[II-20] Three miles, to camp at the foot of Knife or Pike rapids, W. side of the Mississippi, about the S. border of Sect. 7, T. 128, R. 29, 5th M. These are the 4th or Knife rapids of Nicollet, apparently so called from the narrowness of the two channels into which the river is divided for most of their extent by an island, which is what Pike's text above means by the "two narrow shoots." The designation of Pike rapids is not recent; it occurs on the Allen map pub. 1834, and no doubt this antedates the time that the next creek above Swan r. was named Pike cr., and the township next above Swan River township was named Pike Creek township. The ascent is 10 or 11 feet to the mouth of Swan r.; and this is 4 m. below the city of Little Falls. Little Falls is given as 115 m. by the river from Minneapolis, and as 105 m. by rail from St. Paul (N. P. R. R.). We know where Pike sleeps to-night within a few rods, and shall be able to locate his stockade with a "probable error" of no yards, feet, or inches.

[II-21] "Lieu^t. Pikes, Block House or Post, for the Winter 1805-1806" is legended on the pub. map, and marked by a zigzag line snug up under his Pine cr. (now Swan r.). The orig. MS. map, now on file in the Engineer Office of the War Dept., is large enough to show the exact spot, on which is delineated a stockade 36 feet square, with a blockhouse on the N. W. and another on the S. E. corner of the structure. Notwithstanding such precise indicia, the site has been vaguely stated by various authors, and even shifted down to Two Rivers by so careful and usually correct a writer as my friend the Hon. J. V. Brower, who is clearly in error in stating that "the south branch of Two Rivers was named Pine creek, and the other Second creek," Minn. Hist. Coll., VII., Mississippi R. and its Source, 8vo., Minneapolis, 1893, p. 126. This is simply an obiter dictum, by inadvertence. I had satisfied myself of the true site within a few rods, when I first learned from Prof. N. H. Winchell, State Geologist of Minnesota, that traces of the building had been discovered by Judge Nathan Richardson, Mayor of Little Falls, Minn. On writing to this gentleman, I received a prompt reply, as follows:

Little Falls, Minn., Feb. 24th, 1894.

Elliott Coues, Esq., Washington, D. C.

My Dear Sir: Yours of the 21st inst. is received making inquiry about my discovering the location of a fort built by Zebulon M. Pike in the fall of 1805. The location is on the West bank of the Mississippi River on Government Subdivision described as Lot No. 1, Sec. No. 7, in Township No. 128 North, of Range No. 29 West, of the 5th Principal Meridian, near the S. E. corner of said Lot No. 1, and near 80 rods south from the mouth of Swan river and four miles south of this city. I settled at this place in 1855. I wrote a history of this county in 1876. Then in 1880 I revised it. Before writing the revision in 1880 I looked over the books in our State Historical Society, where I found an account of Pike's Expedition up into this region of country that year. His description of the location was so plain and explicit that I had no trouble in finding it. At that time there were no logs or timber left. The place was plainly marked by a pile of stone, about the size of an ordinary haycock, of which the chimney or fire-place was built. The fort was built of logs. The bottom layer was imbedded about one-half their size into the ground when built. The groove in the earth showed very plain when I first visited the place. As near as I could judge the building was 40 feet square. Built just on the brink of a slight elevation, as described by Mr. Pike in his narrative. Afterward in speaking about the location of Pike's Fort to an old settler, Samuel Lee, now residing at Long Prairie in this State, he told me that he had been at the place many years before, and when he was first at the place the bottom tier of logs were still there. I visited the spot two years ago for the purpose of getting one of the stones that were used to build the fire-place, and took one that will weigh about 75 pounds, which I am keeping as a relic. The pile of stone is getting scattered about; the ground has never been cleared and broken up, but is used as a pasture. Unless something durable is put up soon to mark the location all trace of it will be obliterated. This country commenced to settle with farmers in 1850, and has become quite well settled up. I will say before closing that the rapids at the foot of which he built the fort bear the name of Pike rapids, so named in honor of him. I will send you a copy of our extra paper [Daily Transcript, of Little Falls], issued the 1st of January. If I have omitted anything that you may wish to know write me again.

Yours very respectfully,
[Signed]    N. Richardson.

Judge Richardson is entitled to the credit of recovering and making known the spot in modern times. The Hist. Up. Miss. Vall., pub. Minneap. 1881, treating Morrison Co. in Chap. cxxxviii, has on p. 586 a short notice of the location, presumably upon Judge Richardson's data, as the publishers' preface makes general acknowledgments of indebtedness to him. In Oct., 1886, the place was visited by Mr. T. H. Lewis, at the instance of Mr. A. J. Hill of St. Paul, and through the friendly attentions of the latter I am put in possession of extracts and tracings from Mr. Lewis' notebook, made on the spot at the date said, when he found the extant remains. Mr. Lewis identified the site upon his own observations, not being at the time informed of the earlier discovery. So interesting a spot should be permanently marked before all traces of it are obliterated, and I hope Judge Richardson will interest himself to see that this is done. It need not be an expensive or elaborate monument; probably the stones of the old chimney and fire-place, now scattered about, would answer the purpose if they were solidly piled up.

Postscript.—Little Falls, Minn., Sept. 8th, 1894.—I have this day visited the spot in person, accompanied by Judge Richardson and Mrs. Coues. We have piled up the rocks in a conspicuous heap. I do not recognize any trace of the original woodwork, or of the ground-plan of the structure, except the place of the chimney; but the site is unquestionable. To reach it, you go down the main road from Little Falls, about 4 m. along the W. side of the Miss. r., crossing Pike cr. and next Swan r.; a few rods beyond the latter, turn to the left into Simon Kurtzman's cornfield, through bars, and keep on due E. to the river. You will see the cairn we have made in the following position: Sect. 7, T. 128, R. 29, 5th M., in S. E. corner of Lot No. 1, 80 rods E. of Simon Kurtzman's house, about 80 rods S. S. E. of the mouth of Swan r., near the E. border of the cornfield, 30 paces back from the brink of the Mississippi, 50 yards S. by E. of a lone pine tree 50 feet high, on a flat piece of high ground in a copse of scattered scrub oaks, overgrown with brush and weeds. Letter on the subject over my signature in Little Falls Daily Transcript, Sept. 10, 1894, urging the erection of a monument.

[II-22] Or windshake—not that the canoe foundered in the wind, but that there was a flaw in the wood of which it was built, such unsoundness of timber being called a windshock or windshake.

[II-23] For Dickson's trading-house of 1805-6 see note beyond, date of Apr. 7th. Dickson's name frequently recurs in Pike, but I think never once in full. Robert Dickson was an Englishman who began to trade with the Sioux as early as 1790, and acquired great renown in the early history of the country. The following occurs in Minn. Hist. Coll., I. 2d ed. 1872, p. 390: "Five years after Pike's visit he espoused the British cause, and took a prominent part in encouraging the western tribes in hostility against the Americans. Yet he is said to have been very humane to American prisoners, rescuing many from the Indians, and restraining the latter from barbarities and cold-blooded massacres. After the war Dickson, some accounts say, did not resume trade with the Sioux; but he did at least live at Lake Travers as late as 1817, and was charged with alienating the Sioux from the United States, in complicity with Lord Selkirk, who was there establishing his colony on Red river. He was soon after arrested near what is now St. Paul, and taken to St. Louis. He was probably soon released, however, and found his way back to Queenstown in Canada, where he died. Dickson had a Sioux wife and four half-breed children. One of his grandchildren was wife of Joseph Laframboise, a well-known trader at Lac Qui Parle." To this may be added that one of Col. Robert Dickson's half-breed sons was William Dickson, whose name appears here and there in Minnesota annals.

