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/ 
 
 CAPTAIN' GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE 
 
ED UCA TIONA L REP OR TER— EXTRA 
 
 CAPTAIN GLAZIER 
 
 AND 
 
 HIS LAKE 
 
 ^n 31nqiur^ 
 
 INTO THE HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF EXPLORATION AT THE 
 
 HEAD-WATERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI SINCE THE 
 
 DISCOVERY OF LAKE ITASCA 
 
 IVISON, BLAKEMAN, TAYLOR & COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 
 

NOTE. 
 
 The preparation of this paper was originally begun with a view to its pub- 
 lication in the issue of the " Educational Reporter " for June, 1886. Its pur- 
 pose was to state what was known about the head-waters of the Mississippi, and 
 briefly to inquire into the validity of the claims of Captain Willard Glazier to 
 having made important discoveries and explorations in that region. 
 
 In common with many others who have editorial supervision of geographi- 
 cal and educational publications, I had been frequently urged to recognize these 
 claims of Captain Glazier ; but this inquiry soon assumed such proportions 
 that 1 contented myself with publishing an extract from Nicollet's report of 
 his explorations in 1836, together with a brief reference to Captain Glazier. 
 With such a statement of previous exploration, it was hoped that Captain Gla- 
 zier and his friends would somewhat modify or moderate their claims in his be- 
 half. The very opposite has seemed to be the effect, if one may judge correctly 
 from the extracts from the newspaper press which have been sent to me during 
 the past three months. 
 
 As a result what was first intended to be a brief inquiry into the history and 
 progress of exploration at the head-waters of the Mississippi becomes, by force 
 of circumstances, rather the exposure of an attempted fraud which has been al- 
 together too successful for the credit of American intelligence and scholarship. 
 Yet it is always far more agreeable to gather together the scattered data that go 
 to make up the sum of knowledge in any field than simply to break down a 
 reputation for knowledge, however fraudulent that reputation may be ; and so 
 I have taken far greater pleasure in collecting under one cover the few facts rel- 
 ative to the exploration of the sources of the great river since the white man 
 first sighted Lake Itasca, than in any pillorying of Captain Glazier, however 
 effective that may seem to be. 
 
 Heney D. Harrower. 
 
 New Yoke, October, 1886. 
 
Captain Glazier and His Lake. 
 
 According to the latest version of modern burlesque, the 
 King of Spain once upon a time said to Columbus, " Colum- 
 bus, can jou discover America ? " 
 
 To which replied the great Christopher: "Certainly, your 
 majesty, if you will give me a ship." 
 
 So the king gave him a ship, and he sailed and he sailed 
 until he came in sight of land. Sailing up to the shore, he 
 hailed a chief and asked him, " Is this America ? " 
 
 Whereupon the chief, turning to his band, said: "There is 
 no use of denying it ; we are discovered ; " and, addressing him- 
 self to Columbus, owned up : " Yes, this is America. Who are 
 you?" 
 
 " I am Columbus." 
 
 " Why, of course ; I might have known it." 
 
 Very much the same way, a few years ago Captain Willard 
 Glazier propounded to himself (for he acknowledged no kinglier) 
 thas: "Captain, can you discover Lake Glazier, the true source 
 of the Mississippi Eiver ? " 
 
 " Of course I can, if I can have a canoe and a few trusty 
 friends who will go with me into the wilds of Minnesota," 
 
 So they went forth into the northern wilds; and after a time 
 they came to a lake, and they voted that it was Lake Glazier, 
 and that no white man had ever seen it before, and that Captain 
 Glazier was a great discoverer. And thus he won eternal fame 
 by the unanimous vote of five of his fellow-citizens, including 
 three " Indians, not taxed." 
 
 THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 
 
 Captain Glazier is a gentleman who belonged to the Union 
 volunteer army in the civil war, and there is no reason to 
 doubt that he was a faithful and gallant soldier. Since the war 
 
8 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 he has been a rather voluminous writer of war reminiscences, 
 in which Captain Glazier generally figures as the leading char- 
 acter and hero, he has traveled across the continent on horseback 
 from Boston to San Francisco, and has made a canoe trip from 
 the head-waters of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 It is in connection with this trip down the Mississippi that 
 Captain Glazier claims to have carved his name on the very 
 cap-stone of American geographical research. He tells us * that 
 while crossing the continent on horseback in 1876 he came to 
 the Mississippi Kiver, and, musing on that mighty stream and 
 " the uncertainty that existed as to its true source," he concluded 
 " that there was yet a rich field for exploration in the wilds of 
 Minnesota." In course of time, therefore, we 'find Captain Glazier 
 ready to enter upon the exploration of this rich field. There is 
 no evidence that Captain Glazier made any effort to inform him- 
 self as to what was already known about the sources of the river. 
 He certainly took no account of the data in possession of the 
 government Land Department, and generally he proceeded on 
 the theory that everybody was as ignorant as he in regard to 
 the matter. 
 
 Accordingly, in the month of May, 1881, he sets out with 
 two companions for the North-west. He goes to St Paul, 
 Minn., thence to Brainerd, and on across the Chippewa Indian 
 Eeservation to Leech Lake, where he finds Indian guides for 
 the rest of the journey. Having provided himself with canoes, 
 guides, and interpreter, the party now numbering six in all, he 
 goes by water and numerous portages to Lake Itasca, and begins 
 the exploration of its feeders to find " the true source of the Mis- 
 sissippi." Having found one of the largest inlets of Itasca, the 
 party follows it to an expansion in a small lake, of which they 
 proceed to take possession in the name of Captain Glazier. 
 As they sail across the lake, a deer is seen standing on the shore 
 and an eagle sweeps approvingly over their heads — fit omen 
 of immortal fame. Captain Glazier then calls his audience 
 to order at the foot of a promontory overlooking the lake, 
 and delivers to them an address upon the greatness of their 
 
 * "The Recent Discovery of the True Source of the Mississippi River," by 
 Willard Glazier. "American Meteorological Journal," 1884, vol. i., p. 176. 
 Also, "Sword and Pen; or, Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier." 
 By John Algernon Owens. Philadelphia: P. W. Ziegler & Co., 1884, p. 438. 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 9 
 
 own achievements, generously explaining and excusing the 
 failures of their distinguished predecessors in the work of Mis- 
 sissippi River exploration. A volley from their firearms is 
 fired in honor of each member of the party, and one of his 
 white companions gives the captain a " surprise," by proposing 
 " that the newly-discovered lake be named Lake Glazier, in 
 honor of its discoverer. The proposition was seconded by Moses 
 Lagard, the interpreter, and carried by acclamation." * Then 
 Che-no-wa-ge-sic, the chief guide, assumes an oratorical attitude, 
 and addresses the captain in a few words of true Indian elo- 
 quence. " The Indians chimed in with a Chippewa yell, and 
 then, while the air was still reverberating with the sound of 
 their voices, they all paused to take in once more the scene of 
 their explorations." f 
 
 The party returns to Schoolcraft Island, in Lake Itasca, 
 where Captain Glazier's companions draw up a petition in due 
 form, addressed " To Geographical Societies," in which they 
 state the nature of the discovery, claim the privilege of naming 
 the lake " Lake Glazier, in honor of the leader of the expedition, 
 whose energy, perseverance, and pluck " carried them through 
 their undertaking, and earnestly " petition all geographical socie- 
 ties to give it that prominence which has heretofore been ac- 
 corded to Lake Itasca, and to which it is Justly entitled as the 
 primal reservoir of the grandest river on this continent." This 
 petition was duly signed by all the party except Captain Glazier,^ 
 and reads as follows : 
 
 " Schoolcraft's Island, 
 " Lake Itasca, July 22, 1881. 
 " To Geographical Societies : 
 
 " We, the undersigned companions of Captain Willard Glazier, in his voy- 
 age of exploration to the head-waters of the Mississippi, are fully convinced 
 that the lake discovered by him, and claimed as the head of the river, is beyond 
 question the source of the ' Father of Waters.' 
 
 "The privilege of bestowing a name upon the new discovery having been 
 delegated to us, we hereby name it Lake Glazier, in honor of the leader of the 
 expedition, whose energy, perseverance, and pluck carried us through many 
 
 * It is gratifying to know that there were no negative votes recorded against 
 the proposition. 
 
 f " Sword and Pen," p. 475. 
 
 X " Sword and Pen," pp. 503, 504. It is worth while to reproduce this 
 quite exceptional document entire, if for no other purpose, at least to preserve 
 the names of a remarkable coterie of savants. 
 
 \ 
 
10 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 difficulties, and brought us at last to the shores of this beautiful lake, which is 
 the true source of the great river. 
 
 " We earnestly petition all Geographical Societies to give it that prominence 
 which has heretofore been accorded to Lake Itasca, and to which it is justly- 
 entitled as the primal reservoir of the grandest river on this continent. 
 {Signed] 
 
 " Bartlett Channinq Paine, 
 
 Indianapolis, Indiana, 
 Geobge Herbert Glazier, 
 
 Chicago, Illinois, 
 Moses Lagard, 
 
 ChE-NO-W A-G E-SIC, 
 
 Sebastine Lagard, 
 
 Leech Lake, Minnesota, 
 
 'White Companions. 
 
 Interpreter and 
 Indian Guides." 
 
 FROM THE SOURCE TO THE GULF. 
 
 Captain Glazier is now ready to begin bis descent of tbe 
 stream, " for, as yet, but a small portion of bis tremendous under- 
 taking bas been accomplisbed." Tbe rest is to make bis canoe 
 voyage to tbe Gulf of Mexico, and "to deliver a lecture on tbe 
 way at every town of importance, on botb banks, as be floats 
 down tbe stream." He also undertakes to interview newspapers 
 and to instruct geograpbical and bistorical societies in regard to 
 bis great discoveries. Tbe newspapers respond witb avidity, 
 and be is evcrywbere warmly bailed and welcomed by expres- 
 sions "sucb as would naturally occur in a country wbere tbe 
 people deligbt to bonor enterprise, courage, and ambition." Tbe 
 people everywbere flocked to tbe landing-places to do bim bonor ; 
 and " many, more impatient tban tbe rest, would put out in 
 canoes and skiffs to meet bim on tbe way. Upon disembarking, 
 be would be escorted to bis botel, usually preceded by a band 
 playing ' Hail to tbe Chief,' ' See tbe Conquering Hero Comes,' 
 or otber appropriate airs, and wbere ver be delivered bis lectures 
 large audiences greeted bim, curious to see and bear tbe man 
 wbo bad at last discovered tbe source of tbe Mississippi." * 
 
 And so on down tbe great river till Port Eads is reacbed, 
 wbere, amid tbe booming of guns and tbe waving of flags, 
 tbey paddle out into tbe wide expanse of tbe Gulf. "He was 
 proud of tbe fact tbat be was the first to stand at tbe fountain- 
 bead of bis country's grandest river and was tbe first to trav- 
 
 * " Sword and Pen." p. 483. 
 
CAPTAIN O LAZIER AND BIS LAKE. H 
 
 erse its entire course . . . and now at its outlet could write 
 finis to the great work of his life. Few men in the world can 
 say as much, for the energy, perseverance, unfaltering will, and 
 indomitable courage which characterize Captain Glazier are of 
 rare occurrence, and entitle him to a foremost position in the 
 ranks of America's distinguished sons." * 
 
 GLORY GALORE. 
 
 This certainly is glory galore, and Captain Glazier seems to 
 revel in the greatness of his name and renown. His biographer, 
 who seems to know his inmost thoughts, and to be indeed his 
 other self, dwells with admiring phrases upon his wonderful 
 achievements and his sure title to eternal fame. And the cap- 
 tain seems to have been able to impress large numbers of people 
 with this estimate of himself. 
 
 Upon the return of Captain Glazier to New Orleans the 
 mayor of that city tendered him the freedom of the city, and the 
 New Orleans Academy of Sciences gave him a public reception, 
 at which resolutions were passed recognizing the great results 
 of his expedition. Dr. J. S. Copes, f the president, in the name 
 of the academy, thanked Captain Glazier, and congratulated 
 him upon his contribution to American geographical knowledge, 
 
 * " Sword and Pen," p. 489. 
 
 f The following copy of an autograph letter from Dr. Copes indicates how 
 thoroughly Captain Glazier had impressed himself upon that eminent gentle- 
 man : 
 
 " Captain Glazier: — I congratulate you upon the successful completion of 
 your search for the primal reservoir of the Mississippi River. It would be well 
 for the country to erect before the view of its youths and all young men two 
 monuments, three thousand miles asunder — the one at the source, the other at 
 the mouth, of the great river of North America— upon which should be chiseled 
 'Enterprise, Courage, Faith, Fortitude, Patriotism, Philanthropy,' leaving 
 to posterity the selection of an illustrative name to be engraven on each one 
 when events shall have pointed conclusively to the benefactor most worthy of 
 this honor, \^'ith great respect, yours very truly, 
 
 " J. S. Copes, 
 " President New Orleans Academy of Sciences. 
 
 " New Orleans, JVov. 19, 1881." 
 
 Whatever thought may have been in Dr. Copes's mind, it is safe to say 
 that the name of Glazier will never be engraven on either of the monuments 
 which he proposes to rear in honor of Enterprise, Courage, Faith, Fortitude, 
 Patriotism, and Philanthropy. 
 
12 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 comparing him with De Soto, Marquette, La Salle, Hennepin, 
 and Joliet. They had explored only sections of the great river, 
 "while Captain Glazier had made the important discovery of its 
 primal reservoir, and traversed its entire length to the sea." 
 
 From New Orleans Captain Glazier proceeded to St. Louis, 
 where, on the evening of January 14, 1882, he addressed a large 
 audience, consisting of members of the Missouri Historical 
 Society, the Academy of Sciences, clergy, officers and teachers 
 of the public schools, assembled at the Mercantile Library Hall. 
 He was introduced by Judge Albert Todd, an eminent lawyer and 
 Vice-President of the Historical Society, who compared him with 
 the whole line of explorers from Jason to Stanley. " Impelled 
 by this spirit of enterprise in search of truth," thus said Judge 
 Todd, " Captain Glazier has discovered, at last, the true source 
 of our grand and peerless river, the Father of Waters." * 
 
 LITERARY WORK. 
 
 Subsequent to these events Captain Glazier naturally rested 
 for a time on his laurels and devoted himself to " literary work." 
 Soon, however, he took the proper means of communicating his 
 discoveries to various learned bodies, seeking the recognition due 
 his labors and achievements. He published an elaborate map of 
 the head-waters of the Mississippi, showing the location of Lake 
 Glazier. This he sent to Judge Daly, the distinguished and ver- 
 satile President of the American Geographical Society ; and a 
 
 * " Sword and Pen," pp. 497, 498. Like Dr. Copes, Judge Todd seems to 
 have taken Captain Glazier at his own estimate, and to have accepted his story 
 of his exploits and discoveries without a grain of allowance. The following 
 pleasing souvenir is reproduced by the author of " Sword and Pen," as show- 
 ing an " especial appreciation of the captain's endeavor to increase the geo- 
 graphical lore of the Mississippi River: " 
 
 "To Captain Willaed Glazier — Greeting: 
 
 " With triple wreaths doth fame thine head now crown; 
 The patriot soldier's, in fierce battles won; 
 The ' Pen's ' than the ' Sword's ' mankind's greater boon ; 
 The bold Explorer's finding where was born 
 The Rivers' King, till now, like Nile's, unknown. 
 May years of high emprise increase thy fame. 
 And with thy death arise a deathless name. 
 
 "Albert Todd, 
 "Vice-President Missouri Tlistorical Society. 
 "St. Louir, Jan. 14, 1882." 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 13 
 
 copy of the map, with Captain Glazier's letter, was transmitted 
 by Judge Daly to the " New York Herald " in June, 1884, and 
 thus given to the world with the stamp of approval of the great- 
 est geographical authority in America. 
 
