NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



243 



volume of my Ethnological Researches^ p. 146, is taken from a point 

 nortli of the island, lookins; into the vista of the south arm of the 



Itasca Lake, the source of the Mississippi River, 3,160 miles from the Salize. 

 A. Mississippi River, b. Route of expedition to the Lake. c. Schoolcraft's 

 Island. 



lake. I inquired of Ozawindib the Indian name of this lake ; he 

 replied Omushkos, which is the Chippewa name of the Elk.* 

 Having previously got an inkling of some of their mythological 

 and necromantic notions of the origin and mutations of the coun- 

 try, which permitted the use of a female name for it, I denomi- 

 nated it iTASCA.f 



■^ The Canadian French call this animal la Biche, from Biche, a hind, 

 f This myth is fm-ther alluded to, in the following stanzas from the Literary 

 World, No. 337 :— 



STA^"ZAS. 



OS KEACHINQ THE SOURCE OP THE MISSISSIPPI EIVER IN 1832. J 



Ha ! truant of western waters ! Thou who hast 

 So long concealed thy very sources — flitting shy, 



Now here, now there — thi'ough spreading mazes vast 

 Thou art, at length, discovered to the eye 



In crystal springs, that run, like silver thread. 

 From out their sandy heights, and glittering lie 



X Narrative of an Expedition to Itasca Lake. Harpers. 1834. 1 vol. Svo. p. 307. 