[II-24] There is no such French word as "killeur," which Pike elsewhere renders "killieu," and which appears in the text of 1807 as "killien" and "killein." On consulting the F. text, I. p. 95, I find that the editor says, "Plutôt tueur rouge, car le mot killeur n'est pas françois; c'est sans doute un barbarisme échappé à M. Pike." The son of this chief Pike calls "Fils de Killeur Rouge": see Mar. 5th and 8th, 1806, beyond. There is a Canadian French word pilleur, pillager, and the Leech Lake Chippewas were known as Pilleurs or Pillagers; but this Killeur was a Sioux chief of the Gens des Feuilles or Leaf Indians, now called Wahpetonwans: see L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 100. Pike translates Killeur by "Eagle"; and this clew to the meaning of the word is carried on by Beltrami, II. p. 207, who has a chief called "Ki-han or Red Quilliou"; ibid., p. 224, he speaks of "a bird which the Canadians call killiou, and the Indians Wamendi-hi"; ibid., p. 307, he says "a plume of killow," making an English word of it. Forsyth has "the killiew (thus named from a species of eagle)," in Minn. Hist. Col., III. 1874, p. 154. So killeur, etc., is simply a French way of spelling a certain Indian name of the eagle, whose feathers are used for ornament. I once noted this word in the form khoya. Riggs' Dak. Dict., 1852, has "Ḣu-yá, n., the common eagle" (the dotted h a deep surd guttural).

[II-25] Yanktons and Sissetons: see L. and C., ed. 1893, pp. 94, 100.

[II-26] More probably Chien Blanc, or White Dog—unless we could go so far as to suppose he was called by the less polite and less appropriate name of Chienne Blanche.

[II-27] About opp. the mouth of Pine cr. or Swan r., ½ m. above head of Roberts' isl., and on or near the present site of Gregory, Morrison Co. This place is marked as Aitkin's ferry, trading-post, and hotel, on a Minnesota map, pub. Phila., Cowperthwait, 1850; it is about the middle of the southwesternmost section of Little Falls township (Township 40, Range 32, 4th mer.), say 3 m. below the middle of the city of Little Falls. The head of Pike rapids is 1,071 or 1,072 feet above sea-level. Swan r. bends up a little to fall into the Miss. r., so that its mouth is slightly over the S. border of Sect. 6, Township 128, Range 29, 5th mer. There is a flour mill on its S. side, at the bend, half a mile or less from its mouth. Ledoux P. O. is on this stream, a few miles up, in Swan River township, which lies between North Prairie township and Pike Creek township; Swan r. runs over the N. border of it a mile W. of the Mississippi. By whom Pike's Pine cr. was first called Swan r. I do not know, unless it was Nicollet; it is Wabizio-sibi of Beltrami, Wabezi or Swan r. of Nicollet, 1836, Swan r. of Owen and later writers; but Lieut. Allen has it Elk r. on his map, by error.

[II-28] Less than this, to camp on left or E. bank of the Mississippi, in the present city of Little Falls, Morrison Co., probably about the place where is the lower bridge, a few blocks from the Buckman hotel. Painted Rock rapids is now Little falls. A high, small island at the falls divides the river in two channels; it is Rock isl. of Nicollet, now called Mill isl.; some mills are there, and there is the site of the present dam, immediately below the lower bridge. Little Falls is a flourishing place, as towns with a water-power of 35,000 horses may easily be; pop. now or lately 3,000; dam built 1887-8, said to have cost $250,000; two bridges span the river, the upper one for the N. P. R. R., near the large sawmill which stands on the W. bank; chief industry, milling flour and logs; city incorporated 1889; N. Richardson, mayor for five years: see Little Falls Daily Transcript, Industrial ed., Jan. 1st, 1894, large folio, pp. 28, maps and views, price 5c. The Little falls—cataract, not town—are so called by Pike elsewhere in this work; he also says that "the place is called by the French Le Shute de la Roche Peinture," by which we may understand La Chute de la Roche Peinte; his map legends "Painted Rock or Little Falls." Beltrami names the falls Great Rock and Kekebicaugé. As to the "5 miles" of to-day's journey, we may note that the distance is less now than it used to be by the channel, because there was a bend of the river to the E. which is now straightened out. This bend appears on maps of 20 years ago; it is now city ground, and the march of improvement has effected various other changes in the course of the river. When about a mile from this morning's camp, Pike passed a place where the river was fordable, and may be so still; here was the site of Swan River P. O., on the E. bank, in Little Falls township. When a mile further on, he passed the mouth of a creek from the W. which he calls 2nd cr. (on the map "2^d Cr."), and which others have rendered Second cr., though Nicollet and Owen both have it Little Fall cr.; it is now known as Pike cr., and gives name to Pike Creek township. It falls into the Mississippi at the middle of the E. border of Sect. 25, Township 129, Range 30, 5th mer., through the 6th one of the 16 outlots of O. O. Searles, slightly beyond present city limits.

[II-29] To a position at the head of Little Elk rapids, a short distance above the mouth of Little Elk r. This is a sizable stream which comes from the W. through Parker and Randall townships to the S. W. corner of Green Prairie township, touches the N. E. corner of Pike creek township, and then curves a couple of miles to the Mississippi through Sects. 6 and 5, T. 129, R. 29, 5th M. Pike elsewhere notes it with particularity by the name of Elk r. Beltrami says Moska or Mosko and Doe or Bitch r. This last name is a mistaken rendering of R. la Biche or Elk r. of the French—he makes the same singular blunder in the case of Lake Itasca, which he calls Doe or Bitch l., after the French Lac la Biche. The river is the Omoshkos or Elk r. of Nicollet and Owen. It is marked Little Fork cr. on the Minn. map of 1850; and Allen's map makes it Swan r., by an erroneous transposition of names; see note²⁷ p. 122.

[II-30] From Little Falls to Crow Wing is only 26 m. by the river. Pike does not reach Crow Wing till the 21st, and his party does not get up till the 23d or 24th. Exactly what distance he makes it cannot be said, as mileage is missing some days. He appears to have thought it some 50 or 60 m. Thus the itinerary does not afford data for fixing camps with precision, and hence we can only check him approximately from day to day. The sledge-party does not average 3 m. a day, but Pike himself seems to skirmish about for many more miles—perhaps the excessive mileages represent his own activities, not the actual advance of the Expedition. The average course is due N. On the 12th Conradi shoal and Belle Prairie were passed, to camp in the vicinity of Fletcher cr. Belle Prairie is a comparatively old settlement on the E. bank, founded by Frederick Ayer, a missionary, in 1848; pop. 800. This is only 4½ m. by rail from Little Falls. The town is directly opposite the shoals. These are the Fifth rapid of Nicollet. A small creek comes in opposite them from the W., in Green Prairie township. Fletcher cr. is mapped by Nicollet without name; it is McKinney's r. on the 1850 map of Minn. It falls in from the E. through Sect. 1, T. 41, R. 32, 4th M.

[II-31] In the vicinity of Topeka, a town and station on the N. P. R. R., on the E. bank of the river.

[II-32] Camp of the 14th, 15th, and 16th seems to have been on the W. bank of the river, at the head of Olmsted's bar, and was very likely opp. the point of land in Sect. 15, T. 42, R. 32, 4th M., where one Baker located his trading-house in 1831. It is formally named Pine camp when it is passed on the way down, Mar. 4th, 1806: see that date. Olmsted's bar is the Sixth rapid of Nicollet, at a place where the river expands and contains a cluster of small islands, called The Sirens by Beltrami, II. p. 466.