 In 1884 he contributed to the pages of the " American Me- 
 teorological Journal " an elaborate account of the " Recent Dis- 
 covery of the True Source o£ the Mississippi River," illustrated 
 with maj^s and engravings, and this had wide circulation, with 
 the apparent approval of a scientific journal edited by a distin- 
 guished member of the faculty of the University of Michigan. 
 The same year appeared a book of over five hundred pages, to 
 which reference has been made above— " Sword and Pen ; or, 
 "Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier (the Soldier- 
 Author), in War and Literature. By John Algernon Owens." 
 This book devotes its last nine chapters to the crowning work 
 of Captain Glazier's life, the discovery of the source of the Mis- 
 sissippi River, holding him up to the youth of America as " an 
 example which all men would do well to reflect upon and 
 imitate." 
 
 Finally, having exhausted one continent, he sought other 
 worlds to conquer, and sent his map, with a modest communi- 
 cation, to the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society of 
 England. The map and the captain's letter* were duly pub- 
 
 *The following is a copy of Captain Glazier's letter to the Royal Geo- 
 graphical Society, as published in the society's "Monthly Record" for Janu- 
 ary, 1885. 
 
 "DISCOVERY OF THE TRUE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 BY CAPTAIN WILLARD GLAZIER (U. S,). 
 
 "The true source of the Mississippi has been a vexed question among 
 American geographers for some time, the country around its head waters 
 being in a very wild condition, inhabited only by Indians, and access to it 
 difficult of accomplishment. In June, 1881, I organized and led an expedi- 
 tion with the object of settling forever the question of the source of our great 
 river. We proceeded via Leech Lake to Lake Itasca, and, accompanied by 
 an old Indian guide, pushed forward to the South, and were rewarded by the 
 discovery of another lake of considerable size, which proves to be, without the 
 shadow of a doubt, the true source of the Mississippi, in lat. 47' 13' 25 ". 
 From notes taken during the ascent, it cannot be less than three feet above 
 Lake Itasca — the hitherto supposed source of the river. The Mississippi may, 
 therefore, be said to originate in an altitude 1,578 feet above the Atlantic 
 Ocean. Its length, taking former data as the basis, may be placed at 3,184 
 miles. 
 
14 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND BIS LAKE. 
 
 lished in the " Monthly Record of Geography," issued under the 
 authority of the Council of the Society, January, 1885, and, later, 
 the thanks of the society were conveyed to Captain Glazier by 
 order of the council, in an autograph letter from the secretary 
 of that august body. 
 
 During the past year a friend of the captain, fortified by 
 numerous scrap-books containing the record of the above in- 
 dorsements and publications, has been industriously visiting 
 publishers of geographical text-books and reference atlases, to 
 secure at their hands the insertion of Lake Glazier on their 
 maps, and a statement in the text to the effect that it is the 
 head and source of the Mississippi. How generally this effort 
 has been successful the forthcoming editions of such works will 
 show. In a number of cases the change has abeady been made. 
 A recent letter from this gentleman says : 
 
 "In answer to your question, I may state that Captain Glazier's claim to 
 the discovery of the true source of the Mississippi is acknowledged by nearly 
 eveiy leading geographer in the country; there are now but very few excep- 
 tions. 
 
 " I have in my possession hundreds of clippings from almost every paper 
 published on the banks of the Mississippi ; from Aitken and Brainerd, in the 
 extreme north, to New Orleans, in the south. The St. Louis papers had many 
 articles on the subject, and all recognized the /ctcf of the discovery, and com- 
 mented on the enterprise of the discoverer." 
 
 THE FACTS IN THE CASK 
 
 Now, with this record already made up, it may be rash in me 
 to dispute the validity of Captain Glazier's claim, lie has filed 
 a general caveat^ and it has been very commonly conceded to 
 make good his case. The letters-patent of greatness have already 
 been issued to him, apparently from the highest authorities. 
 
 " The origin of the river in the remote and unfrequented region of country 
 between Loeoh Lake and Hed River, not less than an entire degree of latitude 
 south of Turtle Lake, which was for many years regarded as the source, throws 
 both forks of the stream out of the usual route of the fur trade, and furnishes, 
 perhaps, the best reason why its head has remained so long enveloped in ob- 
 scurity. 
 
 " I take the liberty of inclosing herewith a map showing my route and the 
 true source of the Mississippi. 
 
 "To THE Secretary, Royal Geographical Society. 
 "Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Juiie 17, 18&1." 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 15 
 
 However, to begin witli, it may bo well to state a few facts, 
 most of wliicli will be news to Captain Glazier: 
 
 First — " Lake Glazier " is in reality Elk Lake, as laid down 
 on the map of the United States General Land Office.* 
 
 Elk Lake lies mainly in Section 22 of Township No. 143 
 North, Range 36 West of the 5th Principal Meridian, the same 
 being in the State of Minnesota. The lake lies south of the 
 south-west arm of Lake Itasca, with which it is connected by a 
 small stream about 400 feet long. An eighth of a mile to the 
 west of this stream the distance between the marshy borders of 
 Lake Itasca and Elk Lake is scarcely more than 100 feet. 
 
 Elk Lake is 1^ miles long, | of a mile wide, and its circum- 
 
 * Regarding the identity of " Lake Glazier" and Elk Lake it is needless to 
 argue. A comparison of the maps of Glazier and the Land Office Surveyors 
 (see next page) will satisfy any one on this point. Glazier's description fits 
 Elk Lake and no other in that whole region. The following description of the 
 lake, by a member of Captain 
 
 Glazier's own party, Mr. Bart- 
 lett Channing Paine, in a let- 
 ter to the St. Paul " Pioneer- 
 Press," dated August 8, l^^Sl, 
 applies to Elk Lake, and to 
 that alone : 
 
 " We started for the upper 
 end of the lake (ItascaJ early 
 nest morning, finding, when 
 we reached it that it terminated 
 in bulrushes and what seemed 
 to be a swamp. Our guide, 
 however, took us through the 
 rushes, and we found that a 
 small but swift stream entered 
 here, up which with difficulty 
 we pushed our canoes. T/iis 
 stream u about Jialf a mile 
 long, and flows from one of 
 the prettiest lakes we have seen 
 on our trip. The shores are 
 Iiigh rather than marshy, and 
 covered with verdure; and the 
 lake, which is nearly round, 
 its regularity being broken by 
 but one point, has a greatest diameter of a mile and a half, or perhaps two 
 miles. Into this lake flow three small streams, which rise in marshy ground 
 Irom a mile to three miles from the lake." 
 
EANGE No. 36, WEST, 5th MERIDIAN. 
 
 MAP OF LAKE ITASCA AND ELK LAKE, 
 
 AND "VICIlSriTY. 
 
 Reduced from fac-slmllo tmclncs of maps of the survpvs made in Octotjcr, IWS, nnd depoidted In the 
 General Land Olllco at Washinstou, FL-bruary, 1876. Edwin S. HAii ajjd Assistants, Suuvbyors. 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 17 
 
 fcrencG, as meandered by the government surveyors, is j\ist 240 
 chains, or 3 miles. 
 
 Second. — Elk Lake was surveyed and definitely outlined by 
 Surveyor Edwin S. Hall and his assistants, who spent two weeks 
 in the survey of the township (36 square miles), from October 
 11 to October 25, 1875. 
 
 At foar points, where the margin of the lake is intersected by 
 the boundary-line of Section 22, Mr. Hall placed posts, numbered 
 in their order 26, 27, 28, and 29 ; and these posts had been standing 
 several years when Captain Glazier " discovered '" the lake in 1881. 
 
 The map of the township was completed and certified as cor- 
 rect, February 3, 1876, by Surveyor-General J. H. Baker, of the 
 St. Paul Land Office. It was by him transmitted to the General 
 Land Office at Washington, where it was received February 19, 
 1876. Finally, it was officially verified and posted May 3, 1876, 
 since which date it has been accessible as public property to any 
 citizen of the United States who chose to ask for it. If Cap- 
 tain Glazier had sent three dollars to the Commissioner of the 
 General Land Office he would have received a fac-simile tracing 
 of this map, certified to be correct; and thus he might have 
 discovered "Lake Glazier," and saved $9,997 of the $10,000 
 which his friends say he expended on this expedition, for the 
 love of science and the glory of Captain Willard Glazier. 
 
 Third. — " The first white man who is known to have visited 
 Lake Itasca was Wm. Morrison," an explorer and Indian trader, 
 in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, and afterward of 
 Lord Selkirk, who ascended the main stream of the Mississippi 
 and spent the winter of 1803-180-1 in the vicinity of Lake Itasca, 
 then called Elk Lake.* 
 
 * "Minnesota Geol. Survey — Final Report," vol. i., p. 26. The title of 
 Morrison is based on letters from himself and his brother, Allan Morrison, first 
 published in 1856. See " Minnesota Historical Collections," vol. i., p. 417, etc. 
 The statements of the brothers Morrison have generally been received without 
 question by scientists and geographers in Minnesota ; and in his letter Allan 
 Morrison expresses surprise that any one should be ignorant of the title of his 
 brother to the discovery of Itasca prior to Schoolcraft. It is a curious fact, 
 however, that Allan Morrison acted as guide for Charles Lanman for a number 
 of weeks in 1846, during which time they visited Itasca Lake ; and that Lan- 
 man, in his published account of the trip, nowhere mentions Wm. Morrison, or 
 intimates that he was ever at the source of the Mississippi, but definitely 
 ascribes the discovery to Schoolcraft in 1833. See Lanman's " Adventures in 
 the Wilderness," vol. i., pages 48, 75, etc. I venture the opinion that Morrison 
 3 
 
18 
 
 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 LAKE ITASCA 
 
 From sketch of Lieut. Allen, topographer of School- 
 craft's Expedition of 1882. 
 B— A, the route of the Expedition through the Lake. 
 C, Schoolcraft's Island. 
 
 Scale: about 1 mile to aa Inch. 
 
 Fourth. — Itasca Lake was visited in 1832 by Henry Rowe 
 Schoolcraft and his party. They entered the lake at the head 
 of the south-eastern arm, the afternoon of July 12, 1832, and left 
 it early the next day by its outlet (the Mississippi River), at the 
 extremity of the northern arm. They did not explore at all the 
 south-western arm,* and so did not go near Elk Lake. But 
 
 first, identified his Elk Lake of 1804 with Schooleraft's Itasca wlien he read 
 Schoolcraft's " Summaiy Narrative'" (IS-lo) ; and that it is safe to say that if 
 Morrison discovered Lake Itasca, Schoolcraft discovered Morrison. 
 
 * There is no statement to this effect in Schoolcraft's report, but a compari- 
 son of Lieutenant Allen's map with that of the government sur\'eyors must 
 satisfy any one that the drawing of the south-western arm was made from the 
 crude delineations of Indian guides. The south-eastern and northern parts of 
 the lake are in remarkable accord with tlie actual surveys of 1875. The south- 
 western arm is so very inaccurate in Lieutenant Allen's drawing that it is cer- 
 tain, if any of the party visited it, he must have been one of the guides sent 
 merely to see if there was an inlet, and to report on its size, etc. This much, 
 but not more, might be inferred from Schoolcraft's comparison of the volume 
 of water discharged by the lake with that received through its inlet. See 
 "Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, p. 58. 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND BIS LAKE. 
 
 19 
 
 47°30' 
 
 LAKE ITASCA 
 
 AND VICINITY. 
 From Nicollet's Map, now deposited \h thb 
 Genebal Land Office^ Washington, D. C. 
 Scale: 1?0 miles to an inch. 
 
 Lieutenant Allen, the topographer of the party, drew a map of 
 Itasca Lake from his own observations and the reports of the 
 Indian guides ; and this map shows a south-western arm much 
 shorter than the reality, but ending in a nearly circular extension, 
 connected with the main lake by a narrow channel. 
 
 Fijih. — Mr. Jean N. Nicollet, a distinguished French scholar 
 and explorer, in July, 1836, spent three days exploring the 
 country to the south of the south-western arm of Lake Itasca. 
 His map of the Upper Mississippi country, now deposited in 
 the General Land Office, a copy of which was published by the 
 government with his report, is on a very small scale, and does 
 not show any lake corresponding to Elk Lake ; but, fortunately, 
 among Nicollet's notes and papers in the office of the Chief of 
 Engineers of the United States Army, at Washington, there has 
 been found a naap of the sources of the Mississippi and Red 
 River of the North, and this map is on a much larger scale, 
 clearly showing Elk Lake in the very location where the gov- 
 
LAKE ITASC V 
 
 AND VICINITY 
 
 rnfn"i\ e 1 fro ii a fac slnule tracing of Nicollet 
 Map (IS36 "") no-n depositf I In the Office 
 Chltf of Engineers USA. Washington D C 
 
 95/' ' \ ■>> 
 
 CUiicxiajLaUV ijj^m 
 of the Pe7mdjil.\ ^ ''>'>' j 
 
 Scale same as original map 
 
 r4'!530, 
 
 
 
 ^^ ,^ Sources of-^orth-^^ 
 
 
 ^. / \^":i'c:=^^:'^i^-.-2 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 21 
 
 ernraent surveyors and Captain Glazier found it. There is no 
 mistaking its identity. It is there, even to the three feeders 
 which Captain Glazier found.* It is evident, however, that 
 Nicollet regarded the lake as of minor importance, not giving it 
 any separate name, but rather considering it an extension of the 
 larger lake, Itasca. 
 
 Sixth. — In June, 1872, Mr. Julius Chambers, a staff corre- 
 spondent of the " New York Herald," visited Lake Itasca and 
 explored that lake and its borders. On June 10 he ascended 
 one of the feeders of the south-western arm of tbe lake. After 
 going a distance which he estimated at about a third of a mile he 
 came to a small lake, a quarter of a mile in width, and, including 
 a floating bog at its southern end, probably a mile or more in 
 length. The land separating this lake from Lake Itasca he found 
 to be a low tamarack swamp. If the map of the government 
 surveyors is correct, this lake found by Mr. Chambers is no 
 other tban Elk Lake. His sketchf of the two lakes is certainly 
 inaccurate in detail, but I think it will satisfy any one that he 
 found the original of " Lake Glazier ; " and it is just wbat it 
 professes to be, the rough note-book drawing of a canoeist, made 
 from memory after a day's hard paddling and tramping, when a 
 hard way seemed a long way, and an easy pull measured a short 
 distance. 
 
 Seventh. — In the year 1880 Mr. O. E. Garrison, of St. Cloud, 
 Minn., visited the sources of the Mississippi, under joint instruc- 
 tions from the Superintendent of the Tenth Census of the United 
 States and the Director of the Geological Survey of Minnesota. 
 He proceeded from the south across the height of land, a route 
 different from that of either Morrison, Schoolcraft, Nicollet, or 
 Chambers. July 29 he encamped on the stream described by 
 Nicollet as the real upper course of the Mississippi ; July 30 he 
 encamped on the south-western shore of Elk Lake ; July 31 he 
 sailed through Elk Lake and into Lake Itasca, and on that night 
 
 * A fac-simile engraving of a part of this larger map of Nicollet's is given 
 herewith. I do not know that it has ever before been i^ublished, or that its 
 existence among Nicollet's papers has been generally known. 
 
 f Some time alter the most of this paper was in type I learned the name 
 and address of the " Herald " correspondent of 1872. Mr. Chambers at once 
 kindly placed his notes at my service, and a copy of his note-book map is here 
 reproduced for the first time. See next page. 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 23 
 
 and the night succeeding he encamped on the west shore of 
 Itasca. In all he spent about two weeks exploring the two 
 townships, Nos. 142 and 143, K, E. 36; and this in July, 1880, 
 a full year before Captain Glazier discovered his lake. 
 
 Eighth. — Mr. C. M. Terry, who made a close personal study 
 of the water systems of Minnesota for the State Geological and 
 Natural History Survey, in a paper on the Hydrology of Minne- 
 sota,"^ writes as follows : 
 
 " The inlets of the lake [Itasca] are on the shorter or south-west arm. 
 There are five of them. They are small streams draining the swamps and 
 springs in the vicinity. Less than a quarter of a mile south of the south- 
 west arm is a little lake called Elk Lake. It has an area of about 200 acres. 
 It is a mile long and half a mile wide. It is a tributary of Itasca Lake, 
 through a small creek which connects them. Elk Lake has two or three 
 small streams flowing in-to it from the south. The principal stream tribu- 
 tary to Itasca Lake, directly, also flows from the south, and is three or four 
 miles in length. It is rather a refinement of exactness to call Elk Lake, as 
 some explorers have, the ultimate source of the Mississippi. Itasca Lake has 
 been in possession of the honor so long that its claim ought not to be dis- 
 puted, and certainly it is sufficiently minute, remote, and sylvan to answer 
 all the requirements of an ideal source." 
 
