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DISCOVERY
OF THE
SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
SUMMARY NARRATIVE
OF AN
EXPLORATORY EXPEDITION
TO THE
SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER,
IN 1820:
RESUMED AND COMPLETED,
BY THE
DISCOVERY OF ITS ORIGIN IN ITASCA LAKE, IN 1832.
By Authority of the United States
WITH APPENDIXES,
COMPRISING THE
ORIGINAL REPORT ON THE COPPER MINES OF LAKE SUPERIOR, AND OBSERVATIONS
ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE BASINS, AND THE SUMMIT OF THE MISSISSIPPI;
TOGETHER WITHALL THE OFFICIAL REPORTS AND SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF BOTH EXPEDITIONS.
BY HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
PHILADELPHIA:
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO, AND CO.
1855.
Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1854, by
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO, AND CO.,
in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, in and for
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
[Original Dedication.]
TO THE
Hon. JOHN C. CALHOUN,
SECRETARY OF WAR.
Sir : Allow me to inscribe to you the following Journals,as an illustration of my several reports on the mineralgeography of the regions visited by the recent Expeditionunder Governor Cass.
I beg you will consider it, not only as a proof of myanxiety to be serviceable in the station occupied, but alsoas a tribute of individual respect for those exertions whichhave been made, during your administration of the WarDepartment, to develop the physical character and resourcesof all parts of our Western country; for thepatronage it has extended to the cause of geographicalscience; for the protection it has afforded to a veryextensive line of frontier settlements by stretching acordon of military posts around them; and for the noticeit has bestowed on one of the humblest cultivators ofnatural science.
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
Albany, 1821.
PREFACE.
The following pages embrace the substance of the narrativesof two distinct expeditions for the discovery of the sources of theMississippi River, under the authority of the United States. Byconnecting the incidents of discovery, and of