[II-33] This cache was in the vicinity of present Fort Ripley. The town now so called is on the E. side; railroad; pop. 500. Old Fort Ripley itself is on the W. side, a mile off; some of the buildings still stand. This post, or another in the same place, was once called Fort Gaines; Prairie Percée of the F. intersected the river a little below. The fort is in the N. E. ¼ of Sect. 7, T. 131, R. 29, 5th M., about a half mile below the mouth of Nokasippi r., which falls in from the E. through Sect. 27, T. 43, R. 32, 4th M. This is a considerable stream: Nokasippi and Noka Sipi of Schoolcraft; Nokay r. of Nicollet and of Owen; Nokasele on one of my maps, Nankesele and Nankele on others; Woco-sibi of Beltrami's text, II. p. 466, Wokeosiby and Prophet r. on his map. This hint that the name is a personal one is correct. Noka was a Chippewa, the grandfather of White Fisher or Waubojeeg. "It is from this old warrior and stalwart hunter, who fearlessly passed his summers on the string of lakes which form the head of the No-ka river, which empties into the Mississippi nearly opposite present site of Fort Ripley, that the name of this stream is derived," says W. W. Warren, Minn. Hist. Coll., V. 1885, p. 266. It is mapped by Pike and mentioned by him beyond at date of Mar. 3d, 1806; but he has no name for it. Allen's map gives it as Long r. But the earliest name of the stream I can discover is on Lewis and Clark's map, pub. 1814, where it is called Scrub Oak r., no doubt from the prairie above it, to which Pike gave that name. On reaching ownline 42-3, Pike leaves Morrison for Crow Wing Co., on the right, but still has the former on his left, up to Crow Wing r.

[II-34] To some point probably more than halfway between the Nokasippi and Crow Wing rivers, perhaps not far from the station or siding Albion (St. Paul Div. of N. P. R. R.). It is beyond Lenox, and a little above that creek for which I find no name, but which falls in from the W. through Sect. 24, T. 132, R. 30, 5th M.

[II-35] To a position immediately below the mouth of the Crow Wing r.

[II-36] Rivière à l'Aile de Corbeau of the F., usually shortened into R. de Corbeau, though Eng. Crow Wing r. reflects the full name. The large island at its mouth was called Isle or Île de Corbeau, and I suspect that the similarity of aile and isle or île may be concerned in this nomenclature. The river sometimes appears as Crow r., rendering the shorter F. form; in such instance it must not be confounded with Crow r. much lower down the Mississippi: see note¹¹, p. 97. Crow Wing also appears as Crow-wing, and I have found both Cow-wing and Crowing r. in Schoolcraft. Raven r. is another name; Pike sometimes uses this. Beltrami has Raven's Plume r. and Crow Feather r. Nicollet calls it Kagiwan r. This is the largest branch of the Mississippi above Little Falls. The unnumbered affluents which unite to compose the main stream head in lakes and marshes of Hubbard, Becker, Otter Tail, Wadena, and Todd cos. Having received most of its tributaries, and coursed through Wadena, the river for a short distance separates Todd from Cass Co., and then runs between Cass and Morrison to empty opp. the town of Crow Wing. Crow Wing r. was important as a means of communication between the Mississippi and Red River of the North. It was navigated up to the mouth of R. des Feuilles, now Leaf r., in the S. part of Wadena Co.; thence the route was up Leaf r., and by portage into Otter Tail l., one of the principal sources of Red r. waters. Crow Wing r. was also a route to Leech l. Schoolcraft made the trip this way from Leech l. to the Miss. r. in July, 1832; his map, pub. 1834, letters some of the main branches Kioshk r., Longprairie or Warwater r., and Leaf r. The chain of lakes on this route are in his nomenclature as follows, from below upward: 1. Kaichibo Sagitowa; 2. Johnston's; 3. Allen's; 4. Longrice (Long Rice); 5. Summit; 6. Vieux Desert; 7. Ossowa; 8. Plé; 9. Birth; 10. Little Vermillion; 11. Kaginogumag, source of the river. Four small ones thence to Leech l. are called Lake of the Island, Lake of the Mountain, Little Long l., and Warpool l. The branch which Schoolcraft calls Kíosh is Nicollet's Gayashk r., now called Gull r.; a lake on it has the same name, and one higher up is Lake Sibley of Nicollet. Nicollet says that he contracted Gayashk from Chip. Kagayashkensikang, "the place where there are little gulls [terns]," Rep. 1843, p. 54. Gull r. comes from the N., approx. parallel with the Mississippi, and falls into Crow Wing r. only some 3 or 4 m. above its mouth; about the same distance up it is crossed by the N. P. R. R., at or near Gull River station (between Baxter and Sylvan Lake stations).

[II-37] This seems to bring the whole party up to Crow Wing isl., opp. old town of Crow Wing. Pike says himself that he could scarcely make his notes intelligible, but we certainly know where he is to-day, and have probably checked him from Little Falls with all the accuracy the case admits. The town was mainly in Sect. 24, T. 44, R. 32, 4th M., but settlements in 1857 were in Sect. 23; pop. in 1866, 600; Brainerd killed the place about 1870: see Harper's Mag., XIX. 1859, p. 47. Thos. Cowperthwait's map of Minn., Phila., 1850, letters "Morrison's" on the town site.

[II-38] "Hard W." is a misprint for N., the general course of the river as you ascend, for many miles, till the Crow Wing is reached; after this the Mississippi bears N. E.; and as the Crow Wing comes in from the W., and is very large, their confluence is, as it were, the forks of the Mississippi.

[II-39] The whole way by river from Crow Wing to Pine r. (the next place where we can certainly check Pike), is only 34 m. He makes it 10½ + 3 + 3 + 10 + 12 + 21 + 12 = 71½ m., with something over for morning of Dec. 31st. Hence we have to cut him down about half. His "10½" m. takes him about 6 m. toward Brainerd, with nothing to note on the way, excepting a small creek on the left hand, in Sect. 26, T. 133, R. 29, 5th M. From Crow Wing to Brainerd is 11¼ m. by the river; Crow Wing Co. continues on the right; on the left is Cass Co., according to such a presumably authoritative map as that of the G. L. O., 1893; but in fact Crow Wing Co. also extends on the left-hand side of the Mississippi from a point about 1½ m. above the mouth of Crow Wing r. upward for many miles, its W. border being along the middle line of R. 29.

[II-40] To Brainerd, Crow Wing Co., called City of the Pines, now easily first in this part of the State; pop. 10,000; junction of St. Paul div. with main N. P. R. R., 136 m. from St. Paul by rail, 114 from Duluth; recent utilization of the fall of the river furnishing perhaps 20,000 horse-power; water-works, electric lights, etc. It is a center of the lumber interests, and a focus of roads from every direction; the river is bridged, and the surplus population forms West Brainerd. Brainerd was laid out by the railroad in 1870, and has no earlier history.

[II-41] Beyond Rice r. or cr., Nagajika cr. of Nicollet, which falls in on the right, in Sect. 18, T. 45, R. 30, 4th M., about 3 m. above Brainerd, and is to be distinguished from another of the same name higher up on the same side; also, past French rapids, the Seventh of Nicollet, which were Pike's carrying-places to-day. Above these he found the river frozen solid.

[II-42] Vicinity of Sand cr., from the right. This is mapped by Nicollet, but without name. It falls in through Sect. 27, T. 46, R. 30, 4th M.; directly opposite its mouth is a smaller creek, from the left.

[II-43] To a position at or near the stream called White Bear-skin r. by the geologist D. Norwood, 1847, being the discharge of Duck l. and Swamp l., two of the largest of the numerous small lakes that lie close along this course of the river. They are close together; each is about 2 m. long and at one point only a mile or so to the left of the river. Lake Taliaferro of Nicollet is on this connection, but further off. Pike is fairly within the great lacustrine region of Minnesota, where there are more lakes than have ever been counted. Half Moon l. is a little one, about half a mile below the discharge of Duck and Swamp lakes. The most notable point Pike passes to-day is the mouth of Rabbit r., on the right. This is a considerable stream discharging from a set of lakes (one at least of which has the same name), at the junction of Sects. 13 and 24, T. 46, R. 30, 4th M., at or near the foot of Island rapids. A smaller creek, also from the right, empties below, in Sect. 24. Higher up are some rapids called Big Eddy.

[II-44] Nearly to the mouth of Pine r. (not to be confounded with Pike's Pine cr., now Swan r.): see next note. The new species of pine "called the French sap pine," is the balsam-fir, Abies balsamea. Pike meant to say "called by the French sapin." The text of 1807, p. 31, has "Sappine."

