898 N. H. WINCHELL ON THE RECESSION 



further up the channel than is represented by the accompanying 

 diagram (p. 897) of the river at this place, that part of the island 

 which, in that case, he saw in the brink of the falls having entirely 

 disappeared. But it is not necessary to suppose any such thing if 

 the general inaccuracy of his description be borne in mind. His 

 engraving is the copy of his pencil sketch, made probably from 

 memory after he had left the place ; and the representation of an 

 island as low which ought to have been high and rocky, rendered it 

 somewhat necessary to avoid the hiding of the falls in the west 

 channel, and when engraved in London would be no unexpected error, 

 and would hardly be regarded as an imperfection by the general reader. 

 Hence he so reduced the height of the lower portion of the island 

 as to make it appear like another island ; the engraver then per- 

 petuated the appearance, not knowing the facts. It is possible also 

 that he actually sketched it as two islands. His attention had been 

 directed during his stay to the island with the eagles' nests *, about 

 which he speculates at some length in his Journal, and to the island 

 dividing the Falls. When he came to make his sketch, he expressed 

 both prominent ideas without regard to the exact manner in which 

 they were topographically united or related. Whichever hypothesis 

 may be correct, it is not possible for the island he places in the brink 

 of the Palls to have been Hennepin Island. Besides the general 

 agreement of the whole account with the accounts of subsequent 

 travellers, on the supposition of its having been Spirit Island, and 

 the statement that it was in the middle of the Falls, Carver's engrav- 

 ing shows two men in the act of portage of a canoe along the east 

 shore, below the Falls — showing that the view was intended to repre- 

 sent the principal fall (if not the whole), while the channel on the 

 east of Hennepin Island is now, and always has been since it began, 

 about one third the size of that on the west side. Thus Carver's 

 description, aided by his very imperfect illustration, fixes the posi- 

 tion of the Falls in 1766 at the very foot of Hennepin Island. 



Lieut. Pike makes no mention of any island in the Falls in 1805, 

 though he gives a description of the Falls themselves. When he 

 arrived Spirit Island must have been wholly below the Falls, and 

 Hennepin Island must have come further into them, as described 

 by Major Long in 1817. That island then divided them unequally, 

 the main channel being on the west side of the island. This is 

 the first distinct mention made of Hennepin Island, although 

 Carver must have intended to represent it in his engraving. It 

 will also be seen, by Major Long's description, that Carver incor- 

 rectly represented as low and alluvial an island which was really 

 high and rocky. Spirit Island still exists, and is rocky, rising 

 nearly as high as the banks on either side of the river. It must 

 have been there when Carver saw the Falls. In 1823 Keating 

 and Beltrami saw the Falls in pretty much the same position as 

 Long in 1817 ; and Featherstonhaugh again, in 1835, repeats the 

 same general description. 



* Spirit Island was still the abode of eagles in 1856, when the country was 

 first permanently occupied. 



