610 



BGIENGE. 



[Vol. Vm, No. 203 



land shown as tamarack on the plat of land be- 

 tween Elk Lake and Lake Itasca, and back the 

 water up to the narrow strip of high land on the 

 outskirt of Elk Lake, thus bringing the lakes 

 within 80 feet of each other. Whether this was 

 the case when Nicollet was there, I will not at- 

 tempt to answer. His map would seem to indi- 

 '«at84hat it was, by the fact that he shows the two 

 lakes so closely connected, Elk Lake so much 

 larger than it is, and the two arms of Lake Itasca 

 so much out of proportion with their present out- 

 line. But this can readily be accounted for on 

 other grounds. The shores of the south-eastern 

 arm are abrupt and bluffy, while the shores of 

 the south-western arm are low and swampy. This 

 makes the south-western arm look wider than it 

 is, and the south-eastern arm narrower than it is. 

 The shores of Elk Lake are also abrupt and lined 

 with bluffs, and to one looking south across it, it 

 does not look half as large as it does to one stand- 

 ing on the hills south of it and looking north. 

 Distances across water are always deceiving. The 

 view from different points of Lake Itasca might 

 be sketched by a dozen different parties, and no 

 tw^o sketches would look alike. My impression is, 

 that Nicollet sketched the south-eastern arm of 

 Lake Itasca from some point on its western shore 

 and Elk Lake, and the south-western arm of 

 Itasca from the knoll between the lakes ; and when 

 we take into consideration how insignificant is the 

 distance between the two lakes, compared to the 

 total length cf both, it can readily be understood 

 why he has shown them as though Elk Lake were 

 a bay instead of a separate body of water. From 

 the nature of the springs which feed the principal 

 stream emptying into Lake Itasca, it is evident 

 that very few changes have taken place in that 

 part of the basin since Nicollet was there, and 

 very few will take place ua the next fifty } ears. 

 The springs that feed it are supplied by under- 

 ground currents and reservoirs from the lakes and 

 the Height of Land, and, as they cannot be drained, 

 no amount of settlement or clearing will change 

 them. They are among the permanent features 

 of the country. Lake Itasca of to-day is the same 

 in its main features that it was when Nicollet was 

 there, and for a hundred years before. Its level 

 may have been a little higher, the surface of Elk 

 Lake may have been a little lower, Itasca may 

 have spread out over some acres more of marsh. 

 Elk Lake may have been somewhat smaller in its 

 surface extent ; thus they may have come more 

 nearly together, and nearer to being one continu- 

 ous body of water. But the main features of 

 this remarkable basin will remain the same for 

 generations to come, and Lake Itasca will be then, 

 as it is now, the first important reservoir of all the 



springs that feed the head waters of the Mississippi 

 River. 



Our meteorological observations were taken 

 with an effort at system ; but it is sufficient, per- 

 haps, to say that the atmospheric temperature 

 varied from 20 to 70 degrees during the five days 

 that we were at Lake Itasca, and that we had the 

 extremes of clear weather and invigorating at- 

 mosphere, and of desolate, soaking rain. The 

 severest storm overtook us when we were within 

 5 miles of Lake Itasca, and we passed a most 

 unenviable night in an improvised camp. We 

 took the temperature of the water in Elk Lake 

 and Lake Itasca when the temperature of the 

 atmosphere was 51° F.,.the temperature of the 

 water being 46'^. The temperature of the water 

 in the second lake on Nicollet's creek was 42°. 



Among the mishaps which invariably attend 

 such explorations, were two that are worthy of 

 note, — the loss of my revolver, and the leaving 

 behind, unaccountably, of my copy of the 

 Nautical almanac. I had intended taking the 

 latitude of the northern end of Elk Lake, and 

 also establishing a meridian and noting the exact 

 variation between the true and magnetic meridian; 

 but when I got on the ground, of course this was 

 impossible without my tables. Still worse luck 

 followed the observations with the barometer. I 

 had arranged with Sergeant Lyon, of the U.S. 

 signal service at St. Paul, to take simultaneous 

 readings of the barometer. The instruments were 

 adjusted together when we set out for Itasca, but, 

 when we got back to St. Paul, mine read 200 feet 

 higher thaii his. As there was no way of 

 determining when this change occurred, all that 

 work was of no account. As our first observa- 

 tions were taken at 6 a.m., and the last at 10 p.m., 

 they involved considerable sacrifice of rest, which 

 I am sorry yielded so little result. 



The figures given in the first part of this report 

 for the elevation of the crest of the Height of Land 

 are therefore necessarily only approximate, as the 

 variation in my aneroid barometer destroyed the 

 value of my observations, on which I largely 

 depended for this part of my work. The heights 

 noted for elevations between the lakes and for the 

 springs and streams were obtained by the drain- 

 age-level, and these may be relied upon as practi- 

 cally correct. 



I considered it very fortunate that our trip was 

 made just at the end of a long spell of dry 

 weather such as has hardly been known in Min- 

 nesota for years. This enabled us to judge of the 

 sources of water-supply that are perennial in their 

 flow, as distinguished from the surface drainage 

 in the spring and in the rainy seasons. The rain 

 of the night before vve reached the lake was 