[II-45] Present name of the largest stream in the northern portion of Crow Wing Co., falling in from the N. in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 25, T. 136, R. 27, 5th M., at a sharp bend the Mississippi here makes. Pine r. has been so called by pretty nearly all writers since Pike's time; but Beltrami has it Singuoako or Pines r. It is connected directly, or indirectly, with an immense number of small lakes, not all of which have ever been counted, and still fewer named. Two of the largest are called Whitefish and Pelican. This whole system of waters lies to the N. and W. of the Mississippi, S. of Leech lake, and on Pike's left as he ascends. It offered a means of communication with Leech lake much more direct than the course of the Mississippi itself; this was taken by Pike on his return journey, and the river is consequently to be particularly noted in that connection: see under dates of Feb. 19th-24th, beyond.

[II-46] Curly Head does not appear in Pike's tabular exhibit of Chippewa chiefs, and we are left without his native name, or any fair identification; but Hon. W. W. Warren supplies the requisite data, Minn. Hist. Coll., V. 1885, p. 47, p. 348 seq., p. 366; see also ibid. p. 469 seq. and p. 495. The name of the old civil and military chief Babesigaundibay is inseparably linked with the history of his tribe. He belonged to the Businause family, or Crane totem, and ruled for many years over the Chippewas of the Mississippi r., in the vicinity of Gayashk or Gull l., eventually becoming the third man in importance in the councils of his nation, sharing honors with Broken Tooth of Sandy l. and Flat Mouth of Leech l. His people increased in numbers, held the Crow Wing region against all enemies, and in 1852 numbered about 600. Curly Head was respected and beloved; "he was a father to his people; they looked on him as children do to a parent; and his lightest wish was immediately performed. His lodge was ever full of meat, to which the hungry and destitute were ever welcome. The traders vied with one another who should treat him best, and the presents which he received at their hands he always distributed to his people without reserve." This estimable man died on his way back from the grand conference held at Prairie du Chien by Governors William Clark and Lewis Cass, Aug. 19th, 1825. His signature to this treaty, as printed in one of the copies before me, is "Babaseekeendase, Curling Hair." I elsewhere find Babikesundeba. Curly Head died childless; on his death-bed he called two of his pipe-bearers and formally constituted them his successors. These were brothers; one was Songukumigor, Strong Ground, and the other Pugonakeshig, or Hole in the Day I. The latter exerted great influence for about a quarter of a century, killed 36 people, and was killed by being bounced out of a cart while drunk, near Platte r., Benton Co., Minn., early in 1847.

[II-47] No mileage from Dec. 31st, 1805, to Jan. 3d, 1806: so we must check Pike by other data. From Pine r. to town of Aitkin, Aitkin Co., is 32½ m. by river; this is very tortuous; air-line distance between these points, 16¼ m., or just one-half of the river-miles. At 12 of these direct miles' distance above Pine r. and 4¼ below Aitkin is our most important datum-point, viz., mouth of Lower Red Cedar r. This is the discharge of Lower Red Cedar l., a comparatively large body of water 6 m. to the right (nearly S. from the mouth of L. R. C. r.). On the shore of L. R. C. l., half a mile E. S. E. of the place where the river issues from it, was the post of the N. W. Co., whence the party that met Pike on the 2d came to see what was up, and to which Pike repairs as Mr. Grant's guest on the 3d. While it is true that these facts do not fix the three camps with all desirable precision, they enable us to carry Pike on by "rule of thumb" in an intelligible manner. I propose, therefore, to set him one-third of the way from Pine r. to Lower Red Cedar r. on the 31st of Dec.—say opp. Rabbit l.; two-thirds of this way on the 1st of Jan.—some point between Dean cr. and Hay cr., both of which fall in on the left (probably a mile above Dean cr.—see Feb. 24th, beyond); at mouth of Lower Red Cedar r., Jan. 2d; at Aitkin Jan. 3d—to reach which Little Willow r., flowing S. from Waukenabo and Esquagamau lakes, is passed. These stages cannot in any event be far out of the way; and to so make them brings up all the points worth noting between Pine r. and Aitkin in orderly sequence. The principal ones are the lake and the town. The lake has been well known since the days of the old French régime; its relations with Mille Lacs are intimate, and it was thus of consequence in connection with old canoe-routes; it was for many years also the situation of important trading-posts. It was le Bas Lac aux Cèdres Rouges of the French, Lower Red Cedar l., in distinction from another one of similar name, now Cass l. The distinction is to be sedulously borne in mind, especially as Pike most often ignores it formally, and repeatedly speaks of "Red Cedar" or "Cedar" l. indifferently, meaning the present one when he is hereabouts, and meaning Cass l. when he is thereabouts; the name is also now commonly clipped down to Cedar l. and Cedar r. or cr., meaning this one, in modern geographies and guide-books. Lower Red Cedar l. is large, with perhaps 50 m. of shore-line altogether; it bears from Aitkin in the direction of Brainerd; some of its relations are with smaller bodies of water known as Crystal l., Mud l., Spirit l., Hanging Kettle l., Pine l., Farm Island l., and Sesabagomag l. Cedar Lake station is about 5 m. W. of Aitkin, N. P. R. R. Aitkin is per schedule by rail 27 m. from Brainerd, 87 m. from Duluth; population 1,000; for persons named Aitkin (not Aiken or Aitken), see that word in the Index. The present town is on the right hand going up, left or S. side of the Mississippi, at the mouth of Mud or Muddy r. (Ripple cr.), a considerable stream, connected with a system of small lakes. It falls into the Mississippi in Sect. 1, T. 47, R. 27, 4th M.; and in this same section is the mouth of a stream which Owen called Sesabagomag r., but which I find given as Missagony r. on late maps. Nicollet charted it, with no name. Below the mouth of Lower Red Cedar r. Pike goes from Crow Wing into Aitkin Co. He had passed the county line Jan. 3d.

[II-48] "Point" as a measure of distance is not a well-known term, and I am not sure of what it means. There is some internal evidence in Pike that one of his "points" was from ⅛ to ¼ to ½ m., according to the nature of the ground and the degree of "that tired feeling" which is liable to overcome the most pushing wayfarer. I imagine "point" to correspond to the pause or pose of the voyageurs. In their language a piece was a package of any goods, made up to weigh from 50 to 100 lbs., supposed to weigh about 90 on an average, for convenience of transportation over portages. Such a pack would be slung on the shoulders by the fillet or forehead strap; and the voyageur would start off at a dog-trot and drop it when he got tired. This stop or rest was the pose; the Chip. name was opuggiddiwanan, lit. the place of putting down the pack. Pike had to the last degree the first qualification of a traveler—"go"; people who lack plenty of that should stay at home. That he was a prudent or judicious traveler can hardly be said; he must have been a terrible fellow to push, merciless on his men, and especially on himself. He took all the chances per aspera, when some of the roughest things might have been smoothed or avoided had his foresight been as good as his hindsight. He blew up things with gunpowder once, and it is a wonder he was not blown up on the 4th, instead of being only burnt out. He missed very few of the accidents that the spirits of fire, air, earth, and water could conspire to throw in his way; and his faithless sergeant made away with all the spirits he had in the keg at Swan r. However, he got through all right, and got his men all through too—sic iter ad astra.

