2M-1- III' Ann rtrilii ( it oltH/ixf. No\.-Tiib."r. IXiM 
wliic'li lldw ti>\v;iril iiiiil tiiuilly <liscli;ii-<>c tlicir \v;it<Ts into tin- 
Mississippi. |)riiicip;illy tlinniirli the inoutlis of the Iniiicr mid 
inori' important coiitliU'iU and aflliu'nt tiiUutaiv rivers. Tlicse 
^vat('rs arc t'ntircly snpplicd l»y the copictiis pivc-ipitation char- 
acti-ristic of the fertile Ita.sin drained from nortii to eolith l>y the 
Mississippi, as its prinei|)al and most im^iortant river. 
To follow the i^roper rnle in ascertaining!;, nnder commission, 
the true and actual source of this princii)al river, for •reoiirajjliic 
purposes. 1 consulted Kuropean and American <;eo<i:raphers. 
scientists and authorities. i:ainin<r the followinji varied inff>rma- 
tion as to what coustitute(l the source of a river: 
••That the main stream of a river is that which flows alonjr the 
lowest depression of the Itasin. and that a triUutary which de- 
scends into it from a hi^hi-r eIe\atiou. even if louirei'. is not to 
be considered the main stream." 
••A river cannot have a source luit many sources."" 
••All our rivers have their source in the clouds." 
(This authority does not .say that the clouds emanate from the 
oceans of the earth, or whence came the oceans.) 
••The head of the lon<rt'st continuous channel." 
••The sources of a river which are in a right line with its 
mouth, particularly when they issue from a cardinal point and 
How to the one directly opposite." 
Otlier authorities, some remote, and but a few reliable, su":- 
<j;est that the source must be a lake: must be the larirest lake; 
should Ite the inui-r flanks of the hiuhts of the land surroundinu' 
it: sli()uld be the source, because it was next to the historic pass, 
by which one liver had. from ancient times, been left to reach 
jinother: because it was furthest fiom the mouth of the systeuj: 
because it led down tothe axis of the iieneral valley of the basin: 
Vtecause it was at the head of the str»'am of larirest volume: be- 
cause it was treologically oldest, etc. 
This widespread variance of authorities. <>;ood. bad and inditfer- 
ent, j£ave me but little comfort in an interestinu; <reoirraphic and 
historic research, the source of no two piincipal riveis of the woild 
beiuiT alikt'. and 1 arbitrarily adopted a reliable rule of no uncer- 
tainty, a rule of nature, in ascertainin«r where the waters were 
jiathered which form the ultimate source of the ]Mississij)pi. and 
for that purpose the len«:th (»f the main river in statute miles. 
ujt thi-ouirh the valley of the basin, was a.scertained from the 
