140 NAERATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



same authority estimates its length from the Balize, at twenty- 

 seven hundred and fifty miles. Its velocity below Cass Lake may 

 be estimated to result from a mean descent of a fraction over five 

 inches per mile. 



The name of the Mississippi Eiver is derived from the Algon- 

 ' quin language, through the medium of the French. The term 

 appears first in the early missionary letters from the west end of 

 Lake Superior about 1660. Sippi, agreeably to the early French 

 annotation of the word, signifies a river. The prefixed word 

 Missi is an adjective denoting all, and, when applied to various 

 waters, means the collected or assembled mass of them. The 

 compound term is then, properly speaking, an adverb. Thus, 

 Missi-gago, means all things ; Missi-gago-gidjetod, He who has 

 made all things — the Creator. It is a superlative expression, of 

 which great river simply would be a most lean, impracticable, 

 and inadequate expression. It is only symbolically that it can be 

 called the father of American rivers, unless such sense occurs in 

 the other Indian tongues. 



Finding it impracticable to proceed higher in the search of the 

 remote sources of the river at this time, a return from this point 

 was determined on. The vicinity had been carefully scanned for 

 its drift specimens, and fresh-water conchology. Wishing to 

 carry along some further memorial of the visit, members of the 

 party cut walking-canes in the adjoining thickets, and tied them 

 carefully together; and at five o'clock in the afternoon (21st July) 

 we embarked on our descent. An hour's voyage over the surface 

 of this wide lake, with its refreshing views of northern scenery, 

 brought us to the point where the Mississippi issues from it. 

 Never did men ply their paddles with greater animation; and 

 having the descent now in their favor, they proceeded eighteen 

 miles before they sought for a spot to encamp. Twilight still 

 served, with almost the clearness of daylight, while we spread 

 our tents on a handsome eminence on the right-hand shore. Day- 

 light had not yet dawned the next morning, when we resumed 

 the descent. It was eight o'clock A.M. when we reached the 

 border of Lake Winnipek. This name, by the way, is derived 

 from a term heretofore given, which, having the Chippewa 

 inflection of nouns in ish, graphically describes that peculi- 

 arity of its waters created by the disturbance of a clay bottom. 