[II-49] The direct distance from Aitkin to the site of the N. W. Co. house, at least 1 m. S. of the outlet of Sandy l., is about 24 m.; the river is also pretty direct as a whole, between these two places; but it is extremely tortuous in its many minor bends of a mile or two apiece, so that the distance the sledges traveled on the ice may have been twice as far as that by the way Pike and Bradley forged ahead. These two reached Mr. Grant's house on the night of the 8th; the men with the sledges, not till evening of the 13th. The two sets of camps might be arbitrarily set along this lap, by ignoring such wild figures as "27 miles" for the 5th, and assuming other data. But this would probably not help us to a better understanding of this section of the route than the following notes: 1. Less than a mile above the mouth of Mud r. (Aitkin) a stream falls in on the right; this is Missagony r., marked Sesabagomag r. on Owen's map. 2. Rice r. (Manomin r. of Nicollet's map) falls in on the right, 4½ m. in an air-line above the mouth of Mud r., in Sect. 4, T. 47, R. 26, 4th M. 3. Willow r. falls in on the left, 6 m. in an air-line above the mouth of Rice r., in Sect. 2, T. 48, R. 26, 4th M. This is to be particularly noted in connection with Pike's journey, as he proceeds approximately by way of this river from Sandy l. to Grand Rapids in the vicinity of Pokegama falls. It is the largest tributary of the Mississippi on that side between Pine r. and the Leech Lake branch of the Mississippi. Pike charts it by the name of Pike r.—not his own name, as Beltrami implies, II. p. 446, but that of the pike, a fish, translating F. Rivière du Brochet; it is also Pike r. of Long's map; it was called Alder r. by Cass and Meaogeo r. by Beltrami; but it is now always known as Willow r. Its system of lakes is also in close relation with those E. and S. E. of Leech l., and the river was thus one of the recognized routes between this lake and the Mississippi. Its mouth is about one-third of the direct distance between Aitkin and Sandy lake. 4. There are some rapids above Willow r., two of them called Moose and Sandy Lake rapids; the latter are only about 2½ m. direct W. from the lake, but fully 6 m. by the bends of the river; the town of Portage is near them. Pike and Bradley left the river at some point below these rapids, to make straight for the lake. 5. Sandy l., Lac au Sable or de Sable of the French, is close to the river, on the right hand going up, and discharges into the Mississippi by a short crooked stream called Sandy Lake r., 2 m. or less in length. Its greatest diameter in any direction is probably under 5 m., but the figure is so irregular, with such extensive projections into the main body of waters, that the actual shore-line is more than 30 m. It receives the discharges of a number of smaller lakes in the vicinity, among them one called Aitkin by Nicollet. Its principal feeders are two in number. One of these comes in at the southernmost end of the lake, and takes the name of Sandy, Sandy Lake, or Rice Lake r. The N. P. R. R. crosses this stream near McGregor, which is 12 m. by the wagon-road southward from the discharge of the lake. This river has a main branch from Manomin or Rice l.; and either this branch or the whole river is the Menomeny-sibi or Wild Oats r. of Beltrami. The other main affluent of Sandy l. comes in from the E., at a point on the E. shore in the N. E. ¼ of Sect. 9, T. 49, R. 23, 4th M., and is generally known as Prairie r. Nicollet called it Little Prairie r.; Long, Savanna r. Its main branch from the N. E. is now known as Savanna r.; Nicollet called this West Savannah r. to distinguish it from that branch of the St. Louis r. which he designated East Savannah r., and accentuate the relations of the two. For it must be known that these rivers of the Mississippian basin connect so closely with certain branches of the St. Louis, in the Lake Superior basin, that they were formerly of the utmost importance as waterways between the two great systems, and as such were greatly used by the early voyageurs. The N. W. Co. house where Pike was entertained stood on the W. shore of Sandy l., next to the Mississippi. Pike marks the site on his map, and gives it as 1¼ m. S. of the discharge of the lake into the short thoroughfare by which this reaches the Mississippi. There are existing remains of old settlements in various positions further south. A trail from the Indian village struck the Mississippi r. in the S. E. ¼ of Sect. 4, T. 49, R. 24. When David Thompson was here in 1798, he made the fort to be lat. 46° 46´ 39´´ N., long. 93° 20´ W. It was a point of commercial and even political importance long before Pike's day—it was such at the pivotal date, 1763, in the history of French-English occupancy of the Upper Mississippi. At the discharge of the lake into the Mississippi on the N. side, in the center of Sect. 25, T. 50, R. 24, is a small sharp point; this was the site of a post of the Amer. Fur Co. of which Schoolcraft speaks in 1832; Palmburg was and Libby is there now. It would be a pity if the government dam now constructing on the outlet should convert this beautiful sheet of water into such a dismal cesspool as Lake Winnibigoshish has become since that was dammed; but lumberjacks prevail in northern Minnesota by a large majority, and logging-booms have nothing in common with scenic effects.

[II-50] In the summer of 1802, the Morrison party, consisting of William Morrison, the brothers Michael and Antoine Cheniers, John McBean, one Bouvin, and one Grignon, came into the country in the service of the X. Y. Co. (Richardson & Co.), in opposition to the N. W. Co. The genuine Morrison letter elsewhere cited, in connection with the discovery of the Mississippian source, says: "I found ... Sayers at Leech Lake, Cotton at Fond du Lac, and Bousquai at Sandy Lake." The latter is no doubt Pike's "Charles Brusky." The name stands Bousky in Pike's text of 1807, p. 34. The Rev. Mr. Neill, Minn. Hist. Coll., V. 1885, p. 451, speaks of the visit of David Thompson, May 6th, 1798, to Sandy Lake, adding, "where the post was in charge of Mr. Bruské" (Bruske in the index).

[II-51] See note⁴⁹, p. 137, for Willow r. Pike calls it "Leech Lake river" in this place, not because that was then or ever has been its name, but because it was on the route he was going to take from Sandy l. to Leech l. He flatters our intelligence further by giving us a perfectly blind snow-shoe trail, for the most part 'cross lots, without a single compass-point, with wild mileage or none, and not even a geographical hint, from the 20th to the 26th. He takes it for granted that we know all about the swamps of N. Minnesota in midwinter. Luckily, we are not without the means of bringing him to book. He continues on the Willow River route toward Leech l. with his whole party till the morning of the 26th, when he leaves the party to follow up that route, and goes himself with Boley and the Indian to Mr. Grant's house "on the Mississippi." The Mississippi is a pretty long river, but it happens that we can discover where Mr. Grant's was in 1805: see Pike's map, place marked "N. W. C^o.", on the right bank (W. side) of the river, a little below the place marked "Ripple." This was directly opposite the present town of Grand Rapids, Itasca Co., 3 m. below Pokegama Falls. The air-line distance from the outlet of Sandy l. to Grand Rapids is supposed to be 32⅕ m.; by the way Pike went perhaps 40-45 m. The course is about N. N. W. This cuts off a considerable segment from the winding course of the Mississippi, which makes a large elbow eastward. Pike subtends this bend; having crossed the Mississippi near Sandy l., and thus continued across what he calls the "portage" to Willow r., he goes up this, not far from parallel with the Mississippi, till Willow r. bears more to the left; when he leaves it to continue his course to Mr. Grant's house, having the Mississippi on his right, but at several (say 5 to 10) miles' distance, representing the amount of cut-off he makes. On the 26th, with Boley and an Indian, he forges ahead of his party, who do not get up to Grant's house till the evening of the 28th, though he is there on the night of the 26th with the Indian, and Boley comes up on the morning of the 27th. That section of the Mississippi which Pike thus avoids may be passed over briefly, as it offers little of interest. There are some rapids above Sandy l. Three of these are duly charted by Nicollet, being his lower, middle, and upper "Small" rapids, respectively now known as Ox-portage, Crooked, and Pine rapids. The first of these are in Sect. 2, T. 50, R. 24, 4th M.: the others in the next township above, of the same range. By far the most important tributary of the Mississippi in this portion of its course is Swan r., which falls in from the E. in Sect. 9, T. 52, R. 24, 4th M., 1¼ m. (direct) south of the boundary line between Aitkin and Itasca cos., which here runs on the line between T. 52 and T. 53. The Duluth and Winnipeg R. R. from Duluth meanders the St. Louis r. as far as Floodwood, continues N. W. to Wawana, along some tributaries of Floodwood r., to the divide between Laurentian and Mississippian waters in the vicinity of Swan r. The latter is marked "Wild Swan R." on the U. S. Engineers' chart—which is well enough, as all the swans in that country are wild, though this name apparently arose from misunderstanding the legend "W. Swan R." on Nicollet's map. This stands for West—not Wild—Swan r., and Nicollet meant by it to contrast this stream with that tributary of the St. Louis which he called East Swan r. At a distance of 6½ air-line miles, but fully 14 m. by the meanders of the Mississippi, above the mouth of Swan r., a small stream comes in from the W., nearly if not exactly on the common corner of Sects. 21, 22, 27 and 28 of T. 53, R. 24, 4th M. This is Split Hand r.—the Cut Hand cr. of Nicollet and of Owen, draining from a lake of the same incisive name, from Willibob l., and some others, all of which lie southeastward of the large Lake Pokegama. This is the stream called by Beltrami Singonki-sibi or Marten r. Above Split Hand r. are several streams on either hand. The one which I take to be Nicollet's Blueberry cr. falls in from the E. in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 21, T. 54, R. 24, 4th M., ¾ of a mile due S. of a considerable hill in the next section above, and 3 m. due E. of Hale l.—that little lake which is at the tip of the longest eastward finger of Lake Pokegama. Ascending the Mississippi still, we next come to Trout r. or cr., from the E., whose mouth falls in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 5 of the township just said. This has held its present name since the days of Schoolcraft and Allen, though Beltrami called it Namago-sibi. Here we are already approaching Grand Rapids, where we shall find Pike: for the many important features of that vicinity see next note.

