144 



BCmNGJE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 184 



upon an additional length of two or three miles, it 

 finally empties into Lake Itasca. . . . After 

 having devoted three days to an exploration of the 

 sources of the Mississippi, and spent portions of 

 the nights in making astronomical observations, I 

 took leave of Itasca Lake, to the examination of 

 which the expedition that preceded me by four years 

 had devoted but a short time. . 



"The honor of having first explored the sources 

 of the Mississippi and of introducing a knowledge of 

 them into physical geography, belongs to Mr. School- 

 craft and Lieutenant Allen. I come only after these 

 gentlemen ; but I may be permitted to claim some 

 merit for having completed what was wanting for a 

 full geogi'aphical account of these sources. More- 

 over, I am, I believe, the first traveller who has 

 carried with him astronomical instruments, and put 

 them to profitable account along the whole course of 

 the Mississippi from its mouth to its sources." 



In the table on pp. 124 and 125 are to be found 

 Nicollet's determination of the geodetic position and 

 elevation of this region — among others Lake Itasca 

 (Schoolcraft's Island) 47° 13' 35" north latitude, 95° 

 2' west longitude, and 1,575 feet above the Gulf of 

 Mexico — and the " utmost sources of the Mississipi^i, 

 at the summit of the height of land, six miles south 

 of Lake Itasca — elevation 1,680 feet above the Gulf." 



Nicollet, therefore, fully explored, recorded, and 

 mapped all the inlets to Lake Itasca, found that 

 these inlets, or some of them, came from lakes or 

 lakelets ; and, recognizing that the source of a river 

 is the one most distant from its mouth, considered 

 none of the tributary lakelets he had explored as suf- 

 ficiently important to even merit a name. In addition 

 to this he distinctly states that "the honor of first 

 exploring the sources of the Mississippi belongs to 

 Messrs. Schoolcraft and Allen." 



But it may be urged, that opinions may differ as to 

 the relative importance of the Itascan lakes ; that 

 the smaller tributary lake, though discovered and 

 explored in 1836, was not then named ; and as it is 

 nearer than Lake Itasca to the ultimate head spring 

 of the Mississippi, it was fair game for the traveller 

 who should reach it and affix a name to it. This, 



I am unable to give the exact date at which the 

 township including the immediate vicinage of Lake 

 Itasca was surveyed and subdivided into one-mile 

 sections ; but it is marked, by the little cross, as 

 having been so subdivided, on the land office map 

 of Minnesota, issued in 1879 — or two years before 

 Mr. Glazier's trip. A tracing from this map is repro- 

 duced here, and on it is shown not only a small lake 

 south of and tributary to Lake Itasca, but a name, 

 ' Elk Lake,' is affixed to this lake. Probably the 

 surveyors in sectionizing this region, renaembering 

 the old Indian name, ' Owoshkos,' of the lake which 

 Schoolcraft called Itasca, thought to preserve it by 

 affixing its English equivalent to the small tributary 

 lake to the south. A further inspection of the land- 

 office map proves the integrity of its makers. East 

 of Lake Itasca is an area not crossed by township 

 lines ; it had not been surveyed by the land-office at 

 the time this map was made, and consequently all 

 topographical features, streams, and lakes, were 

 omitted. Thus only part of the east, or Plantagenian^ 

 branch of the Mississippi is shown, though the exist- 

 ence and course of the river was well known ; and 

 on other government maps, as, for instance, the post 

 route maps for 1876 — the whole course of this branch 

 is indicated. And now, having seen that the small 

 lake south of and tributary to Lake Itasca was 

 mapped by Schoolcraft in 1832 ; fully explored and 

 mapped by Nicollet in 1836 ; and surveyed, mapped, 

 and named by the land office prior to 1879 — what 

 remains to justify Mr. Glazier's claim to discovery in 

 1881 ? 



His own detailed account of his trip entitled the 

 'Eecent discovery of the true source of the Mississip- 

 pi, By Captain Willard Glazier,' was published in vol. 

 1 of the Aynerican meteorological journal (Detroit, 

 1884), and was illustrated by a map of the region 

 ' drawn from delineations by his Indian guide.' A 



MttfUiorCk.i "^;-, J 



LAKE GZAZISSt,^^ 

 Soxirct 0/ We SSSi^itstJp^i Hiver: 

 31Si mlh-s fruatrie Gulf of Sicsilm 

 UcachedJHlii SS. rss!: 



|j Reasa of EspeJitioa BSasra cf tfiis Bifflis 



Fig. 3. — Land-office map. — 1879. 



though again an extreme view, may be again con- 

 ceded. 



Fig. 4. — Glazier's map. — 1881. 



portion of this map is here reproduced for compari- 

 son with the others. 



