Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

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СКАЧАТЬ for this in the nomenclature of the geography of the upper Mississippi, by observing that it embraces another Red Cedar Lake. The latitude of upper Red Cedar, or Cass Lake, is placed by Pike at 47° 42´40´´. [74] Its distance above Sandy Lake, by the involutions of the river, is two hundred and seventy miles, and from Fond du Lac, at the head of Lake Superior, by the travelled route, four hundred and thirty miles. It is situated seventeen degrees north of the Gulf of Mexico, from which it is computed to be distant two thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight geographical miles. Estimating the distance to the actual origin of the river, as determined at a subsequent period, at one hundred and eighty-two miles above Cass Lake, the length of the Mississippi River is shown to be three thousand one hundred and sixty miles, [75] making a direct line over the earth's surface of more than half the distance from the arctic circle to the equator. It may also be observed of the Mississippi, that its sources lie in a region of snows and long-continued winter, while it enters the ocean under the latitude of perpetual verdure; and at last, as if disdaining to terminate its career at the ordinary point of embouchure of other large rivers, has protruded its banks into the Gulf of Mexico, more than a hundred miles beyond any other part of the main. To have visited both the source and the mouth of the stream has fallen to the lot of but few, and I believe there is no person living beside myself of whom the remark can be made. On the tenth of July, 1819, I passed out of the mouth of the Mississippi in a brig bound for New York, after descending it in a steamboat from St. Louis, but little thinking I should soon visit its waters, yet, on the twenty-first of July of the following year, I reached its sources in this lake.

      In deciding upon the physical character of the Mississippi River, it may be advantageously considered under four natural divisions, as indicated by permanent differences in its geological and physical character—its vegetable productions, and its velocity and general hydrographical character. Originating in a region of lakes upon the table-lands which throw their waters north into Hudson's Bay, south into the Gulf of Mexico, and east into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it pursues its course south to the Falls of Pakagama, a distance of two hundred and thirty miles, through natural meadows or savannas covered with wild rice, rushes, reeds and coarse grasses, and aquatic plants. During the distance, it is extremely devious in its course and width, often expanding into lakes which connect themselves through a vast system of reticulated channels. Leech Lake, Cass Lake, and Lake Andrúsia would themselves be regarded as small interior seas, were they on any other part of the continent but that which develops Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Its velocity through the upper plateau is but little, and it affords every facility for the breeding of water fowl and the small furred quadrupeds, the favorite reliance of a nomadic population.

      At the Falls of Pakagama, the first rock stratum and the first wooded island is seen. Here the river has an aggregate fall of twenty feet, and from this point to St. Anthony's Falls, a distance of six hundred miles, it exhibits its second characteristic division. The granitical and metamorphic rocks, which support the vast plateaux and beds of draft of its sources, are only apparent above this point, in boulders. The permanent strata are but barely concealed at several rapids below the Pakagama, but appear plainly below the influx of the De Corbeau, at Elk River, Little Falls, and near Sac River. And this system of rock is succeeded, before reaching the Falls of St. Anthony, by the horizonal white sand rock and its superior limestone series of the carboniferous formation.

      Vegetation is developed as the river descends towards the south. A forest of maples, elm, oak, ash, and birch, is interspersed with spruce, birch, poplar, and pine above the Pakagama, and continues, in favorable positions, throughout this division. The black walnut is first seen below Sandy Lake, and the sycamore below the River De Corbeau. The river in this division has numerous well-wooded islands; its velocity is a striking feature; it abounds with rapids, none of which, however, oppose serious obstacles to its navigation. Agreeably to memoranda kept, [76] it has fifty-six distinct rapids, including the Little and Big Falls, in all of which the river has an aggregate estimated descent of two hundred and twenty-four feet, within a distance of fourteen thousand six hundred and forty yards, or about eight miles. The mean fall of the current, exclusive of these rapids, may be computed at nearly six inches per mile.

      The course of the river, below the Falls of Pakagama, is still serpentine, but strikingly less so than above, and its bends are not so short and abrupt. The general course of this river, till it reaches the rock formation of Pakagama, is from the west. Thence, to Sandy Lake inlet, it flows generally southeast; from this point to the inlet of the De Corbeau or Crow Wing, it is deflected to the southwest; thence almost due south, to the mouth of the Watab River; and thence again southeast to the Falls of St. Anthony. A geographical line dropped from the inlet of Sandy Lake, where the channel is first deflected to the southwest, to St. Anthony's Falls, or the mouth of the St. Peter's, [77] forms a vast bow-shaped area of prairie and forest lands of high agricultural capabilities, whose future products must be carried to a market through the Fond du Lac of Lake Superior. These prairies and grove lands, which cannot square less than two by four hundred miles, constitute the ancient area of the Issati, [78] and are now the resort of great herds of the buffalo, elk, and deer; and it is a region known as the predatory border, or battle-ground of the Chippewas and Dacotas.

CHAPTER XI.

       Table of Contents

      Physical traits of the Mississippi—The elevation of its sources—Its velocity and mean descent—Etymology of the name Mississippi—Descent of the river to Sandy Lake, and thence to the Falls of St. Anthony—Recross the great Bitobi Savanna—Pakagama formation—Description of the voyage from Sandy Lake to Pine River—Brief notices of the natural history.

      The third geographical division in which it is proposed to consider the Mississippi, begins at the Falls of St. Anthony. Within half a day's march, before reaching this point from its sources, the primitive and crystallized, and the altered and basaltic rocks are succeeded by the great limestone and sandstone horizontal series of the carboniferous, magnesian, and metalliferous rocks, which constitute by themselves so extraordinary a body of geological phenomena. Entering on the level of the white sandstone stratum, which is fundamental in this column, about the inlet of Rum River, the Mississippi urges its way over a gently inclining bed of this rock, to the brink of this cataract, where it drops perpendicularly about sixteen feet; but the whole descent of its level from the head to the foot of the portage path, cannot be less than double that height.

      The river, at this point, enters a valley which is defined by rocky cliffs, which attain various elevations from one to three hundred feet, presenting a succession of picturesque or sublime views. In some places these cliffs present a precipitous and abrupt façade, washed by the current. In far the greatest number of cases, the eminence has lost its sharp angles through the effects of frosts, rains, and elemental action, leaving a slope of debris at the foot. As the river descends, it increases in volume and in the extent of its alluvions. These form, in an especial manner, its characteristic features from St. Anthony's Falls to the junction of the Missouri, a distance of not less than eight hundred miles. The principal tributaries which it receives in this distance, are, on the right, the St. Peter's, Upper and Lower Iowa, Turkey River, Desmoines, and Salt Rivers; and, on the left, the St. Croix, Chippewa, Wisconsin, Rock River, and the Illinois. One hundred miles below St. Anthony, it expands for a distance of twenty-four miles into the sylvan sheet of Lake Pepin, at the foot of which it receives the large volume of the Chippewa River, which originates on the sandy tracts at the sources of the Wisconsin, Montreal, and Ontonagon; and it is from this point that its continually widening channel exhibits those innumerable and changing sand-bars, which so embarrass the navigation. But in all this distance, it is only at the Desmoines and Rock River rapids that any permanent serious impediment is found in its navigation, with the larger craft.

      The fourth change in the physical aspect of this river, is at the junction of the Missouri, and this is an almost total and complete one; for this river brings down such a vast and turbid flood of commingled earths and floating matter, that it characterizes this stream to its entrance СКАЧАТЬ