[II-52] I do not know that the exact site of Grant's N. W. Co. House has been recovered of late years; but there is no question of its location nearly or directly opposite the town of Grand Rapids, somewhere in the S. ½ of Sect. 21, T. 55, R. 25, 4th M. It doubtless stood on the first rising ground from the river—most probably, as I think, on the knoll that overlooks that curious expansion of the Mississippi into a pair of ponds or one small lake of hour-glass shape, across the constricted part of which the river flows. Grand Rapids is the seat of Itasca Co., and has become quite a town of late years, at least in comparison with any others for many miles thereabouts. It stands across the mouth of a small creek, whose name, if it have one, I could not learn, even when I was on the spot. It discharges from several small lakes. The rapids from which the town takes its name are not particularly "grand." Pike calls them a "ripple." "Kakabikons (or simply Kabikons) rapids, as I have laid them down on the map, have a fall of 9 feet in a distance of 80 yards," Nicollet, Rep. 1843, p. 63. The volatile Beltrami calls them "Sassicy-Woenne, or Thundering Rapids," II. p. 455. The Engineer chart marks the rapids 1247 below and 1252 above—a difference of only 5 feet. At the direct distance of 2½ m. below (E. S. E. of) the town is a village called La Prairie, of no consequence in itself, but occupying a notable place. This is the mouth of a comparatively large river, charted by Pike as "Meadow R. navigable for Bark Canoes 100 M." Long also maps it as Meadow r.; by Beltrami it is called Mushkotensoi-sibi or Prairie r., and this last is its present designation (duplicating the name of one of the tributaries of Sandy l.: see note⁴⁹, p. 138). It is the translation of the Indian word which Nicollet in this connection renders Mashkudens, and which occurs in many forms, as Mascouten, Muscatine, etc. About 2 m. S. W. of Grand Rapids is Horseshoe l., one of the many small bodies of water which hover like satellites about Lake Pokegama: see next note. The D. and W. R. R. keeps on the N. side of the Mississippi, from La Prairie through Grand Rapids to Cohasset and Deer River, its present terminus.

[II-53] Jan. 29th and 30th are not entered in the diary, and there is intrinsic evidence of confusion in Pike's notes. Observe the statement made under "Feb. 1st" that Pike reached Leech l. at 2.30 p. m., crossed it to the house and arrived there about 3 p. m.—12 m. in about half an hour, an obvious impossibility. Observe also that Boley was his only soldier according to Jan. 26th and 27th; but that Miller was the man with him on the 28th and later days. What became of Boley and where did Miller come from? We have not a word about the main party; in fact we are never told by what route they reached Leech l.—simply that they got there five days after Pike, at 4 p. m., Feb. 6th: see that date. Fortunately the early text of 1807, pp. 37-40, clears the whole matter up, as follows: "After the whole party had arrived at this lodge [Grant's house, evening of Jan. 28th], Mr. Pike determined to proceed on to the head of the river [Leech l.], accompanied by one of his young men, named Miller. He left the camp on the morning of the 29th, when it was snowing very fast," etc., reached Pokegama falls at 1 p. m.; soon after found three deserted Chippewa lodges, and "a fine parcel of split wood"; cut down three balsam-firs to make a shelter, and camped. Jan. 30th, passed through the "dismal cypress swamp," found Mr. Grant's cut-off and reached the inhospitable Chippewas, who were living at or near White Oak pt. (All this is given on the 28th in the above text; this is where the break was made, though there is no break in the week-days, for the entry "Tuesday, Jan. 28th," covers that day, Wednesday 29th, and Thursday 30th, as shown by what I have bracketed in the text.) Jan. 31st, Pike and Miller continued on from White Oak pt. and went past the mouth of the Leech Lake fork to some point on that fork, described above as "one mile below [i. e. beyond] the traverse of the meadow," in the 1807 text as "a mile above the meadow"; camped there. Feb. 1st, reached Leech l. "a little after midday," p. 39 of the 1807 text, agreeing with 2.30 p. m. of above text well enough; across the lake it was "12 miles" to the establishment of the North West Company, at which they arrived about ten o'clock in the evening. "The gates were locked," etc., p. 40.

[II-54] Pike has now (Jan. 29th and 30th) gone up the Mississippi from Grand Rapids to White Oak pt.—not following the river exactly, but taking the cut-off Mr. Grant marked for him. The air-line distance is about 13 m. Supposing him to have taken something like the usual trail, he went as follows: At 3 m. direct above Grand Rapids, 4 m. by the river, he passed Pokegama falls at 1 p. m., Jan. 29th. This is a place where the Mississippi drops about 15 feet over a granular quartz ridge: Pike maps it "Falls of Pakagama 20 F^t. Portage 200 yards." It is naturally one of the best known points on the river in this vicinity. It is visible in part from the car window as you go by on the railroad, but the dam which has been built just above is a more conspicuous object from that point of view. Nicollet calls the cataract Kabikons or Little falls, and more fully Kakabikons or Little-severed Rock falls. At 3¼ m. by the river, above these falls, is the discharge of Lake Pokegama itself. This is by far the largest body of water in the vicinity, having an extreme length of 13 m.; but its form is so irregular, something like a hand with spread-out fingers, that its actual shore-line is very much greater; and a number of smaller sheets of water are dotted about it on all sides. Two of the largest of these are Sisibakwet and Rice lakes. Nicollet renders Pakegomag, "a name applied by the Chippeways to all sheets of water in the vicinity of a river," Rep. 1843, p. 63. Schoolcraft says Peckagama, Allen Pecagama, Owen Pokegoma; Packegamau, and I suppose a dozen more forms of the word, are found; Beltrami has Pakegamanaguen or Hook l.; the form I use seems to be most frequent now. The accent is on the antepenult—Pokeg´-ama. A mile or so below the mouth of this lake Bass brook falls in from the north, discharging from Bass and other lakes; the town of Cohasset is at its mouth. The trail now crosses, or lately did cross, the Mississippi from S. E. to N. W. in this vicinity. It continues westward, past two overflows of the river known as Backwater and Cut-off lakes, respectively, on one side and the other of the Mississippi, continues to a small lake which I suppose to be one of those so said by Pike above, and then strikes for the larger lake he speaks of. This traverse leaves the Mississippi several miles to the left as you go west; for the river makes an extensive sharp bend S., and there receives Vermilion r. (Wanomon r. on Nicollet's map) from the S., at the bight of this bend. Exactly 2¼ m. below the mouth of Vermilion r. is the discharge of Lake Kabukasagetewa (as the name is rendered on the Warner and Foote map). The "large lake" of the above text is evidently that known to the voyageurs as Lac aux Chênes, whence our Oak l., also White Oak l.; from the head of which to Pointe aux Chênes, now Oak pt. or White Oak pt. (Red-oak Point, Nic., p. 63), is exactly 2½ m. This is clearly the place where the good Samaritan Chippewa and his amiable family resided, close by the mouth of Deer r., which Pike charts by this name, and which is still so called. This falls in from the N. through another White Oak l., also called Deer, also Stephen's. Notice that this last (Deer r.) is the stream Beltrami erroneously calls Onomonikana-sibi or Vermilion r., as he fetches it in on the N., both in text and on his map.