 So, a 3^ear before Glazier's expedition, Mr. Terry had already 
 found " some explorers *' who sought to dignify Elk Lake at the 
 expense of Itasca. But there is no need of further enumeration 
 of Glazier's predecessors, f 
 
 Ni'iiih. — Elk Lake is the name originally applied to the whole 
 of Lake Itasca. The Indians called it '•'■ OmushkiJs^'^. which is the 
 Chippewa name of the elk." "The Canadian French call this 
 animal la Biclie.^ from Biclie, a hind," and the French-Indian guides 
 in the service of the old fur companies called the lake Lac la 
 Biche.% The name Itasca was coined by Mr. Schoolcraft for the 
 occasion, from the Latin words veriTAS CAput, the true source. 
 
 * " Ninth Annual Report of the Geological and Natural History Survey of 
 Minnesota," 1880, p. 231. 
 
 f Among these predecessors might be named, Charles Lanman in 1846 ; 
 Rev. Mr. Ayer and his son, Lyman Ayer (now residing at Little Falls, Minn.), 
 in 1849 ; Mr. Wm. Bangs, of White Earth, Minn., in 1865 ; Mr. W. E. Neal, 
 of Minneapolis, Minn., in 1880 and again in 1881 ; the Rev. J. B. Gilfillan, of 
 White Earth, Minn., in May, 1881 ; and a number of others, 
 
 J "Schoolcraft's Summary Narrative," Philadelphia, 1855, p. 243. 
 
 § "Schoolcraft's Summary Narrative," Philadelphia, 1855, p. 132. 
 
24 
 
 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND IJIS LAKE. 
 THE NATURE OF THE ITASCAN REGION". 
 
 From the above facts tbe natural inference is that Mr. 
 Schoolcraft, Lieutenant Allen, Mr. Nicollet, and the Indian 
 guides and voyageurs of their day found Elk Lake and Lake 
 
 Itasca to be closely connected bodies of water, and that the 
 minor lake still retains the name of Elk Lake by reason of its 
 having been at one time practically continuous with Lake 
 Itasca. 
 
 Further, all travelers in this region report a large number of 
 lakes and ponds without any visible outlet, and streams and lakes 
 
CAPTAIir GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 25 
 
 that Nicollet reported as existing in 1836, either do not appear on 
 the government maps, or their proportions are much reduced and 
 they have ceased to be connected with each other. After maki ng all 
 necessary allowance for the fact that the Government Land-Office 
 maps do not assume to follow up minor streams, and do not give 
 the outlines or dimensions of lakes which are not intersected by 
 the boundary-lines of sections, it still remains probable that there 
 has been a considerable decrease in the amount of natural water 
 supply during the past fifty years, and a consequent subsidence 
 of the water-level in many of the lakes on the higher slopes of 
 the heights of land in Minnesota. This would naturally affect 
 first the springs and ponds that feed the lakes, and finally the 
 lakes themselves, which form the first reservoirs of the waters of 
 the Mississippi. On the other hand, the growth of any natural 
 obstruction across the outlet of a marshy pond or spring would 
 have the effect of spreading it out into a broad, shallow lakelet. 
 Mr. Garrison, in his report to the State Geologist, speaks of 
 coming upon the beds of dried-up ponds and streams, and also 
 of finding no outlet to lakes that had evidently been formerly 
 drained. The lakes in Sees. 83 and 34, Tp. 143, and in Sees. 
 3 and 4, Tp. 142, which be says were " marked on the old maps 
 as having an outlet to the north and being therefore the ultimate 
 sources of the Mississippi," were carefully explored by him, and 
 no outlet was found in any direction. If these two lakes ever 
 belonged to the Itasca basin, and had a free outlet to the north- 
 ward, they were much smaller than they now appear, while the 
 lake below, on the stream shown in the N. W. quarter of Sec. 
 34, Tp. 143, was correspondingly larger. But this latter pond, 
 when Mr. Garrison saw it, was the head of the " largest feeder 
 to Lake Itasca, worthy to be considered as the utmost source of 
 the Mississippi." * Thus many changes have evidently occurred 
 in this region, and probably some very important ones, within the 
 past fifty years, since Nicollet's explorations in 1836. 
 
 Mr. Chambers did not make any careful observations with 
 reference to this question, but he informs me that there are many 
 
 * " There are several streams entering the lake [Itasca] which have dis- 
 puted the right to be the extreme source. The one adopted by Nicollet 
 and by me in the preceding narrative is the largest feeder of the lake, and 
 should have the name." — 0. E. Garrison, in "Ninth Annual Report of the 
 State Geological Survey of Minnesota," for the year 1880, pp. 219, 230. 
 
26 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 places where a week of rainy weather would change entirely the 
 outline of many of the lakes throughout this region, and that 
 Elk and Itasca lakes may easily have been one continuous body 
 of water years ago. 
 
 This digression simjjly proves that there is in reality an un- 
 solved problem regarding the head-waters of the Mississippi and 
 Lake Itasca. The manifest discrepancies between the accounts 
 and maps of Schoolcraft (Lieut. Allen), Nicollet, and the govern- 
 ment surveyors show this ; but Captain Glazier lost sight of it 
 entirely. Had he been a genuine devotee of science, had he ever 
 made anything like a careful study of the problem he was under- 
 taking to solve, he would have informed himself as to the real 
 state of knowledge on the subject before starting out on his fool's 
 errand to the wilds of Minnesota. 
 
 Captain Glazier's information in regard to Mississippi explo- 
 ration seems to have begun and ended with what he could glean 
 from Schoolcraft's narratives of his various expeditions of fifty 
 years before. How well he studied them and how freely he made 
 use of them I may be able to show farther on in this paper. 
 
 MORE FACTS, 
 
 In passing, it may be well to state two other matters of fact 
 for the information of Captain Glazier, to wit : 
 
 Tenth. — Mr. Chambers made the trip of the entire length of 
 the Mississippi Eiver, from the sources of Elk Lake to the Gulf 
 of Mexico, at the South-west Pass, going as far as Quincy, 111., 
 in his canoe, and the rest of the way by steamer, but every mile 
 of the way by water. 
 
 Eleventh. — (And this will tax Captain Glazier's credulity most 
 of all) Mr. Chambers did not make any stump speech ; did not rate 
 himself a great discoverer ; made no appeal to the Geograpliical 
 Societies of the world; did not call his lake, Lake Clmmbers, 
 but simple Dolly Varden (after the name of his canoe) ; made no 
 addresses ; was greeted by no brass bands ; and did not finally 
 receive the freedom of the city of New Orleans or the honors of 
 its Academy of Sciences ; but his letters are to be found in the 
 " Herald " of June 20, 27, July 2, 6, 9, 13, 22, and 27, 1872, the 
 one in the issue of July 6 being devoted to the exploration of 
 Elk Laka 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND ms LAKE. 27 
 
 JEAN NICOLAS NICOLLET. 
 
 But it is of the first importance to any one pretending to a 
 knowledge of tlie Upper Mississippi, to know something of Mr. J. 
 N, Nicollet, wko devoted the last and best years of his life to the 
 exploration of the hydi'ographic basin of that river. 
 
 Jean Nicolas Nicollet was born at Cluses, France, in July, 
 1786. A favorite pupil of the great Laplace, he early distin- 
 guished himself as an original observer and student. His works, 
 published in France before he came to this country, were of high 
 merit. In 1832 he came to the United States for the purpose, as 
 he tells us, "of making a scientific tour and with the view of con- 
 tributing to the progressive increase of knowledge in the physical 
 geography of North America." His first tour was to the west- 
 ern afliuents of the Mississippi, whose head-waters he explored. 
 Thence he proceeded to the Upper Mississippi, and there de- 
 cided to visit the source of that river. Mr. Nicollet reached Lake 
 Itasca late in August, 1836, and spent three days in thoroughly 
 exploring the country for miles around. His account of this trip 
 is embodied in a report to Colonel J. J. Abert, Chief of the 
 Corps of Topographical Engineers of the Army, made after a 
 second visit to the Upper Mississippi. Mr. Nicollet had re- 
 turned to the East somewhat broken in health, and was resting 
 with friends in Baltimore, when, in April, 1838, he received the 
 invitation from the War Department to conduct an expedition 
 for the fuller survey of the Mississippi Valley. He accordingly 
 returned and spent a part of two years following in the same 
 region. 
 
 In the 2d Session of the 26th Congress, the Senate ordered 
 the map and report of Mr. Nicollet completed and printed. The 
 failing health of the explorer made this work slow and arduous, 
 and it was still incomplete when he died, September 11, 1843. 
 A note appended to his report, bearing d<xte September 13, 1843, 
 says : 
 
 "Thus far Mr. Nicollet had written when death put an end to his labors, 
 and before he had been able to revise his report, which had been returned to 
 him for that purpose, and also to add the astronomical observations upon which 
 his calculations were founded. These observations form parts of his journals, 
 which are to be deposited in the Bureau of the Corps of Topographical En- 
 gineers." 
 
 It is to be regretted that Mr. Nicollet did not live to finish 
 
28 CAPTAIN' OLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 and correct his report, but the report, as he left it, was duly- 
 published as Executive Document No. 237 of the 2d Session, 
 26th Congress, and copies are undoubtedly to be found in many 
 of the public libraries of the country.* 
 
 "With these preliminary observations I now propose to quote 
 from Mr, Nicollet's report such parts as relate to his trip to the 
 source of the Mississippi. I begin these quotations at the point 
 where he decides to leave the Mississippi at Crow Wing Riverf 
 and go across the country to Leech Lake on his way to Itasca. 
 
 AT ELK LAKE IN 1836. 
 
 *' On my arrival at tlie Crow Wing River, I could not but reflect that the 
 Mississippi before me had been thoroughly explored during the expeditions of 
 Major Pike, General Cass, and Mr. Schoolcraft, whose accounts were very gen- 
 erally known to the public. I thought, therefore, that it might be advisable 
 to attempt another route across the country ; so that, leaving the Crow Wing 
 at the distance of three miles from its mouth, I ascended the Gayashk, or Gull 
 River, and the pretty lake having the same name. Thence I proceeded as far 
 as Pine River, taking occasion to visit Kadikomeg, or White Fish Lake ; then, 
 again ascending the east fork of Pine River, I reached the Kwiwisens, or Little 
 Boy River, which I descended through a succession of lakes, and over small 
 rapids, as far as Leech Lake. I spent a week on the borders of this beautiful 
 sheet of water, my tent being most generally pitched on Otter Tail Point. 
 This was the residence of my principal guide, Francis Brunet, a man six feet 
 three inclics high— a giant of great strength, but, at the same time, full of the 
 milk of human kindness, and withal, an excellent natural geographer. . . . 
 
 " Having lessened my equipage, and made arrangements to proceed to the 
 source of the Mississippi, I left Leech Lake in a bark canoe of sufficient size to 
 contain my instruments, some provisions, and three persons besides myself, 
 who were Desire, Francis Brunet, and a respectable Chippewa named Kegwed- 
 
 * " Report intended to Illustrate a Map of the Ilydrographic Basin of the 
 Upper Mississippi River, made by J. N. Nicollet, while in employ under the 
 Bureau of the Corps of Topographical Engineers." Washington: Blair & Rives, 
 Printers. 1843. This report and the accompanying map were also ])ul)lished 
 by order of the House of Representatives, in the 2d Session of the 28th Con- 
 gress, appearing as Executive Document No. 52. As indicating the lack of 
 proof-reading, I notice that in the report Mr. Nicollet's name is always printed 
 /. N. Nicollet. 
 
 f Crow Wing River is but a few miles below Brainerd, where Captain Glazier 
 also left the Mississippi for Leech Lake, and both explorers followed nearly 
 the same trail from Leech Lake to Lake Itasca. However, 1 do not see in this 
 or in Captain Glazier's account anything which would lead me to suppose that 
 he had read Nicollet's report before starting ufion his trip. In fact, the ab- 
 sence of direct appropriation of Nicollet's language leads to the conclusion 
 that Captain Glazier wrote in entire ignorance of his predecessor's work. 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 29 
 
 zissag, who was well acquainted with the country I wished to visit, and which 
 he called his own, as he was in the habit of hunting over it. 
 
 " Leaving Leech Lake, we crossed several small lakes, and reached the one 
 called Kabekonang, the name being derived from kabe, to disembark, and 
 mikan, a path or trail, or, in its full meaning, ' the place where one disembarks 
 to take up the trail or route.' We ascended the river which bears the same 
 name, and, flowing in a narrow and deep valley, is said not to freeze before 
 January, nor, when frozen, to thaw until July. . . . 
 
 "From the sources of Kabekonang (sometimes shortly called Kabekona) 
 we made a portage of five miles, that brought us to the River La Place, which 
 we ascended as far as one mile south of Assawa Lake, where we found a circu- 
 lar camp used four years previously by Mr. Schoolcraft. But here we were 
 assailed by swarms of mosquitoes, that came pouring upon us in torrents; so 
 as, at three different times, to extinguish the lights of my lanterns, whilst I 
 was making my astronomical observations. 
 
 '• The next morning we were up at half-past four, preparing for a portage of 
 about six miles, which was before us, and was to bring us to Itasca Lake, the 
 principal basin on the head- waters of the Mississippi, as well as the projected 
 terminus of my excursion. . . . 
 
 " I shall not dwell further on the description of this portage, the first three 
 miles of which, including a momentary rest afforded by the crossing of a small 
 lake, were attended with so many difiiculties that it took me five hours to 
 achieve that which my men went over in three ; the last three miles being 
 over a succession of ascents and descents, between which were most commonly 
 sloughs. The soil is sandy and gravelly, overspread with erratic blocks ; but 
 there is a great variety of evergreens, and they are larger than in the region 
 previously mentioned. I measured the elevation of the most prominent ridges. 
 The last in the series, being also the highest, is 120 feet above the waters of 
 Lake Itasca. This ridge, with a rapid descent, led us to the borders of the 
 lake, where 1 took a barometrical observation at noon. 
 
 "My next move was to pitch my tent on Schoolcraft's Island. The staff, 
 at the top of which that gentleman informed us he had raised the American 
 flag, had been cut down by the Indians. I made use of what remained of it to 
 fix upon it my artificial horizon, and immediately proceeded to make astronom- 
 ical observations, and take up the exploration of the sources of the Mississippi. 
 
 " The Mississippi holds its own from its very origin; for it is not necessary 
 to suppose, as has been done, that Lake Itasca may be supplied with invisible 
 sources, to justify the character of a remarkable stream, which it assumes at 
 its issue from this lake. There are five creeks that fall into it, formed by innu- 
 merable streamlets oozing from the clay-beds at the bases of the hills, that con- 
 sist of an accumulation of sand, gravel, and clay, intermixed with erratic frag- 
 ments ; being a more prominent portion of the erratic deposits previously 
 described, and which here is known by the name of ' Hauteurs des Terres ' — 
 heights of land. . , . 
 
 " The waters supplied by the north flank of these heights of land— still on 
 the south side of Lake Itasca — give origin to the five creeks of which I have 
 spoken above. These are the waters which T consider to be the utmost sources 
 of the Mississippi. . . . 
 
 " Now, of the five creeks that empty into Itasca Lake, one empties into the 
 east bay of the lake ; the four others into the west bay. I visited the whole of 
 
30 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 them ; and among the latter there is one remarkable above the others, inas- 
 much as its course is longer, and its waters more abundant ; so that, in obedi- 
 ence to the geographical rule, ' that the sources of a river are those that 
 are most distant from its mouth,' this creek is truly the infant Mississippi; 
 all others below, its feeders and tributaries. The day on which I explored this 
 principal creek (August 29, 1836), I judged that, at its entrance into Itasca 
 Lake, its bed was from fifteen to twenty feet wide, and the depth of water from 
 two to three feet. We stemmed its pretty brisk current during ten or twenty 
 minutes ; but the obstructions occasioned by the fall of trees compelled us to 
 abandon the canoe and to seek its springs on foot, along the hills. After a 
 walk of three miles, during which we took care not to lose sight oC the Missis- 
 sippi, my guides informed me that it was better to descend into the trough of 
 the valley ; when, accordingly, we found numberless streamlets oozing from 
 the bases of the hills. . . . 
 
