. It may also be observed of the Missis- 

 sippi, that its sources lie in a region of snows and long-continued 



* Nicollet, in the report of his exploration of 1836, places it in 47° 25' 2Z". 

 \ Vide Expedition to St.isca Lake in 1832. 