Addendum to the above. I found when at Deer River that the nomenclature of the natives does not agree with that on our best maps regarding the lake to be called "White Oak." The first White Oak l. of the above note, and of all our modern maps—the one which Pike comes to before he reaches White Oak pt.—is a small one 1½ × ¾ m., lying chiefly in Sects. 3 and 10 of T. 55, R. 27, 4th M., and through it goes one but not the other of the two courses into which the Mississippi is here widely divided. The people never call this White Oak l., but apply that name to the much larger one through which Deer r. discharges above White Oak pt.—the Deer l. of Nicollet, Stephen's lake of our maps. This is a pear-shaped body of water 2¾ m. in extreme length, with a greatest breadth of over a mile at its lower end. It lies mainly in Sects. 1, 2, and 12 of T. 144, R. 25, 5th M., but with the butt end overrunning into T. 56, R. 27, 4th M., and both the inlet and the outlet of Deer r. being in the latter township. It is thus entirely off Pike's trail, N. and W. of White Oak pt. This lake discharges into a loop of the Mississippi by a short thoroughfare of ½ a mile, ending close above White Oak pt., in the N. E. ¼ of Sect. 13, T. 144, R. 25, 5th M. The miserable hamlet of Deer River—as vile a place as it was ever my bad luck to discover—lies W. of Deer r., and a mile or more N. of White Oak l. Here is the terminus of the D. and W. R. R., a siding of which runs down to the lake at a point ½ a mile W. of the inlet of Deer r., where a pier is built. On crossing the lake to get into and go up the Mississippi the usual route is through the outlet and thence down the Mississippi for nearly a mile, to get into a long, straight cut-off which avoids some great bends. But there is a shorter way still, if one can find it, as I did on coming down—an obscure point directly opposite the pier, in the reeds, where a canoe can be pushed through into the nearest bend, and so save more than a mile. A fact which may have originated or perpetuated the above noted confusion of names is that, above this large White Oak or Stephen's l. there is a point of hard-wood called Little White Oak pt., occupying a position with reference to the larger lake like that which the original Pointe aux Chênes or Oak pt. bears to the lesser lake. A glance at the Engineer chart, or at such a good map as Jewett's, on the scale of 2 m. to the inch, will give a clearer idea of these points than the most elaborate description is likely to convey.

[II-55] "Chewockomen," as well as the "Chewockmen" of the 1807 ed., is far from any recognized or acceptable spelling of the Chippewa word, one fairly good form of which is Kitchimokomen. Schoolcraft has Chimoquemon. It means Big Knives or Long Knives, and is commonly so translated, the reference being either to the swords of the officers or the bayonets of the soldiers, which have often struck Indians forcibly, both in a literal and in a figurative sense. Kitchimokomen corresponds to the Sioux name Isantanka, of the same meaning and application.

[II-56] On leaving White Oak pt. on the morning of Jan. 31st, Pike and Miller proceeded approximately up the course of the Mississippi to the "fork" above said, i. e., the confluence of Leech Lake fork with the main stream. This stretch, which Pike calls "nearly 15 miles long," is just 6 m. in an air-line, and not much more by the trail. The Mississippi here flows through "meadows," as Pike correctly says; these meadows are in part what Nicollet named Eagle Nest savannah. It is absolutely flat and low marshy ground, alternating with haying fields, extending widely on both sides of the river, S. and W. of White Oak l. Little White Oak pt. reaches the river in a narrow tongue of higher ground, from the N., while higher up several bends of the river abut against woodland on the S. Throughout this reach the river is exceeding tortuous; its bends are, moreover, so connected with collateral channels, in part natural and in part artificial, that the stream is virtually double and incloses a series of large islands in its sinuous folds. Some of these thoroughfares float the steamboats that ply on the river to transport the hay; others are mere ditches, through which only canoes can be shoved. Two m. below (N. N. E. of) the Leech Lake fork, the Mississippi receives an important affluent, namely, the discharge of Ball Club l., which enters at about the middle of the S. border of Sect. 31, T. 145, R. 25, 5th M., and thus only about 4 m. due W. of Deer River (town). The difference in level between this lake and the river is so slight that sometimes, when the latter is full, it backs up into the former. Ball Club is a pretty large lake—6 m. long, usually called 7, and 1 to 2 m. broad in different places, with its long axis about N. W. and S. E.; its shape is not very well delineated on the Engineer chart, being not elbowed enough. The outlet is from the lower broad end, in the same Sect. in which it joins the Mississippi, and is thus less than 1 m. long (little over ½ m.). This lake is notable because it is the usual and direct route up to Little Lake Winnibigoshish and so on, to avoid the more circuitous course of the Mississippi itself. You traverse the main axis of the lake from its outlet N. W. to its head, and there make a portage of a mile or so over into Little Lake Winnibigoshish. "Ball Club," the now universal name of this body of water, is a term which translates the F. La Crosse; Schoolcraft renders once Lac a la Crose; Pike has Lac Le Crosse and Le Cross. Schoolcraft has in another place Bogottowa l., which aboriginal name is rendered Bagatwa by Beltrami, Pagadowan by Nicollet, by others Pagadawin, etc. All these names refer to the celebrated game of ball, which the learned Anglojibway Warren calls baugahudoway. Several streams feed this lake; one of them comes in at the head, from a small lake which Schoolcraft named Helix l., from the abundance of its snails of that genus. To return from this excursus to Pike at the mouth of the Leech Lake fork, up which he goes: This is of course a definite and well-known point, exactly on the dividing line between the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 7, T. 144, R. 25, and the S. E. ¼ of Sect. 12, T. 144, R. 26, 5th M. I had a good view of the confluence from a bit of high bank on the left or N. side of the Mississippi, looking across the mazes of marsh and meadow land through which both streams meander to their junction. Leech Lake r. is a very large branch of the Mississippi, deserving the name of "fork" which Pike applies; he also calls it the South, and the Sang Sue branch or fork. Beltrami essays the Chippewa name, as Cazaguaguagine-sibi. Inasmuch as Pike considered this river to be the main stream, I propose to designate Leech Lake and its feeders and discharge as the Pikean Source, in distinction from the Julian, Plantagenian, and Itascan sources we shall discuss beyond. Passing the Forks, Pike and Miller go up Leech Lake r., Jan. 31st, to some undetermined point in the vicinity of the largest lake into which this stream expands, and which Pike calls Muddy l. This is of an oval figure, about 4 m. long by half as broad; its outlet is 3¼ m. up Leech Lake r. from the forks. Nicollet named it Lake Bessel, after the famous scientist—his map fairly glitters with the galaxy of illustrious names he reflects from the bosoms of lakes in Northern Minnesota, though I cannot recall an instance in which such academic nomenclature has been "understanded of the people" and retained in their speech. The lake in present mention is always called Mud or Muddy, and is much frequented by the Indians for the eminently utilitarian purpose of gathering wild rice. I saw a string of their canoes heading that way Aug. 15th, 1894.