 " As a further description of these head-waters, I may add that they unite 
 at a small distance from the hills whence they originate, and form a small lake, 
 from whence the Mississippi flows with a breadth of a foot and a half, and a 
 depth of one foot. At no great distance, however, tliis rivulet, uniting itself 
 with other streamlets coming from other directions, supplies a second minor 
 lake. . . . 
 
 "From this lake issues a rivulet, necessarily of increased importance — a 
 cradled Hercules, giving promise of tlie strength of his maturity ; for its ve- 
 locity has increased ; it transports the smaller branches of trees ; it begins to 
 form sand-bars; its bends are more decided, until it subsides again into the 
 basin of a third lake somewhat larger than the two preceding. Having here 
 acquired new vigor, and tried its consequence upon an additional length of two 
 or three miles, it finally empties into Itasca Lake, which is the jirincipal reser- 
 voir' of all the sources to which it owes all its subsequent majesty. . . , 
 
 " The honor of having first explored the sources of the Mississippi, and in- 
 troduced a knowledge of them into pliysical geography, belongs to ]\lr. School- 
 craft and Lieutenant Allen. I come only after these gentlemen ; but I may 
 be j)ermitted to claim some merit for having completed what was wanting for 
 a full geographical account of these sources. Moreover, I am, I believe, the 
 first traveler, who has carried with him astronomical instruments, and put 
 them to profitable account along tlie whole course of the Mississippi, from its 
 mouth to its sources. . . . 
 
 " After having devoted three days to an exploration of the sources of the 
 Mississippi, and spent portions of the night in making astronomical observa- 
 tions, I took leave of Itasca Lake, to tiie examination of which the expedition 
 that preceded me by four years had devoted but a short time." 
 
 SCHOOLCRAFT AND NICOLLET. 
 
 Sucli is the simple, modest account of a true scientist, a 
 genuine explorer. How refreshing it reads after tlie noisy self- 
 advertising of the modern charlatan ! Cci^tainl j this expedition 
 of Nicollet's should not have been unknown to a man who had 
 been studying the problem of the Mississippi for years, and was 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 31 
 
 willing to give liis life to the solution of its mystery. Bnt Cap- 
 tain Glazier seems never to have read anything more recent than 
 Mr. Schoolcraft's narrative of the expedition of 1832, for he re- 
 gards him as the last of his predecessors at Lake Itasca. Here 
 is the way he commiserates Schoolcraft on his failure. I quote 
 from " Sword and Pen," pages 472, 473 : 
 
 " Much astonishment was expressed by those of the party who were aware 
 of Schoolcraft" s expedition of 1832, that he shoukl have missed finding this 
 lake, so closely connected with Itasca, and various were the surmises as to the 
 cause of this remarkable oversight. ... By far the most probable theory, 
 however, was advanced by Captain Glazier, who stated, quoting School- 
 craft himself as authority, that when he reached Itasca he was too much 
 hurried to make a thorough exploration. He had an engagement to meet 
 some Indians in council at the mouth of the Crow Wing River, fully seven 
 days' journey from this point, and he did not have more than seven days to do 
 it in, . . . He never saw the beautiful lake to the south of Itasca, fed by 
 the springs and streams of the marshes which gave birth to the infant Missis- 
 sippi. 
 
 "Therefore he could not know that Itasca was but an expansion of the 
 stream, like other lakes, in its onward course, a sudden growth, as it were, which 
 gave promise of the vast proportions the mighty giant would hereafter assume. 
 There would be something almost sad in his coming so near and yet missing 
 the mark at which he had aimed, if it were not that he lived and died in the 
 belief that he was right in the assertion that the Father of Waters rose in the 
 lake which he, oddly enough, named Itasca." 
 
 Not too fast, Captain Glazier. Mr. Schoolcraft was not a 
 mere superficial adventurer ; and he lived down to the year of 
 grace 1864, So it is safe to say he knew all about Mr. Nicollet 
 and the remoter sources of the Mississippi, far more, indeed, than 
 did Captain Glazier, even after his wonderful exploring expedi- 
 tion. This would go without proof, but the proof is easily to be 
 had. If Captain Glazier will refer to Mr. Schoolcraft's " Summary 
 Narrative " of his two expeditions to the head- waters of the Mis- 
 sissippi,"''* he will find evidence of this in abundance. He will find 
 reference to Mr, Nicollet in the text and in foot-notes on pages 
 viii,, ix., 128, 133, 139, 142, 154, 244, 267, and 328. Further- 
 more, on pages 582-586, Mr. Schoolcraft gives in full the Table 
 of Geographical Positions on the Mississippi River^ observed in 1836, 
 by J. K Nicollet. The last item in this table gives the distance 
 
 * " Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Source of the 
 Mississippi River, in 1820 : Revised and Completed by the Discovery of its Ori- 
 gin in Itasca Lake, in 18:]2." By Henry R. Schoolcraft. Philadelphia: Lip- 
 pincott, Grambo & Co. 1855. 
 
32 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND BIS LAKE. 
 
 from Sclioolcraft's Island, in Itasca Lake, to tlie " utmost sources 
 of the Mississippi^ at the summit of tlie Hauteurs de Terre, or 
 dividing-ridge between the Mississippi and the Red River of the 
 North," as six miles, and the elevation of these sources as live 
 feet above Lake Itasca. Mr. Schoolcraft's reference to Mr. Nic- 
 ollet shows tlie most unquestioning confidence in the correct- 
 ness and value of his discoveries. There was no thought of 
 jealousy or depreciation; just as on the part of Mr. Nicollet 
 there was no thought of claiming anj credit above Mr. School- 
 craft and Lieutenant Allen. He was willing " to^iome after these 
 gentlemen," and to be " permitted to claim some merit for 
 having completed what was wanting for a full geographical 
 account of these sources." 
 
 And this is exactly the relation between the explorer of 1832 
 and the one of 1836. The latter simply completed what was 
 wanting of the work of Schoolcraft and his able assistant and 
 topographer. Lieutenant Allen. They had not explored the re- 
 motest springs and ponds that fed Lake Itasca, but there is no 
 doubt of their having a fairly accurate understanding of the loca- 
 tion of these remoter sources of the river, from the reports of their 
 Indian guides. For proof of this I refer to the map of Lake 
 Itasca,* drawn by Lieutenant Allen, in part evidently from data 
 furnished by the Indians, which shows a southern feeder running 
 through a chain of small ponds. The stream appears shorter 
 and the ponds smaller than Mr. Nicollet afterward found them 
 to be, but the map proves that Schoolcraft was not such an 
 extreme object of commiseration as Captain Glazier would have 
 us think. 
 
 GUYOT AND NICOLLET. 
 
 Nor had the world entirely forgotten the facts in regard to 
 this matter even before Captain Glazier made his " great dis- 
 covery." The following passage, from Guyot's f "Introduction 
 
 *See " Schoolcraft's Summary Xarrative," 185"), p. 243. 
 
 f There is especial satisfaction in coupling the names of Nicollet and Guyot 
 in this connection. Nicollet was among the first of that considerable number 
 of distinguished foreigners, not Englishmen, who in the maturity of their 
 powers have come to this country, and devoted their lives and fortunes to the 
 prosecution of scientific studies in the broad field furnished by the New World. 
 Humboldt had, perhaps, given the grand impulse in this direction, though he 
 returned to Europe at the end of his researches, and his especial field was 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AXD HIS LAKE. 
 
 33 
 
 rapushktva L. 
 
 LAKE ITASCA 
 
 AND VICINITY. 
 From Stieler's Hand Atlas. 
 
 Scale; -'0 miles to an inch. 
 
 to Geograpliy," pages 12 and 13, was written in 1866, twenty 
 years ago : 
 
 "We find, away in a forest of pine- woods, almost to tlie north border of 
 our country, a great number of little springs. The hills from which these 
 springs flow are not high, steep, and rocky, lilce those we found among the 
 Appalachian Mountains, but they are low and rounded, and made of sand and 
 clay. The little streams flow from the springs in these hills into a hollow, 
 where they make a very small pond or lalce. This little pond is the place 
 where the great Ilississippi begins its journey to the ocean. It is therefore 
 called the source of the Mississippi. From this, the cradle of the Mississippi, 
 flows a little brook so small you could easily leap across it, and not deep 
 enough to prevent your wading through it. 
 
 "After the little brook has gone a distance of six* miles, it finds another 
 
 South America. But Nicollet deserves to stand with Humboldt, Guyot, and 
 Agassiz in the first rank of scholars and investigators. Such men are cer- 
 tainly entitled to all the honors which they have won in the cause of science. 
 
 * This is an error of reckoning- made by Guyot in common with other 
 geographers. Nicollet places the utmost sources of the river about six miles 
 from Schoolcraft's Island, in Lake Itasca, thus making their distance from 
 Itasca Lake three or four miles 
 3 
 
34 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 small, basin-shaped hollow, into which it flows. Four other little streams flow 
 into the same basin, and their waters spread out and fill it, and form a small 
 and beautiful lake. This is called Itasca Lake. It is always considered as the 
 source of the Mississippi, because the little stream that flows into it is so very 
 small that people do not call it the Mississippi." 
 
 PETEEMANN AND NICOLLET. 
 
 As a still further and valuable evidence that the scientific 
 world in general knew of the results of Nicollet's explorations, 
 it is worth while to reproduce (see p. 33), from the highest Ger- 
 man authority a small map of the sources of the Mississippi. It 
 is a copy on an enlarged scale of a section of a map to be found 
 in Dr. Petermann's " Stieler's Hand Atlas," published by Justus 
 Perthes, of the Gotha Institute of Geography. 
 
 GLAZIER AND NICOLLET. 
 
 Captain Glazier himself seems to have had a vague idea of 
 such an explorer as Nicollet, but in every case he places him be- 
 fore Schoolcraft in order of mention, and earlier in point of time. 
 This is the way he speaks of him : 
 
 " Within the last century several expeditions have attempted to find the 
 primal reservoir of the great river ; Beltrami, Nicollet, and Schoolcraft have 
 eac/i tVi. /uru claimed the goal of their explorations. . . . Schoolcraft ^?ia^ 
 ly located a lake which he named Itasca, as the fountain-head, in 18.32, and 
 succeeded in securing for it the recognition of geographers and map-makers." * 
 
 And again the captain shows his ignorance of Nicollet after 
 this fashion : 
 
 "To stand at the source ; to look upon the remotest rills and springs 
 ■which contribute to the birth of the great river of North America ; to write 
 Unis in the volume opened by the renowned De Soto more than three hundred 
 years ago, and in which Marquette, La Salle, Hennepin, Joliet, Beltrami, 
 Nicollet, and Schoolcraft have successively inscribed their names, was quite 
 enough to revive the drooping spirits of the most depressed." f 
 
 All this seems very strange in the man who claims to be the 
 last and not the least of the great line of heroes of Mississippi 
 exploration. But I am not inclined to charge this perversion 
 and suppression of history to anything worse than ignorance. 
 
 * "Am. Meteorological Journal," 1884, p. 176. 
 f " Am. Meteorological Journal," 18S4, p. 322. 
 
CAPTAiy GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 35 
 
 GLAZIER AND CHAMBERS. 
 
 While Captain Glazier should certainly have known very def- 
 initely of Mr. Nicollet's exjDlorations in the region of Lake Itasca 
 before he himseK ventured into that field as an explorer, it is, 
 however, not so surprising that he had not heard of the trip of 
 the " Herald's " canoeist correspondent when he himself started for 
 the North. But for the past two years there has been no excuse 
 for his maintaining the claim that no one had been to Elk Lake 
 before him and his party. If he knew nothing of Nicollet's ex- 
 plorations in 1836 and nothing of Surveyor Hall's work in 1875, 
 he must at least have read, in the very paper that published his 
 letter to Judge Daly, the following editorial reference to his pred- 
 ecessor of 1872 : 
 
 " Unfortunately for him [Captain Glazier], however, this little lake seems 
 to be the very body of water found twelve years ago by a special correspondent 
 sent out by the ' Herald ' to find the Mississippi's head-waters. In our paper of 
 July G, 1872, we published a letter in which our explorer reported that after 
 forcing his canoe through a narrow, tortuous stream entering the south-western 
 extremity of Lake Itasca, he suddenly entered a lake almost circular in out- 
 line, to which he gave the name of Dolly Varden." 
 
 CHAMBERS AT "LAKE GLAZIER" IN 1872. 
 
 Yet, lest he may not have taken the trouble to search the 
 columns of the paper, I will reproduce the following from the 
 letter as it originally appeared : 
 
 " The Dolly Varden was rid of every ounce of extra luggage, all being 
 left with the guide and Indian at the camp near the outlet of Itasca, for the 
 crew was about to start on a voyage in which he might have to carry her on 
 his head. Everything in readiness, a small bag of hard bread and cold bacon 
 and roast duck on board, the crew pushed out alone on the lake for a thorough 
 circumnavigation of the shore. Under paddle the canoe coasted down the 
 eastern side to reach the south-east end of the lake. The soundings to the first 
 landing-place at an average of 300 feet from shore were 19, 15, 8, and 14 feet. 
 Near the southern point a small stream enters the lake, but does not extend 
 further than 1,500 feet back along the ridge between the edge of a meadow and 
 a hill of pines. Here it is a tiny rivulet which trickles down from the rocks. 
 The crew is satisfied that it docs not flow throughout the year, and that it owes 
 even its present size to the recent storms. . . . 
 
 "The crew then returned to the canoe and crossed to Schoolcraft Island, 
 finding twelve feet of water about midway. It was not thought best to make 
 a landing at this point, but the shore was followed on the side toward the 
 mainland. The channel which separates the island is not more than 800 feet 
 
3G CAPTAIF GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 in width at the broadest point. The island boars the same general direction 
 as the lake, its extremities being located north-west and south-east. . , . 
 
 "Crossing to the tamarack forest, which bounds the lake on the southern 
 side, it was found to be quite swampy in places. Although frequent landings 
 ■were made the cruise continued until, at the south-western angle of the lake, a 
 small inlet was seen, from which issued a stream of clear water. It had cut 
 for itself a channel, about four feet in depth and scarcely more in width, 
 through the thick turf, and defied discoloration by its shiny banks. The heart 
 of the crow beat in wild and hopeful expectancy. The Dolly was pushed up 
 through this channel, and after about one-third of a mile of pushing, paddling, 
 and hauling, the stream brought the craft to a small, round lake. 
 
 ' ' The inlet had not been easy of navigation by any means, and growing 
 much shallower after the first 150 feet, several portages had been made by 
 dragging the boat across the sticks and logs in thet amarack swamp. The lake 
 ■was not more than from 1,000 to 1,200 feet in diameter, and apparently about 
 circular in shape. It was quite shallow, with considerable grass in places. 
 The crew crossed to the opposite side, and found it a floating bog, a large lake, 
 in fact, with a sod floating at one side, thus narrowing it down to the circular 
 lakelet which had at first appeared. Beyond this bog, after a long tramp 
 through water to the knees, no other streams or open lakes could be found. 
 The same was found to be true after the lake was completely circumnavigated. 
 
 " Here then is the source of the largest river in the world ; here, in Cass 
 County (now Hubbard County), Minnesota, in a small lake, scarcely one quar- 
 ter of a mile in diameter,* in the midst of a floating bog, are the fountains 
 which give birth to the Mississippi. The greatest depth oC tlie lake was found 
 to be only twelve feet. After bathing in the lake, for a small sandy beach 
 exists near the outlet, the crew christened the little sheet of water Dolly Var- 
 den Lake, and he is resolved to maintain that name against all competitors." 
 
 Eeturning to Lake Itasca, Mr. Chambers started clown tlie 
 Mississippi in his canoe, and after traveling as far as Quincy, 
 Illinois, by that craft, took steamer to St. Louis. Thence, also 
 by steamer, he went to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, 
 which he entered by the South-west Pass, thus traversing the en- 
 tire length of the river from its sources to its discharge into the 
 Gulf some nine years before Captain Glazier performed the same 
 exi)loit. But Mr. Chambers did not consider this achievement 
 anything more than the vacation outing of a fagged journalist, 
 and was probably satisfied if the proceeds of his letters paid the 
 expenses of his trip. 
 
 GLAZIER AS AN EXPLORER. 
 
 I have noted the careful and painstaking way in which Nicol- 
 let pursued his investigations, devoting his days to explorations 
 
 * This is the estimated width of the lake. The length, including the 
 floating bog v/hich Mr. Chambers describes, is about a n>ile. 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AI^D JUS LAKE. 37 
 
 and mucli of his nights to astronomical observations. In con- 
 trast with this it is worth while to call attention to the super- 
 ficial, drowsy way in which our modern explorer did his work. 
 To do him full justice I give in his own words Captain Gla- 
 zier's account of his movements from the time that he sighted 
 Lake Itasca, '' between three and four o'clock in the afternoon " 
 of July 21, until he and his party quit Schoolcraft's Island and 
 started down the river " at three o'clock in the afternoon " of 
 July 22 : * 
 
 " On turning out of a thicket at the foot of the last elevation, between three 
 and four o'clock in the afternoon, our longing eyes rested upon the waters of 
 Lake Itasca. A few moments later we were floating on its placid bosom, and 
 after a pull of between two and three miles reached Schoolcraft's Island. This 
 island derives its name from Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, who discovered Itasca in 
 1832, and located it as the source of the Mississippi. 
 
 " Hitherto the claim of Schoolcraft has been unquestioned, and for half a 
 century Lake Itasca has enjoyed the honor of standing at the head of the 
 Father of Waters. . . . 
 
 " The exhausting portages of July 21st, between the east and west forks of 
 the Mississippi, prepared us for a sleep which even the Minnesota mosquitoes 
 could not disturb, and which was not broken until long after the sun was glint- 
 ing upon us through the trees on the morning of the twenty -second. Although 
 I had cautioned the guides to awaken me at dawn, I found them snoring lustily 
 at six o'clock. 
 
 " As soon as all were astir Che-no-wa-ge-sic and the Lagards prepai'ed break- 
 fast. George struck tents and rolled the blankets, while Paine busied himself 
 with an article for the St. Paul ' Pioneer-Press,' descriptive of our voyage to 
 Lake Itasca. But little ceremony was observed at breakfast, which was served 
 with a due regard to our scant rations, and consisted of a small slice of bacon 
 and a ' flap-jack,' each of very meager dimensions. . . . 
 
 " Fully convinced that the statements of Che-no-wa-ge-sic were entirely trust- 
 worthy, and knowing from past experience that he was perfectly reliable 
 as a guide, we put our canoes info the water at eight o'clocJc, and at once began 
 coasting Itasca for its feeders. We found the outlets of six small streams, two 
 having well-defined mouths, and four filtering into the lake through bogs. 
 
 " The upper end of the south-western arm is heavily margined with rushes 
 and swamp grass, and it was not without considerable difficulty that we forced 
 our way through this barrier into the larger of the two open streams which flow 
 into this end of the lake. 
 
 "Although perfectly familiar with the topography of the country, and 
 entirely confident that he could lead us to the beautiful lake which he had so 
 often described, Che-no-wa-ge-sic was for some moments greatly disturbed by 
 the network of rashes in which we found ourselves temporarily entangled. 
 Leaping from his canoe, he pushed the rushes right and left with his paddle, 
 
 *This description is to be found in the " Am. Met. Journal," 1884, pages 
 262, 322, 324, 325, 327. 
 
38 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 and soon, to our great delight, tlirew up his hands and gave a characteristic 
 ' Chippewa yell,' thereby signifying that he had found the object of his 
 search. Returning, lie seized the bow of my canoe, and pulled it after him 
 through the rushes out into the clear, glistening waters of the infant Missis- 
 sippi, which at the point of entering Itasca is seven feet wide and about one 
 loot deep. 
 
 " Slow and sinuous progress of two hundred yards brought u? to a blockade 
 of logs and shallow water. Determined to float in my canoe upon the surface 
 of the lake towards which we were paddling, I directed the guides to remove 
 the obstructions, and continued to urge the canoes rapidly forward, although 
 opposed by a strong and constantly increasing current. Sometimes we found 
 it necessaiy to lift the canoes over logs, and occasionally to remove diminutive, 
 sand-bars from the bed of the stream with our paddles. As we neared the 
 head of this primal section of the mighty river we could readily touch both 
 shores with our hands at the same time, while the average depth of water in 
 the channel did not exceed five inches. 
 
 '• Every paddle stroke seemed to increase the ardor witli which we were car- 
 ried forward. The desire to see the actual source of a river so celebrated as the 
 Mississippi, whose mouth had been reached by La Salle nearly two centuries 
 before, was doubtless a controlling incentive. What had long been sought at 
 last appeared suddenly. On pulling and pushing our way through a network 
 of rushes similar to the one encountered on leaving Itasca, the cheering sight 
 of a transparent body of water burst upon our view. It was a beautiful lake — 
 the source of the Father of Waters. 
 
 "A few moments later and our little flotilla of three canoes was put in 
 motion, headed for a small promontory which we discerned at the opposite end 
 of the lake. . . . 
 
 " As we neared the headland a deer was seen standing on the shore, and an 
 eagle swept over our heads with food for its young, which we soon discovered 
 were lodged in the top of a tall [)ine. The water-fowl noticed upon the lake 
 were apparently little disturbed by our presence, and seldom left the surface of 
 the water. 
 
 " This lake is about a mile and a half in greatest diameter, and would be 
 nearly an oval in form but for a single promontory which extends its shores 
 into the lake so as to give it in outline the appearance of a heart. Its feeders 
 are three small creeks, two of which enter on the right and left of the head- 
 land, and have their origin in springs at the foot of sand-hilh from two to 
 three miles distant. The third inlet is but little more than a mile in length, 
 has no clearly defined cour.se, and is the outlet of a small lake situated in a 
 marsh to the soulh-westward. These three creeks were named in the order of 
 their discovery. Elk, Excelsior, and Eagle. 
 
 " Having satisfied myself as to its remotest feeders, I called my companions 
 into line at the foot of the promontory which overlooks the lake, and talked 
 for a few moments of the Mississippi and its explorers ; told them I was con- 
 fident that we were looking upon the true source of the great river ; that we 
 Jiad completed a work begun by De Soto in VAX, and corrected a geographical 
 error of half a century's standing. Concluding my remarks, I requested a vol- 
 ley from their firearms for each member of the party, in commemoration of 
 our achievement. When the firing ceased, Paine gave me a surprise by step- 
 ping to the front and proposing ' that the newly discovered lake be named 
 
CAPTAm GLAZIER AXD HIS LAKE. 39 
 
 Lake Gla2ier, in hoiKu- of its discoverer.' The proposition was seconded by 
 Moses Lagard, the interpreter, and carried by acclamation." 
 
 Captain Glazier's biograplier in " Sword and Pen " (pages 
 477, 478) here takes up the narrative: 
 
 "Standing then bj' the source of the mighty river, around which so many 
 beautiful Indian legends cluster, and about which the white man has ever been 
 curious, the captain felt a natural throb of pride that so much of his great 
 undertaking had been successfiUIy achieved, and a hope that the future held 
 further good in store for him. 
 
 " Giving the order for embarkation, the canoes were soon gliding across the 
 water, bound for Lake Itasca. Entering this lake, a short stop was made at 
 Schoolcraft's Island in order to obtain the remainder of their luggage, after 
 which they re-embarked, at three d'doek in the afternoon, and continued the 
 descent of the river." 
 
 Thus it is shown from his own account that Captain Ghazier 
 spent less than twentj'-four hours at Lake Itasca and in its 
 vicinity ; that the first sixteen hours of this brief day he made 
 no attempt at any exploration ; and that the time actually em- 
 ployed in finding the inlet of Lake Itasca, exploring its course 
 to "Lake Glazier," returning to Schoolcraft's Island, and getting 
 ■ready to start down the river for the Gulf of Mexico was only 
 from 8 A.M. till 3 P.M. — seven hours— of the 22d of July, 1881. 
 This, too, included the time occupied with the Captain's stump 
 speech, the flight of the American eagle, and the drawing up of 
 the petition "to the geographical societies" of the universe. 
 Compare this exploit with Nicollet's three days and nights of de- 
 voted scientific research. Contrast the explorer of 1836, waiting 
 seven years, and dying before his report was given to the world, 
 with the adventurer of 1881, drawing up his petition for recog- 
 nition before his actual work of exploration was yet seven hours 
 advanced. 
 
 WHAT GLAZIER EEALLY DISCOVERED. 
 
 But, however effectually Captain Glazier's claim to the dis- 
 covery of the true source of the Mississippi may be disputed, no 
 one will question one other claim that may be made in his behalf. 
 Somewhere, somehow. Captain Glazier has discovered a copy of 
 Mr. Schoolcraft's "Narrative of an Expedition to Lake Itasca 
 
40 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 in 1832."* And, as in the case of liis discovery of "Lake 
 Glazier," he imagined that he was the original and only discov- 
 erer and possessor of that work. Unfortunately for Captain 
 Glazier, there are other copies of that work besides the precious 
 one which he has "discovered." 
 
 Alongside of one of these other copies I desire to place Cap- 
 tain Glazier's account of his " Recent Discovery of the True 
 Source of the Mississippi," as it appears in the "American Mete- 
 orological Journal " for 1884. Such a comparison will throw still 
 further light on his claim to stand at the head of the long line- 
 of heroes of Mississippi exploration, from De Soto to Nicollet. 
 
 Mr. Schoolcraft and Captain Glazier did not follow the same 
 route to Lake Itasca, but, from the junction of the Naiwa with 
 the East Fork of the Mississippi, to Itasca Lake, their route was 
 the same. Captain Glazier visited Leech Lake on his way 
 to Itasca; Mr. Schoolcraft was at Leech Lake on his return 
 from Itasca. 
 
 GLAZIER ON THE INDIAN QUESTION. 
 
 So, following Captain Glazier's order of procedure, we find the 
 captain in 1881 on the spot where Mr. Schoolcraft had been in 
 1832, nearly fifty years before. They both found at this lake the 
 headquarters of the Leech Lake, or Pillager, band of Chippewa 
 Indians. Mr. Schoolcraft visited them at a time when they had 
 but just come, in any real sense, under the care of the govern- 
 ment. Mr. Schoolcraft was their agent, but his official residence 
 was hundreds of miles away, at the eastern end of Lake Superior, 
 and he had been in the region only once before, in 1820 — before, 
 indeed, he was appointed Indian Agent. When Captain Glazier 
 visited Leech Lake, these Indians had been under the care of 
 the government for fifty years. They had schools, saw-mills, 
 grist-mills, wheat-fields, domestic animals ; and though they were 
 by no means the most progressive and civilized of the Chip- 
 pewas, they were certainly not the untutored savages that Cap- 
 tain Glazier would have us imagine them to be. 
 
 But, bearing in mind what even a poor Indian policy can do 
 for a tribe in fifty years, it is very well worth the while to com- 
 
 * Published by IIari)er& Brothers, New York, 1834. 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIEB AND UIS LAKE. 
 
 41 
 
 pare tlie account of Glazier in 1884: with that of Schoolcraft in 
 1834 : 
 
 "Schoolcraft's Narrativo," 18f54, p. 
 77. 
 
 " This band appears to liavo separated 
 themselves from the other Chippewas at 
 an early day and to have taken upon 
 themselves the duty whieli Reuben, 
 Gad, and j\lanasseh assumed when 
 they crossed the Jordan. 
 
 '• They have ' passed armed before 
 their brethren ' in their march west- 
 ward. Their ideographical position is 
 one which imposes upon them the de- 
 fense of this jiortion of the Chippewa 
 frontier. And it is a defense in which 
 they have distinguished themselves as 
 brave and active warriors. Many acts 
 of intrepidity are related of them which 
 woukl be recorded with admiration had 
 white men been the actors. 
 
 "With fewer numbers the Chippewas 
 have not hesitated to fall upon their 
 enemies, and have i-outed them and 
 driven them before them with a valor 
 and resolution wliich in any period 
 of written warfare would have been 
 stamped as heroic. It is not easy on 
 the part of the government to repress 
 the feelings of hostility which have so 
 long existed, and to convince them tliat 
 they have lived into an age when milder 
 maxims furnish the basis of wise ac- 
 tion. Pacific counsels full with little 
 power upon a people situated so re- 
 motely from every good influence, and 
 who cannot perceive in the restless spirit 
 of their enemies any safeguard for the 
 contiimance of a peace, however for- 
 mally it may have been concluded. This 
 fact was adverted to by one of their 
 chiefs, who observed tiiat they were 
 compelled to fight in self-defense. Al- 
 though the Sioux had nuido a solemn 
 peace with them at Tipisagi in 1825, 
 they were attacked by them that very 
 year and had almost yearly since sus- 
 tained insidious or open attacks." 
 
 Glazipr's Acrmmt, "Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, pp. 220, 221. 
 
 " This band seems to have separated 
 from the other Chijjpewas at an early 
 day and to have taken upon themselves 
 the duty of defending this iwrtion of 
 the Chippewa frontier. 
 
 "They 'passed armed before their 
 brethren ' in their march westward. 
 Their geographical position was one 
 which required them to assume great 
 responsibilities, and in the defense of 
 their chosen position they have distin- 
 guished themselves as brave and active 
 warriors. Many acts of intrepidity are 
 related of them which would be recorded 
 with admiration had white men been 
 the actors. 
 
 " With fewer numbers the Chippewas 
 have not hesitated to fall upon their 
 enemies, and have defeated and routed 
 them with a valor and resolution which 
 in any period of written warfare would 
 have been stamped as heroic. It is not 
 easy on the part of the government to 
 repress the feelings of hostility which 
 have so long existed, and to convince 
 them that they have lived into an age 
 when milder maxims furnish the basis 
 of wise action. Pacific counsels fall 
 with little power upon a people situated 
 so remote from every good influence, 
 and who cannot perceive in the restless 
 spirit of their enemies any safeguard 
 for the continuance of a peace, however 
 formally it may have been concluded. 
 The fact was adverted to by one of their 
 chiefs, who observed that they were 
 compelled to fight in self-defense. Al- 
 though the Sioux had made a solemn 
 peace with them at Tipisagi in 1825, 
 they were attacked by them that very 
 year and had almost yearly since sus- 
 tained insidious or open attacks." 
 
 GLAZIER AS A PILLAGER. 
 
 And so Captain Glazier goes on for a page or more, pillaging 
 the work of Mr. Schoolcraft. Can he be so benighted as not to 
 know that fift}^ years have changed all this ; that over twenty 
 years ago the last Sioux was removed from Minnesota, and that 
 half a million settlers and a million acres of wheat farms separate 
 the Pillagers from their old enemies of the plains? 
 
42 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND UIS LAKE. 
 
 Yet Captain Glazier's eulogist in the " Sword and Pen" (pp. 
 448, 449) gives the above extracts from his private diarv " as 
 evidence of a certain power of philosophic reflection and in- 
 ductive reasoning unusual in the mind of one so given to the 
 excitement of an active and enterprising life as was Captain 
 Glazier, who, as soldier, author, and explorer, certainly allowed 
 himself little rest for the quiet abstractions of the student." 
 
 I differ with the eulogist, and submit that the above are 
 very properly termed the "quiet abstractions of a student," and 
 nothing else. 
 
 These "philosophic reflections" of Captain Glazier then pro- 
 ceed to take a survey of the domestic life and manners of the 
 Pillagers and " all our Northern Indians," their nomadic life, 
 " their want of domesticated animals, and ihev' general dependence 
 on wild rice " for subsistence, all of which must read Yerj 
 strangely to those acquainted with the Agency Indians of 
 Minnesota. Then, adverting to their moral condition, these 
 abstractions close as follows : 
 
 "Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, p. 
 80. 
 
 "All that related to a system of dances, 
 sacrifices, and ceremonies, which stood 
 in the place of religion, still occupir 
 
 Glnzrpr\<i Accmmt, "Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, pp. 221, 222. 
 