[III-1] It is simple justice to Pike to state here that, in making this widely erroneous statement, he reflected common report of his day, and that he elsewhere himself qualifies the assertion. Thus, in his general review of the Mississippi (which in the orig. ed. formed Doc. No. 18, p. 41 seq. of the App. to Part 1), he says of the Leech Lake branch: "This is rather considered as the main source, although the Winipeque [read Winnibigoshish] branch is navigable the greatest distance." If the volume of waters collected by Leech l. and then contributed to the Mississippi were made the criterion, the true Itascan source might have to look to its laurels. Deferring other considerations to a more convenient connection, we may here confine attention to the Leech Lake system. The lake itself is much the largest body of water in the Mississippi basin above Mille Lacs, much exceeding in size Lake Winnibigoshish, which itself much exceeds Lake Cass. These three are the largest reservoirs of the whole drainage area whose waters unite at the junction of the Leech Lake branch with the main stream. This area, taken down to Pokegama falls, is about 80 m. from E. to W. and 50 from N. to S.; its content is more than a thousand lakes and rivers, few of which have been named. These are quite clearly divided into two main sets, namely, those of the Leech Lake system on the one hand, and all the rest on the other. Leech l. is not much smaller than Red l. (of a different system); its greatest diameter in one direction is over 20 m.; its figure is extremely irregular, giving a shore-line said to be of about 160 m. length, with 9 principal salient re-entrances and 6 large bays; the feeders, large and small, are 25-30 in number. The "fond du lac" is at that S. W. place where the waters of Kabekona and other lakes discharge by the Kabekona r., in Sect. 9, T. 142, R. 31, 5th M. This series affords, with several portages, a tolerably direct approach to Lake Itasca, which lies at an air-line distance of about 25 m. nearly due W. North of the mouth of the Kabekona, in Sect. 9, T. 143, of the same R. and M., the Kapukasagitowa, Pikesagidowag, or Bukesagidowag r. falls in from the N. W. This point is only 7 m. directly S. of the southernmost part of Cass l., and a chain of 10 small lakes here lies between Cass and Leech, offering a waterway with some portages. Two of these small lakes are Moss and Shiba of Schoolcraft; two others of them are his Kapuka Sagitowa lakes. Further E. on the N. shore of Leech l. a river falls in from the N. in Sect. 14, T. 144, R. 30. This is Carp r. of Schoolcraft, draining from a chain of small lakes which approach the Mississippi itself in that portion of its course which runs from Cass to Winnibigoshish l. The N. E. extremity of Leech l., called Rush l. by Schoolcraft and Pickering bay by Nicollet, reaches within 4 m. (air-line) of Lake Winnibigoshish; there is a small lake between, named Lake Duponceau by Nicollet, but now known as Portage l., from the function indicated by this name. In fact it is easier to go from Winnibigoshish over into Leech than from Cass over into the same. Along the S. W., S., S. E., and E. shores of Leech l. is a succession of affluents, some of the larger of which respectively establish waterways of communication with Crow Wing r., with Pine r., and with Willow r. The largest of these Leech l. tributaries is Kwiwisens or Boy r., which offers by its system of lakes and portages the most direct route by way of Willow r. to Sandy l. Some of the lakes along this line are by Nicollet named Hassler, Gauss, Deluot, Eccleston, Brûlé, and Rosati. One of the communications with Pine r. is made by Sandy r., which falls into Leech l. from the S. (The Crow Wing connections are noticed elsewhere in detail.) Leech l. discharges by Leech Lake r. near its N. E. extremity, the outlet being in Sect. 29, T. 144, R. 28, 5th M. The discharge is now controlled by a dam which, like the similar structures at the outlet of Lake Winnibigoshish and elsewhere, is designed to utilize the lakes as artificial reservoirs to regulate the flow of the Mississippi according to the requirements for navigation. Leech Lake r. is bowed into an arc whose chord is 16 m. long; Mud l. lies in its course, as already said. The principal projection of land into Leech l. from the N. is the well-known Otter-tail pt.; opposite this, from the south, is Big pt.; continuous with which, by a narrow isthmus, is a very extensive peninsula of remarkable form, something like a badly shaped anchor or a distorted letter T. This Tau-formed peninsula is the best known and most historic place about the lake, as the site of a Chippewa village and various other establishments, of which more anon. There are several islands in Leech l.; the largest is Bear or Mukwa isl. (Macuwa of Beltrami); two others are Pelican and Goose. Leech l. derives its English name from the F. Lac Sang Sue, or L. aux Sangsues, originally bestowed in compliment to the sanguisugent annelids with which it was supposed to be peculiarly favored, by the Chippewas, who conveyed their meaning in the voluble vocable Kasagaskwadjimekang.

[III-2] Voy. en Égypte et en Syrie, etc., 2 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1787; tr. Eng., London, 1787, etc. Constantin François Chassebœuf, Comte de Volney, b. Craon, Anjou, Feb. 3d, 1757, d. Paris, Apr. 25th, 1820, is best known in letters by his celebrated work, commonly called "Volney's Ruins," i. e., Les Ruines ou Méditations sur les Révolutions des Empires, etc., orig. ed. 1791, numberless trans. and eds. down to the present time. The illustrious author was the peer of Voltaire or Paine in philosophy and religion, and underwent the usual vicissitudes of free-thinkers of his time, from the prison to the peerage. His intellect was clear and profound, his erudition vast and varied; so they called him an "infidel"—whatever they may have meant by that—and having given him the name would have hanged him had he been hangable. His researches were chiefly in the fields of history, geography, archæology, linguistics, statecraft, and priestcraft, all of which he illuminated to the great inconvenience of political and ecclesiastical demagogues. Nullum tetigit quod non ornavit; the clergy, however, he adorned with a touch that Voltaire himself might have envied. Count Volney was in the U. S. in 1795-6-7; his controversy with the meritorious but somewhat obtuse Priestley, on the unquestionable unorthodoxy of his Ruins, brought his more formal scientific works into prominence, and accentuated the fame of his most imperishable treatise. Cheap editions of the Ruins abound, usually including the tract originally entitled La Loi Naturelle; this is a little catechism designed by a great philosopher to kindly help little fools out of some of their folly; it is quite worthy to rank with Paine's Age of Reason. Volney's complete works were edited by A. Bossange, 8 vols., Paris, 1820-26. Pike was in good company on the 3d, while he nursed his sore feet.

[III-3] This clerk is named Roussand beyond, Feb. 9th. He is "a Monsr. Boussant" in the early text, 1807, p. 40.

[III-4] We have no hint of the route by which the main party reached Leech l. after Pike first left them on the 26th of Jan., unless one is conveyed in the statement that Miller returned with a supply of provisions for them. That would seem to imply that they followed Pike's trail, and came to Leech l. by a route the same as his, or one not materially different. This is in fact what they did: see note⁵¹, p. 142. The shorter way would have been that Willow River traverse indicated in note¹, p. 153. What seems to have been a usual route in former days is clearly indicated on Nicollet's map. Starting from Sandy l. it struck W. to Willow r. and went up this to Rosati and Brulé lakes, whence by portage over to Eccleston or Deluot l., and so to the Boy's River connection, continued through Gauss and Hassler lakes. All these have different names now, and I cannot speak with confidence in the new nomenclature. Among the lakes of Nicollet's series appear to be those now called Big Rice, Thunder, and Boy.

[III-5] This letter formed Doc. No. 5, on p. 14 of the App. to Pt. 1 of the orig. ed. It is given beyond, together with Mr. M'Gillis' reply; which latter was Doc. No. 6, p. 17 of the same App. in the orig. ed.

[III-6] This is the first intimation we have that Pike is not already at the west end, or at any rate on the west side of Leech l. He certainly has told us that he "crossed the lake 12 miles" to reach Mr. M'Gillis' house, where he is now quartered. The only place marked on Pike's map is on the W. side, with the legend "N. W. C^o. Ho. Lat. 47° 16´ 18´´ N." The position of this seems to have been near Sugar pt., and to be the same as that marked "Old N. W. House" on Lt. James Allen's map facing p. 76 of Schoolcraft's Rep. pub. 1834. There have been various trading-houses at the same and different points about Leech l., simultaneously and successively. In 1832, according to Schoolcraft's large map in the work just said, there was a "Tr. Post" on the E. side of the lake, between the outlet and Boy's r., but the principal one was on the Tau-formed peninsula, and was a post of the Am. Fur Co. Schoolcraft was camped there July 16th, 1832. This place was then also the site of the Chippewa village of Gueule Platte or Flat Mouth, a chieftain of whom Pike has something to say soon, and of whom Nicollet, who met him there in 1836, has told us somewhat, Rep. 1843, p. 61 seq.