 "All that related to a system of dances, 
 sacrifices, and ceremonies, which stood 
 in the place of religion still occupies 
 
 that position, presenting a subject j that position, presenting a subject 
 which is dei-nied the peculiar labor of which is claimed to be the peculiar 
 evangelists and teachers. Missionaries [ work of teachers and evangelists. Mis- 
 have been slow to avail themselves of sionaries have been seen to avail thera- 
 this field of labor, and it should not ex- selves of this field of labor, and it should 
 cite surprise that the people themselves j not excite surprise that the Chippewas 
 are, to so great a degree, mentally the j are, to so great a degree, mentally the 
 same in 1 8^52 that they were on the same in 1882 that they were on the ar- 
 arrival of the French on the St. Law- rival of the French in 1532." 
 rence iu 1532." I 
 
 GLAZIER versus MAJOR RUFFE, 
 
 Captain Glazier claims to have gained the above information 
 from Major Euffc, the Indian Agent at Leech Lake. If anything 
 more is needed to show that these philosophic abstractions were 
 at least fifty years behind the times, I would refer to the follow- 
 ing extracts from Major PufTe's report to the Indian Bureau 
 under date of September 4, 1880 : 
 
 " The uniform good conduct of the Indians under my charge, their civility 
 toward each other, their generally correct deportment and freedom from indul- 
 gence in those vices peculiar to savages, and from which many civilized com- 
 munities arc not exempt, their evident desire to imitate wliat is thought best 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 43 
 
 to conduce to their frood and to eschew whatever seemed pernicious and evil, 
 has characterized their social and moral habits, and merits most hearty com- 
 mendation. No offense of a greater magnitude than a minor misdemeanor has 
 been committed by any Indian within my jurisdiction, and even petty brawls 
 or disorderly conduct have been of rare occurrence. 
 
 " An increasing interest has been manifested by the Indians in religious 
 matters, and the efforts of zealous men devoted to their spiritual salvation have 
 been rewarded by many proselytes, apparently sincere. . . . The attend- 
 ance upon divine worship has increased in a gratifying degree, and the idola- 
 trous practices of the savage have now become obsolete .... 
 
 " There are now 3,500 acres under cultivation, producing this year not less 
 than 98,000 bushels of grain and vegetables, cultivated and harvested almost 
 entirely by Indian labor. 
 
 " The flour and saw mills upon this reservation are in good order and con- 
 dition. . . . The mills in the Leech Lake and Red River Reservations 
 are old, and unfit to meet the requirements of the respective localities. . 
 
 " An exposition of the products and industry of the Indians of this reser- 
 vation was held here (at White Earth) last September. . . . I think I may 
 safely say that few local industrial fairs presented a greater variety of domestic 
 products, of superior workmanship and quality or excellence, than did the 
 exposition of these Indians." 
 
 And this is the gentleman whom Captain Glazier credits with 
 the statement that " the Chippewas are to so great a degree 
 mentally the same in 1882 that they were on the arrival of the 
 French in 1532." 
 
 But as early as the year 1836 to 1839 the Chippewas had im- 
 proved far beyond where Captain Glazier would leave them even 
 now. Here is the evidence of Mr. Nicollet : 
 
 " The territory of the Chippewas, the exploration of which I had just fin- 
 ished, as well as that of the Sioux, upon which I was entering, had been for 
 many years tranquil. This is, beyond a doubt, to be attributed to the firmness 
 of the Indian agents, Lieutenant Taliaferro and H. Schoolcraft, in enforcing 
 the Law of 1833, prohibiting the introduction of ardent spirits, in which 
 efforts they were warmly supported by Colonel Davenport, the commander of 
 Fort Snelling, and Messrs. H. Sibley and Abm. Aitkin, agents of the American 
 Fur Company. I found the same condition of things in 1837, 1838, and 1830, 
 when the fort was under the command of Major Plympton ; for during those 
 years I continued to explore the vast region occupied by those two great 
 nations. Then it was I bade a last adieu to the unconstrained liberty of the 
 children of the forest, who, it requires no great foresight to anticipate, will 
 soon have to yield to the restraints of civilization." * 
 
 And Charles Lanman, who visited Leech Lake in 1846, wrote 
 of the Pillagers : f 
 
 * " Nicollet's Report," 1843, p. 66. 
 
 f Lanman's " Adventures in the Wilderness," vol. i., p. 79, 
 
4A 
 
 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 "They are good hunters, and pay more attention to agriculture than any 
 other tribe of the [Chippewa] nation." 
 
 I do not believe anj one will charge Major Ruffe witli hav- 
 ing so far traversed his official reports of the year before as to 
 give Captain Glazier any such information as he credits to him. 
 Major Euffe was not a Pillager. 
 
 LEECH LAKE. 
 
 Both Mr. Schoolcraft and Captain Glazier were at Leech Lake, 
 though fifty years apart, and it is not strange that they saw much 
 the same characteristics of that peculiar body of water. Here is 
 the way it looked to each of them : 
 
 "Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, p. 
 36. 
 
 " Leech Lake is one of the most irreg- 
 ular shaped bodies of water that can be 
 conceived of. It is neither character- 
 istically long, spherical, or broad, but 
 rather a combination of curves, . . . 
 peninsulas, and bays, of which noth- 
 ing short of a map can convey an accu- 
 rate idea." 
 
 Glaziei-^s Account, "Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, p. 219. 
 
 " Leech Lake is one of the most irreg- 
 ularly shaped bodies of water that can 
 be conceived of. It is neither charac- 
 teristically long, circular, nor broad, 
 but rather a combination of curves, 
 peninsulas, and bays, of which nothing 
 short of a map can convey an accurate 
 idea." 
 
 GLAZIER AND FLAT MOUTH. 
 
 At Leech Lake Mr. Schoolcraft accepted the invitation of 
 " Aish Kibug Ekozh, the ruler of the Pillager band," to break- 
 fast with him. Not to be outdone, Captain Glazier likewise ac- 
 cepted the invitation of "Flat Mouth, the present ruler of the 
 Pillagers," to dinner. The accounts, when placed side by side, 
 give us a graphic idea of the progress made in the past fifty 
 years : 
 
 "Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, pp. 
 80, 81. 
 
 " 1 went to his residence at the proper 
 time, accompanied by Mr. Johnson. I 
 found him living in a comfortable log- 
 building of two rooms, well-iioored and 
 roofed, with a couple of small glass win- 
 dows. A mat icas spread upon the cen- 
 ter of the floor, which contained the 
 breakfast. Other mats were spread 
 around it to sit on. We followed ?ns 
 example in sitting down after t/ie East- 
 em manner. 
 
 "There was no other person admitted 
 to the meal but his wife, who sat near 
 
 Glazier's Account, " Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal." 1884, pp. 228, 223. 
 
 " I went to his residence at the ap- 
 pointed liour, accompanied by my 
 brother. 1 found him living in a com- 
 fortable lo^-house of two rooms, well- 
 floored and roofed, with a couple of 
 small glass windows. A jdain board 
 table stood in the center of the front 
 room, upon which the dinner was 
 spread. Fine board benches were 
 placed on each side of the table and at 
 the ends. We followed the example of 
 our host in sitting down. 
 
 "Five other persons, including his 
 wife, were admitted to the meal. The 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HI8 LAKE. 
 
 45 
 
 him, and poured out the tea, but ate or 
 drank nothing herself. Teacups and 
 teaspoons, plates, knives and forks of 
 plain manufacture, were carefully ar- 
 ranged, and the number corresponding 
 exactly with the expected guests. A 
 ■whitc-lish, cut up and broiled in good 
 taste, occupied a dish in the center, from 
 which he helped us. A salt-cellar, in 
 wliich pepper and salt were mixed in 
 unequal proportions, allowed each the 
 privilege of seasoning his fish with both 
 or neither. Our tea was sweetened 
 with the native sugar, and the dish of 
 hard bread seemed to have been pre- 
 cisely wanted to make out the repast." 
 
 wife of Flat Mouth sat near him and 
 poured out the tea, but ate or drank 
 nothing herself. Teacups and teaspoons 
 of plain manufacture were carefully 
 arranged, the number corresponding 
 exactly with the expected guests. A 
 fine mess of bass and white-fish, cut up 
 and boiled in good taste, occupied a 
 dish in the center of tlie table, from 
 which he helped us. A birch bark salt- 
 cellar, in which pepper and salt were 
 mixed in unequal proportion, allowed 
 each the privilege of seasoning his fish 
 with both or either. Our tea was 
 sweetened with the native sugar. A 
 dish of blue-berries picked on the shore 
 of the lake completed the dinner." 
 
 Unfortunately, however, liere again Mr. Nicollet comes in 
 to tlie confusion of Captain Glazier, for in 1836 Mr. Nicollet en- 
 joyed the hospitality of Esh Kebog Ikoj ; and he found the amen- 
 ities of social life on a much more liberal scale than did Mr. 
 Schoolcraft in 1832. Nicollet says : 
 
 " During three successive evenings I went to take tea with Esh Kebog Ikoj, 
 and drank it out of fine china-ware. ... I need scarcely add, that these 
 three long evenings spent with Esh Kebog Ikoj were full of instruction." * 
 
 It is not fair, however, to interrupt Captain Glazier in the 
 midst of this banquet ; and so, with an apology for the unwel- 
 come intrusion of Nicollet, the description proceeds as follows : 
 
 " Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, 
 p. 81. 
 
 "During the repast the room became 
 filled with Indians, apparently the rela- 
 tives and intimate friends of the chief, 
 who seated themselves orderly and si- 
 lently around the room. When we 
 arose, the chief assumed the oratorical 
 attitude, and addressed himself to me. 
 
 "He expressed regret that I had not 
 been able to visit them the year before, 
 w hen I was expected. He hoped I had 
 now come, as I came by surprise, to re- 
 main some days with them." 
 
 Glazier's Account, " Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, p. 223. 
 
 ' ' During the repast the room became 
 filled with Indians, apparently the rela- 
 tives and intimate friends of Flat 
 Mouth, who seated themselves orderly 
 and silently around. When we arose, 
 White Cloud assumed the oratorical 
 attitude, and addressed himself to me. 
 
 " He expressed regret that his white 
 brethren had been so long in ignorance 
 of the source of the Mississippi. . . . 
 He hoped I had come thoroughly pre- 
 pared to explore the country beyond 
 Lake Itasca." 
 
 Equally refreshing and instructive is the following compari- 
 
 * " NicoUet's Report," 1843, p. 62. 
 
46 
 
 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 son of the character of Aisli Kibug Bkozh, in 1832, with that of 
 White Cloud in 1881 : 
 
 " Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, 
 pp. 81, 82. 
 
 "This chief [Aish Kibug Ekozh], 
 brought me a letter some years ago, at 
 St. Mary's, iu wliich he is spoken of as 
 'the most respectable man in the Cliip- 
 pewa country.' And if the term was 
 applied to his mental qualities, and the 
 power of drawing just conclusions from 
 known premises, and the effects which 
 these have had on his standing and in- 
 fluence with liis own band, it is not 
 misapplied. Shrewdness and quickness 
 most of the chiefs possess, but there is 
 more of the character of common sense 
 and practical reflection in Guelle Plat's 
 remarks than, with a very extensive 
 acquaintance, I recollect to have no- 
 ticed in most of the chiefs now living 
 of this tribe. 
 
 " He is both a warrior and a counselor, 
 and these distinctions he holds, not 
 from any hereditary right, 
 but from the force of his own character. 
 I found him ready to converse on the 
 topics of most interest to him, and 
 tlie sentiments he uttered . 
 were such as would occur to a mind 
 which had possessed itself of facts, and 
 was capable of reasoning from them. 
 His manners were grave and dignified, 
 and his oratory such as to render him 
 popular with his tribe," 
 
 Glazier'' s Account, " Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, p. 223. 
 
 ' ' I was much gratified on this occasion 
 by the presence of White Cloud, whom 
 I had frequently been told was the most 
 respectable man in the Cliippewa coun- 
 try, and if the term was applied to his 
 intellectual qualities, and the power of 
 drawing just conclusions from known 
 premises, and the eft'ects which these 
 have had on his standing and influence 
 with his own tribe, it is not mi.'^applied. 
 Shrewdness and quickness of percep- 
 tion most of the chiefs possess, but 
 there is more of the character of com- 
 mon sense and practical reflection in 
 White Cloud's remarks than I remem- 
 ber to have noticed in most of the chiefs 
 of my acquaintance. 
 
 " In his early life he was both a war- 
 rior and a counselor, and these dis- 
 tinctions he held, not from any heredi- 
 tary right, but from the force of his 
 own character. I found him quite 
 ready to converse on the topics which 
 were of most interest to him, and the 
 sentiments he uttered were such as 
 would occur to a mind which liad pos- 
 sessed itself of facts and was capable of 
 reasoning from them. His manners 
 were grave and dignified, and his ora- 
 tory such as to render him popular 
 wherever heard." 
 
 AGAIN ON SCHOOLCRAFT S TRAIL. 
 
 Captain Glazier again strikes the trail of Mr. Schoolcraft just 
 before his arrival at Lake Itasca, and immediately he becomes 
 graphic and scientific in his descriptions. It is where the River 
 Naiwa joins the eastern branch of the Mississippi : 
 
 " Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, 
 p. 52. 
 
 "We found the channel above the 
 Naiwa diminished to a clever brook, 
 more decidedly marshy in the character 
 of its .shores, but not presenting in its 
 
 Slants or trees anything particularly to 
 istinguish it from the lower part of the 
 stream. The water is still and pond- 
 like. It presents some small areas of 
 wild rice. It appear^ to l)e a favorite 
 resort for the duck and teal, who fre- 
 quently rose before us, and were aroused 
 again and again by our i^rogress." 
 
 Glazier's Account, "Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, pp. 2.58, 259. 
 
 We found the new stream more de- 
 cidedly marshy in the character of its 
 shores, but not prescntmg in its plants 
 or trees anything to distinguish it par- 
 ticularly from the Naiwa. The water 
 is still and pondlike. It presents some 
 small areas of wild rice, and appears to 
 be the favorite resort for t he duck and 
 teal, who frequently rose before us, and 
 were aroused again and again by our 
 progress." 
 
CAPTAI2T GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 47 
 
 And now tlicv are botli on tlicir way up the eastern branch 
 of the river, bound for Itasca Lake : 
 
 " Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, 
 p. 53. 
 
 "An hour and a half diligently em- 
 ployed brought us to the foot of Os- 
 sewa Lake. We halted a moment to 
 survey it. It exhibits a broad border 
 of aquatic plants with somewhat black- 
 ish waters. . . . It is the recipient 
 of two brooks, and may be regarded as 
 the source of this fork of the Missis- 
 sippi. We wei'e precisely twenty min- 
 utes in passing through it. We entered 
 one of the brooks, the most southerly in 
 position. It possessed no current, and 
 ■was tilled with broad-leaved plants and 
 a kind of yellow pond-lily. We ap- 
 peared to be involved in a morass where 
 it seemed to be equally impracticable to 
 make the land or proceed far by water. 
 In this we were not mistaken. Oza 
 Windib soon pushed his canoe into the 
 weeds and exclaimed, 'Oma mikumia,^ 
 (' here is a portage"). A man who is called 
 on for the first time to debark in such 
 a place will look about him to discover 
 some dry spot to put his feet upon. No 
 such spot, however, existed here. We 
 stepped into rather warm pond water, 
 with a miry bottom. After wading a 
 hundred yards or more the soil became 
 firm, and we soon began to ascend a 
 slight elevation where the growth par- 
 takes more of the character of a forest. 
 Traces of a path appeared here, and we 
 suddenly entered an opening affording 
 an eligible spot for landing. . . 
 The carbonaceous remains of former 
 fires, the bones of birds, and scattered 
 camp- poles proved it to be a spot which 
 had previously been occupied by the In- 
 dians." 
 
 Glazier's Account, "Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, p. 259. 
 
 " P^our hours of vigorous paddling 
 brought us to the foot of a lake where 
 we halted a few moments to survey. It 
 exhibits a broad border of aquatic 
 plants with somewhat blackish waters. 
 It is the recipient of two brooks, and 
 may be regarded as the source of this 
 fork of the Mississippi. . . . We 
 were twenty minutes in passing through 
 the lake. ... On reaching its 
 southern end we entered one of the 
 brooks. It possessed no perceptible cur- 
 rent, and was filleil with broad-leaved 
 plants, rushes, and swamp grass. We 
 appeared to be involved in a morass 
 where it seemed impracticable to either 
 make the land or proceed further by 
 water. In this we woro not mistaken. 
 Che-no-wa-ge-sic soon pushed his canoe 
 into the rushes and exclaimed, 'Oma mi- 
 kunna ' — ' here is the portage.' A man 
 who is called on for the first time to 
 debark in such a place will cast about 
 for some dry spot to put his feet upon. 
 No such spot, however, existed here. 
 We stepped into rather warm pond 
 water, with a miry bottom. After wad- 
 ing a hundred yards or more the soil 
 became firm and we began to ascend a 
 slight elevation where the growth par- 
 takes more of the character of a forest. 
 Traces of a path appeared here, and we 
 suddenly entered an opening which af- 
 forded an eligible place for landing. 
 Remains of former fires, the bones of 
 birds, and scattered camp- poles proved 
 it to be a spot which had previously 
 been occupied by the Indians." 
 
 MORE ORIGINAL DISCOVERIES. 
 
 Surely, such explorations as these are easy to make in the 
 serene and quiet abstractions of the study. But the audacity of 
 the following is beyond description : 
 
 " Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, 
 p. 53. 
 
 " Having followed out this branch of 
 the Mississippi to its source, it may 
 be observed that its existence as a 
 separate river has hitherto been un- 
 known in our geography. None of the 
 maps indicate the ultimate separation 
 of the Mississippi above Cass Lake into 
 two forks." 
 
 Glazier's Account, " Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, pp. 259. 260. 
 
 " Having followed out this branch of 
 the Mississippi to its source, it may be 
 observed that its existence as a separate 
 river has hitherto been unknown in our 
 geography. None of the maps indicate 
 the ultimate separation of the Missis- 
 sippi above Lake Bcmidji into two 
 forks." 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 49 
 
 If Captain Glazier will examine the volume of " Schoolcraft's 
 Narrative " (edition of 1834), from which be copied the above, he 
 will find, facing the title-page, a map of this whole region, on 
 which is shown the entire course of this eastern fork. Where, 
 indeed, did he get its course for his map if not there, or from 
 some of the numerous map-makers who have copied from School- 
 craft ? He does not pretend to have gone but a short part of its 
 length. And now, as if to more thoroughly deceive his readers 
 and the world. Captain Glazier thus pats the back of the man 
 whose pockets he has just been engaged in rifling : 
 
 " I christened it Schoolcraft River, as a tribute to its discoverer, who, 
 though he failed to reach the goal of his explorations, rendered valuable ser- 
 vice in the department of geography." 
 
 This will not do. However much one may be disposed to 
 honor Henry Kowe Schoolcraft, he will hardly care to do it 
 under the lead of Captain Glazier. Furthermore, as I have be- 
 fore remarked, Mr. Nicollet was on that river fifty years ago ; 
 and he named it after his old and illustrious teacher, Laplace.* 
 
 But Captain Glazier is pushing forward to Lake Itasca : 
 
 "Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, pp. 
 53, 54. 
 
 "The portage from the east to the 
 west branch of the river is estimated to 
 be six miles. Beginning in a marsh, it 
 soon rises into a little elevation of white 
 cedar wood, then plunges into the in- 
 tricacies of a swamp matted with fallen 
 trees, obscured witn moss. From this 
 the path emerges upon dry ground. It 
 soon ascends an elevation of oceanic 
 sand, having bowlders and bearing 
 pines. There is then another descent 
 and another elevation. In short, the 
 traveler now finds himself crossing a 
 series of diluvial sand-ridges which 
 form the height of land between the 
 Mississippi Valley and the Red River. 
 It is, in fine, the table-land between 
 the waters of Hudson's Bay and the 
 Mexican Gulf. It also gives rise to the 
 remotest tributaries of the River St. 
 Louis, which, through Lake Superior 
 and its connecting chain, may be con- 
 sidered as furnishing the head-waters 
 of the St. Lawrence. This table-land 
 is probably the highest in North-western 
 America in this longitude." 
 
 Glazier's Account, "Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, p. 261. 
 
 "The portage from the eastern to the 
 western branch of the Mississippi is six 
 miles. Beginning in a marsh, it soon 
 rises into a little elevation covered with 
 a growth of cedar, white pine, and 
 tamarack, then plunges into a swamp 
 matted with fallen trees, obscured by 
 moss. From the swamp the trail 
 emerges upon dry ground, from whence 
 it soon ascends an elevation of oceanic 
 sand, having bowlders and bearing 
 pines. There is then another descent 
 and another elevation. In short, this 
 portage carried us over a series of di- 
 luvial sand-ridges which form the height 
 of land between the Mississippi and the 
 Red River of the North. 
 
 "These ridges constitute the table- 
 land between the waters of Hudson's Bay 
 and the Gulf of Mexico, and give rise 
 to the remotest tributaries of the River 
 St. Louis, which, through Lake Superior 
 and its connecting chain, may be cun- 
 sidered as furnishing the head-waters 
 of the St. Lawrence. This is unques- 
 tionably the highest land of North 
 America between the AUeghanies and 
 the Rocky Mountains." 
 
 * " Nicollet's Report," 184:^, p. 59. 
 
50 
 
 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 Having thus indulged in a learned geographical diversion, 
 for the benefit of his readers, the explorer again returns to the 
 severer exj^eriences of the trail : 
 
 "Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, p. 
 54. 
 
 "In crossing this highland our In- 
 dian guide, Oza Windib, led the way, 
 carrying one of the canoes as his part 
 of the burden. The others followed, 
 some bearing canoes and others bag- 
 gage. The whole party were in Indian 
 file and marched rapidly a distance, 
 then put down their burden a few mo- 
 ments and again pressed forward. Each 
 of these stops is denominated Opngid- 
 jiivunon, or, a place of putting down 
 the burden by the Indians. Thirteen 
 of these rests are deemed the length of 
 the portage. The path is rather blind, 
 and rcquiics the precision of an Indian 
 eye to detect it. Even the guide was 
 sometimes at a loss and went forward 
 to explore. We passed a small lake, 
 occupying a vale about midway of the 
 portage, in canoes. The route beyond 
 it was more obstructed with underbrush. 
 To avoid this we waded through the 
 margins of a couple of ponds near which 
 we observed old camp-poles, indicating 
 former journeys by the Indians. " 
 
 Glazier'' 8 Account, "Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, p. 261. 
 
 " In crossing this highland my In- 
 dian guide, Che-no-wa-ge-sic, led the 
 way, carrying, as usual, one of the ca- 
 noes as his part of the burden. The oth- 
 ers followed in Indian file, each bearing 
 a canoe or its equivalent in luggage. As 
 soon as all were on the trail we moved 
 rapidly forward, halting occasionally 
 for rest. The Chippewas denominate 
 each of these stops opugUljcinmon, or, a 
 place of putting down the burden. 
 Thirteen of these rests were given by 
 Che-no-wa-ge-sic as the length of the 
 
 Eortage. The trail is often obscured 
 y a dense undergrowth, and requires 
 the precision of an Indian eye to detect 
 it. Even the guide was sometimes dis- 
 concerted and went forward to explore. 
 About midway of the portage we camo 
 to a small lake, into which we quickly 
 put our canoes and pulled for the op- 
 posite shore. The route beyond was 
 more obstructed by underbrush. To 
 avoid this we waded through the mar- 
 gins of a couple of ponds near which 
 we observed old camp-poles, indicating 
 former journeys by the Indians." 
 
 And now Captain Glazier, as if loath to leave this interesting 
 region, regales his scientific readers in the " Meteorological Jour- 
 nal" with learned observations on the meteorology^ zoology, 
 and botany of this portage : 
 
 " Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, p. 
 64. 
 
 "The weather was warm and not fa- 
 vorable to much activity in bird or 
 beast. We saw one or two species of 
 the fiilro and the common pigeon, 
 which extends its migrations over the 
 continent. Tracks of deer were nu- 
 merous, but, traveling without the pre- 
 caution required in hunting, we had 
 no opportunity of seeing this animal 
 on high grounds. . . . Ripe straw- 
 berries were brought to me by the men 
 at one of the resting-places. I oljserved 
 a very diminutive species of raspberry, 
 witli fruit, on the moist grounds. Bot- 
 anists would probably deem the plants 
 few, and destitute of much interest." 
 
 Glazier's Aceovni, " Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal." 1881, i)p. 2G1, 2G2. 
 
 "The weather was mneli warmer than 
 I had anticijiated for this elevated re- 
 gion, and not favorable to much activ- 
 ity in bird or beast. Several flocks of 
 pigeons and other birds common to 
 northern latitudes wei-e frequently ob- 
 served. Tracks of deer were numerous 
 in the marshes skirting the ponds, but, 
 traveling without the precautions re- 
 quired in hunting, we had no oppor- 
 tunity of Slicing this animal in the 
 high "grounds. Ripe strawberries were 
 found on the hillsides, and a very small 
 species of raspberry with fruit was 
 brought to me by Che-no- wa-ge- sic at 
 one of t he resting-places. The students 
 of botany would consider the plants 
 few, and of little consequence." 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND EIS LAKE. 
 
 51 
 
 Thus, treading in tlie very track and footprints of great- 
 ness, Captain Glazier reaches Lake Itasca. On the next day he 
 paddles in his canoe a short distance up one of the feeders of 
 Itasca and discovers " Lake Glazier." This is the way it hap- 
 pened : 
 
 " Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, pp. 
 55, 56. 
 
 '• Every step . . . seemed to in- 
 crease the ardor with which we were 
 carried forward. The desire of reach- 
 ing the actual source of a stream so 
 celebrated as the Mississippi — a stream 
 which La Salle had reached the mouth 
 of a century and a half (lacking a year) 
 before — was perliaps predominant, and 
 we followed our guides down the sides 
 of our last elevation with the expecta- 
 tion of momentarily reaching the goal 
 of our journey. What had been long 
 sought at last appeared suddenly. On 
 turning out of a thicket into a small 
 weedy opening, the cheering sight of a 
 transparent body of water burst on our 
 view. It was Itasca Lake, the source 
 of the Mississippi." 
 
 Glazier's Account, "Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, pp. 324, 335. 
 
 ' ' Every paddle stroke seemed to in- 
 crease the ardor with which we were 
 carried forward. The desire to see the 
 actual source of a river so celebrated as 
 the Mississippi, whose mouth had beea 
 reached by La Salle nearly two centuries 
 before, was doubtless the controlling 
 incentive. . . . What had long 
 been sought at last appeared suddenly. 
 On pulling and pushing our way 
 through a network of rushes similar to 
 the one encountered on leaving Itasca, 
 the cheering sight of a transparent body 
 of water burst upon our view. It was 
 a beautiful lake — the source of the 
 Father of Waters." 
 
 This outburst of enthusiasm lasts but a moment, and the 
 gallant captain again becomes the philosopher and scientist : 
 
 "Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, p. 
 58. 
 
 "The height of this lake (Itasca) 
 above the sea is an object of geographi- 
 cal interest, which, in the absence of 
 actual survey, it nuiy subserve the 
 purposes of useful inquiry to estimate. 
 From notes taken on the ascent it can- 
 not be short of 160 feet above Cass 
 Lake. Adding the estimate of 1,330 
 feet submitted in 1820 as the elevation 
 of that lake, the Mississippi may be 
 considere<l to originate at an altitude 
 of 1,490, say 1,500, feet above tlie At- 
 lantic. Its" length, assuming former 
 data as the basis and computing it 
 through the Itascan or west fork, may 
 be placed at 3,160 miles." 
 
 Glazier's Account, "Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, p. 327. 
 
 "Its (Lake Glazier's^i height above the 
 sea is an object of geographical interest, 
 which, in the absence of actual survey, 
 it may subserve the purposes of useful 
 inquiry to estimate. From notes taken 
 during the ascent it cannot be less than 
 three feet above Lake Itasca. Adding 
 the estimate of 1,575 feet, submitted by 
 Schoolcraft in 1832 as the elevation of 
 that lake, the Mississippi may be said 
 to originate in an altitude of 1,578 feet 
 above the Atlantic Ocean. Its length, 
 taking former data as the basis, and 
 computing through the western fork, 
 may be placed at 3,184 miles." 
 
 And finally Captain Glazier takes leave of his readers of the 
 " Meteorological Journal " with a philosophic piece of reasoning, 
 which he thought to be so fine that he also incorporates it into 
 his letter to the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society. 
 Accounting for the fact that the source of the Mississippi had 
 not before been discovered, he says : 
 
52 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 "Schoolcraft's Narrative," 1834, p. 
 59. 
 
 " Its origin in the remote and unfre- 
 quented area of country between Leech 
 Lake and Red River, probably an en- 
 tire degree of latitude south of Turtle 
 Lake, which still figures on some of our 
 maps as its source, throws both the 
 
 Glazier's Account, " Am. Met. Jour- 
 nal," 1884, p. 327. 
 
 " Its origin in the remote and unfre- 
 quented region of country between 
 Leech Lake and Red River, not less 
 than an entire degree of latitude south 
 of Turtle Lake, which was for many 
 years regarded as the source, throws 
 
 forks of this stream out of the usual | both forks of the stream out of the usual 
 route of the fur trade, and furnishes, route of the fur traders, and furnishes 
 perhaps, the best reason why its actual the best reason, perhaps, why its foun- 
 sourees have so long remained envel- tain-head has remained so long envel- 
 oped in obscurity." I oped in obscurity." 
 
 A FINAL "abstraction." 
 
 Then, as an " addendum " to his story of exploration, the 
 Captain gives a "Summary of meteorological observations at the 
 head-waters of the Mississippi," in which he records the state of 
 the thermometer several times daily, and notes the condition of 
 the sky, the direction and character of winds, etc., from July 17, 
 to August 2, inclusive. It is interesting to compare these obser- 
 vations with those taken by Schoolcraft at Big Sandy Lake, and 
 on the trip down the river from that lake to St. Peter. The orig- 
 inal record is to be found in two tables on pages 2G8 and 314 
 of Schoolcraft's " Narrative of an Expedition to the Sources of 
 the Mississippi in 1820," published in Albany, IST. Y., in 1821 ; 
 and these tables are condensed into one and appear in the form 
 in whicli Glazier appropriates them, on page 423 of Schoolcraft's 
 " Summary Narrative," published in 1855. The tables of School- 
 craft and Glazier are identical in every essential particular. The 
 observations begin and end at the same day and hour. And 
 why does Captain Glazier close his observations at 7 A.M. on the 
 2d of August, 1881? Because, just sixty-one years before, 
 namely, on the 2d day of August, 1820, Mr. Schoolcraft, in at- 
 tempting to take liis usual observation at 2 o'clock P.iL, broke 
 his instrument, and therefore had to suspend his regular record 
 of temperature for that day and for the balance of the journey. 
 Such is the far-reaching influence of a seemingly trivial and 
 unimportant circumstance ! 
 
 The two tables are to be seen together on the following page. 
 
 Such is the case which Captain Glazier makes out against 
 himself. If it throws discredit upon his whole story, and leaves 
 the reader in doubt, whether, indeed, he ever saw Lake Itasca, 
 he has no one save himself to blame. 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 [From " Schoolcraft's Summary Narrative," p. 423.] 
 Observations on the Sources of the Mississippi River. 
 
 53 
 
 
 n 
 
 ^ 
 
 R 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 < 
 
 ■< 
 
 < 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Ph 
 
 Pi 
 
 KEMAKKS. 
 
 
 o 
 
 t> 
 
 00 
 
 " 
 
 CJ 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 
 July 17 
 
 
 
 
 76° 
 
 80° 
 
 79° 
 
 78° 
 
 Morning rainy, then fair. 
 
 " 18 
 
 
 
 51" 
 
 64 
 
 66 
 
 53 
 
 50 
 
 Fair. 
 
 " 19 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 63 
 
 70 
 
 55 
 
 
 Night rainy, morning cloudy, 
 then fair. 
 
 " 20 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 80 
 
 84 
 
 75 
 
 
 
 " 21 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 86 
 
 88 
 
 85 
 
 74 
 
 
 " 22 
 
 
 
 73 
 
 88 
 
 90 
 
 77 
 
 
 Cloudy, some thunder. 
 
 " 23 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 82 
 
 88 
 
 78 
 
 
 Night and morning rain, after- 
 noon thunder. 
 
 " 24 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 87 
 
 80 
 
 78 
 
 
 Fair. 
 
 " 25 
 
 
 
 
 
 85 
 
 74 
 
 
 Fair. 
 
 " 26 
 
 61" 
 
 
 
 
 81 
 
 61 
 
 
 Morning fair, evening cloudy 
 and rain, clear. 
 
 " 27 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 
 80 
 
 75 
 
 
 Morning fair, evening fair. 
 
 " 28 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 
 76 
 
 61 
 
 
 Morning fair,rain in afternoon. 
 
 " 29 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 52 
 
 
 Clear. 
 
 " 30 
 
 
 60° 
 
 
 
 76 
 
 
 63 
 
 Wind N.W., weather clear. 
 
 " 31 
 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 81 
 
 
 69 
 
 Wind W., weather clear. 
 
 Aug. 1 
 
 
 67 
 
 
 
 83 
 
 70 
 
 
 Fair. 
 
 " 2 
 
 
 72 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 Fair. 
 
 * Broke instrument. 
 
 [From Glazier's Account, "Am. Met. Journal," 1884, p. 328.] 
 Meteorological Observations at the Head-waters of the Mississippi. 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 s 
 
 'A 
 
 » 
 
 
 
 ■>) 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 
 fc 
 
 ^ 
 
 Pi 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 
 lO 
 
 I- 
 
 00 
 
 
 <M 
 
 00 
 
 05 
 
 78° 
 
 
 July 17 
 
 
 
 
 76° 
 
 80° 
 
 79° 
 
 Morning rainy, then fair. 
 
 " 18 
 
 
 
 51" 
 
 64 
 
 66 
 
 53 
 
 50 
 
 Fair. 
 
 " 19 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 63 
 
 70 
 
 55 
 
 
 Night rainy, morning cloudy, 
 then fair. 
 
 " 20 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 80 
 
 84 
 
 75 
 
 
 
 " 21 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 86 
 
 88 
 
 85 
 
 74 
 
 
 " 22 
 
 
 
 73 
 
 88 
 
 90 
 
 77 
 
 
 Cloudy, some thunder. 
 
 " 23 
 
 •• 
 
 
 70 
 
 82 
 
 88 
 
 78 
 
 
 Night and morning rain, after- 
 noon thunder. 
 
 " 24 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 87 
 
 80 
 
 78 
 
 
 Fair. 
 
 " 25 
 
 
 
 
 
 85 
 
 74 
 
 
 Fair. 
 
 " 26 
 
 6r 
 
 
 
 
 81 
 
 61 
 
 
 Morning fair, evening cloudy 
 and rain, clear. 
 
 " 27 
 
 63 
 
 
 
 
 80 
 
 75 
 
 
 Morning fair, evening fair. 
 
 " 28 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 
 76 
 
 61 
 
 
 Morning fair, rain in afternoon. 
 
 '« 29 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 52 
 
 
 Clear. 
 
 " 30 
 
 
 60° 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 
 63 
 
 Wind N. W. , weather clear. 
 
 " 31 
 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 81 
 
 
 69 
 
 Wind W., weather clear. 
 
 Aug. 1 
 
 
 67 
 
 
 
 83 
 
 70 
 
 
 Fair. 
 
 " 2 
 
 •• 
 
 72 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fair. 
 
54 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 WHAT GLAZIER MIGHT HAVE DONE. 
 
 There is sufficient reason, however, to believe that Captain 
 Glazier went to Lake Itasca and Elk Lake very much in the waj 
 and by the roate he describes in his papers in the " Meteorological 
 Journal," and certainly the projecting and carrying out of such a 
 trip is, upon its face, highly creditable to any man. But it is 
 not creditable to a professed explorer that he should be so utterly 
 ignorant as was Captain Glazier, of the very simplest facts re- 
 garding the geography of the country he attempts to explore. 
 
 Captain Glazier should have fully informed himself regarding 
 the work of Nicollet. Instead, he seems to have only the very 
 vaguest notion of such a character. 
 
 He should have sought the help of the records in the Laud 
 Department at Washington. He evidently was not aware that 
 there was such a department of the government. 
 
 He should have consulted the Topographical or Engineers' 
 Bureau of the United States Army, where Nicollet's papers and 
 note-books are deposited. Perhaps he did not know there was 
 any such thing as a United States Army left after he resigned 
 his commission. 
 
 At St. Paul he should have availed himself of the resom'ces 
 of the State Geological and Natural History Survey ; then, and 
 for a year or two before, in active study of the very region for 
 which he was bound. 
 
 There, also, he should have consulted the officers, the library, 
 and the valuable collection of papers of the Minnesota State His- 
 torical Society. 
 
 At St. Paul and Minneapolis he would have found a number 
 of intelligent and courteous gentlemen in the Land Department 
 of the Northern Pacific Railroad, who could have given him 
 many hints as to what was known and what was to be discov- 
 ered about the sources of the Mississippi. 
 
 The Register of the United States Land Office at St. Paul 
 would have shown him the official plats of all the surveyed 
 townships in the Itascan region, if he had but asked the privi- 
 lege of consulting them. 
 
 Finally, he might have found the men who spent four weeks 
 in September and October, 1875, making the government survey 
 of the two townships which contain all the feeders of Elk Lake 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 55 
 
 and Lake Itasca ; and they would gladly have aided him with 
 practical suggestions as to what to look for and where to find it. 
 
 All these sources of information are freely and cordially at 
 the service of any intelligent explorer; and Captain Glazier 
 would have gained a much larger opinion of the general intelli- 
 gence of the American people if he had taken pains to find out 
 how much is really known about the head-waters of the Missis- 
 sippi, though his conceit of his own knowledge and importance 
 might have suffered correspondingly. 
 
 And after such intelligent study of the problem, he would 
 have found that there were still questions worthy the labors of a 
 competent and properly equipped explorer. To the solution of 
 these questions he should have addressed himself if he wished 
 to add an3i;hing to the stock of knowledge concerning the great 
 watershed of the height of land, and the drainage basin of Lake 
 Itasca. This much is certain, that to see Elk Lake and Lake 
 Itasca was not enough to compensate for the expense and trouble 
 of going to the head-waters of the Mississippi. 
 
 THE EEAL EXPLORATION OF THE ITASCA BASIN. 
 
 It is impossible to say how many exploring parties of white 
 men had been to both those lakes before Captain Glazier, but 
 there were, probably, a dozen or a score, at the least. They each 
 could tell much of interest regarding that region, but it is safe to 
 say that only two have added anything material to what School- 
 craft told the world in 1832. These two are the Nicollet Expe- 
 dition of 1836, and the Land Department Surveyors of 1875, 
 And we cannot too carefully note the different ways of working 
 of these two explorations. 
 
 Nicollet was a trained scientist, but he worked under limita- 
 tions, and very sensibly, also, with a limited and definite pur- 
 pose. His work was mainly done alone, and his chief instru- 
 ments were the thermometer, the barometer, the sextant, and the 
 compass. Hence he gives us details of temperature, elevation, 
 latitude, longitude, and the general direction of the parts he vis- 
 ited. He rarely used the chain, if, indeed, he carried such a piece 
 of property. His details of distance were either estimated — as in 
 the case of a day's tramp or an object within sight — or figured 
 out by mathematical rules, as when he computed the length of a 
 
56 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 section of the river from the data of tlic latitude, longitude, and 
 direction from each other of a given number of points in its 
 course. Hence his outline of the course of a river or creek, or 
 of the form of a lake or pond, was only as accurate as might be 
 expected from a trained explorer, whose eye was accustomed to 
 take in and measure distance, direction, and form, on a large 
 scale, and under a thousand varying conditions. In the matter 
 of general relief forms, and the general trend and drainage of 
 the country, he was, without doubt, tlie best equipped and most 
 competent single explorer who has undertaken the study of our 
 country ; and his work has been of inestimable value to hun- 
 dreds of thousands who never heard of his name. So far as re- 
 lates to the subdivision of areas, and the surveying and platting 
 of the surface of the land, considered as a horizontal plane, his 
 work did not profess to have any accuracy or value whatever. 
 
 On the other hand, this last is the chief, if not the only, object 
 of the Government Land Surveyors. Their instructions are lim- 
 ited and specific. They take no note whatever of relief forms, they 
 follow up and trace- only the streams and ponds intercepted by 
 the boundary-lines of sections. In the matter of horizontal area, 
 in the meandering of lakes and navigable streams, and in the 
 ■general platting of the land, they are proverbially reliable ; but 
 there is absolutely no account taken of elevation, and the drain- 
 age or trend of the land can only be inferred from the course 
 and direction of the streams encountered in running the section 
 lines. 
 
 Nicollet's exploration was made in 1836, before a surveyor's 
 stake had been set within the limits of Minnesota. The Gov- 
 ernment Surveyors of 1875 perhaps never heard of Nicollet, 
 and certainly had no thought of supplementing or verifying his 
 work. 
 
 WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE. 
 
 In general, therefore, the best sort of work that can be done 
 by the explorer of to-day is to reconcile and adjust these two 
 sets of data to each other. And, as applied to the head-waters of 
 the Mississippi, the main thing to do is to determine and locate 
 the exact water-shed which separates the Itasca basin from the 
 sources of the Red River of the North on the one hand, and from 
 the head-springs of tributaries of the Mississippi on the other. 
 
CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 57 
 
 Having definitely outlined tlie drainage basin to tlie south of 
 Itasca, it is worth while to trace the principal feeders of the 
 lake to their springs, to determine the area drained by each, the 
 volume of their flow, and the rapidity of their currents, to meas- 
 ure the elevation of their extreme sources above the level of Lake 
 Itasca, and to find how far they are perennial, and how much of 
 their course is dry during a portion of the year. Investigation 
 will also show what changes have occurred in the amount of nat- 
 ural water-supply in this region ; what alterations in the levels 
 and dimensions of lakes and ponds have been occasioned by the 
 choking up of their inlets or outlets by natural causes, or by the 
 operation of beavers and other animals ; and whether any of the 
 lakes or marshes are drained at any time by both the Mississippi 
 and the Red River of the North. It will not take long, also, for 
 an intelligent explorer to satisfy himself whether, at any time, 
 Elk Lake and Itasca Lake were a continuous body of water con- 
 nected by a broad channel. 
 
 These are some of the questions to which the future explorer 
 should address himself, and such questions are the only ones 
 whose investigation will justify any one in considering himself 
 an explorer, or his work entitled to the consideration of geog- 
 raphers and geographical societies. It is, at the same time, safe 
 to venture the prediction that the more thorough the investiga- 
 tion of the Itasca basin, the clearer will be the conclusion that 
 Lake Itasca is the first considerable gathering-place of the great 
 flood of waters which goes to make up the Mississippi River ; that 
 Nicollet's rivulet, with its chain of three lakes, is, indeed, its 
 most important feeder and principal tributary, and that it is still 
 entitled to be called, as heretofore, the head and source of that 
 mighty stream — Captain Glazier and his lake to the contrary 
 notwithstanding. 
 
 FINALLY. 
 
 Already the settler is taking up land and felling timber on 
 the shores of Lake Itasca ; and with the clearing of the forests, 
 and the systematic drainage and cultivation of farms, the smaller 
 streams and ponds will dry up and disappear, while other lakes 
 and creeks will cease to have the importance that they may now 
 possess. These changes, however, cannot affect the shape and 
 conformation of the basin of Lake Itasca, or the location of the 
 
58 CAPTAIN GLAZIER AND HIS LAKE. 
 
 water-slied of the heiglits of land. There are certain elements in 
 the region that are permanent, and certain others that are tem- 
 porary and will soon undergo the changes which accompany the 
 settlement and subjection of the wilderness. The Lake Itasca 
 of Schoolcraft and Nicollet, in the main, survives to the present 
 day. A few years more will see many of its features changed 
 past recognition. 
 
 This, then, is an especially fitting time to supplement the 
 work of Nicollet and the Government Surveyors, by a careful 
 examination of the Itascan basin in the light of all pre^dous ex- 
 plorations. If it is worth doing, it should not long be^ delayed ; 
 and that it is well worth doing, the interest of the public already 
 enlisted in this discussion clearly proves. Further, the fact that 
 a mere superficial charlatan has been able to lead astray and be- 
 fog the press and the scientific bodies of almost the entire coun- 
 try. East and West, is no small proof that it is desirable to settle 
 all the questions at issue. 
 
 The publishers of this paper, Messrs. Ivison, Blakeman, Tay- 
 lor & Co., have taken this view of the case ; and, ever since the 
 first issue was raised with Captain Glazier, they have been satis- 
 fied that nothing short of a thorough exploration of the region 
 in question would satisfy them, as educational publishers, or 
 justify them in making any changes in their geographical text- 
 books. They have, therefore, authorized the equipment and 
 dispatch of a competent exploring party to Lake Itasca ; and, 
 while I write this paragraph, the party is already on the ground 
 with adequate force, and fully equip])ed with instruments for the 
 complete survey and delineation of the region which supplies 
 the chief feeders of Lake Itasca. 
 
 The results of this exploration will be thoroughly sifted, and 
 it is reasonable to predict that they will be of such a character 
 as to satisfy every one as to the exact conformation of the re- 
 gion which gives birth to the great Mississippi. Whatever may 
 be learned will be given to the public as soon as it can be put 
 in shape, and it is reasonable to expect that this too much vexed 
 question will thus be finally and conclusively settled. 
 
 Henry D. Haerower. 
 
 753 BiiOADWAY, New York, October 20, 1886. 
 
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 149 Wabash Ave., Chicago. 753 and 755 Buoad-way, New York. 
 
SWINTON'S SIXTH 
 
 OR 
 
 (jlassie gnglisb Reader. 
 
 An Advanced Number in the well-knotvn series of School 
 Mending Books, hy WM, SWINTON. 
 
 DESIGNED FOR THE UPPER GRADES OP GRAMMAR SCHOOLS, AND 
 FOR HIGH SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, AND SEMINARIES. 
 
 Containing representative selections from the writings of ten British and 
 ten American authors, chronologically arranged, with critical sketches of the 
 Life and Works of each, with annotations. 
 
 AUTHORS. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. WEBSTER. WHITTIER. 
 
 MILTON. IRVING. POE. 
 
 ADDISON. BYRON. HOLMES. 
 
 POPE. BRYANT. TENNYSON. 
 
 FRANKLIN. MAOAULAY. THACKERAY 
 
 BURKE. EMERSON. LOWELL. 
 
 SCOTT. LONGFELLOW. 
 
 By its method and scope the Classic English Reader not only provides a 
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 Clotb, ICmo. 608 pages. Sent, postpaid, for examination %vltU a view 
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 Swinton's Mew Readers, 
 
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LOCAL GEOGRAPHY 
 
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 SwiNteN' s Geo graphies. 
 
 For the conrenience of schools, Swinton's Grammar School Qeographt 
 is issued in SIX SEPARATE EDITIONS, each containing a supplement of 
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 thus making each edition complete in about 150 quarto pages, as follows : 
 
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 containing special county and railroad maps and descriptive text of 
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 SWINTON'S GRAMMAR SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY 
 
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A Library Edition, in TWO VOLUMES, of 
 
 FISHER'S OUTLINES 
 
 OF 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY, 
 
 Bjr GEO. PARK FISHER. D.D., LIi.D., 
 
 or YXWl COUJBOB. 
 
 "It was a formidable task that the author undertook, and he has per- 
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 a survey of the entire field of history admirable for its breadth and insight." 
 
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 FRANCI8 BROWN, D.D., Union Theol. 8em. 
 
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 work. . ' Pres. J. B. ANGELL, Unit, of Mich. 
 
 ". .Having no superior, and in some respects it has no equal. ." 
 
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 " . . It seems to me the beet work of its kind . . " -^^ 
 
 Pres. 8. CLARK SEBLTE, Smith Coll. 
 
 • • . . The best work of its kind in the English language . . " 
 
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