Note 166 — {122} CHAPTER VII

Nishnabotna is an Indian word signifying "canoe making river." Fifteen years earlier, Lewis and Clark found the divide between the rivers about three hundred yards wide. At that time the mouth of the Nishnabotna was on the line between Atchison and Holt counties, Missouri. Since then its waters have found their way across Grand Pass, and the old channel below that point has been abandoned. In 1804 the main current of the Missouri ran north of L'Isle Chauve (Bald Island), the middle of which lay opposite Grand Pass. The channel now runs south of this island, while the Nishnabotna, reaching the old channel of the Missouri at the middle of the island, follows it to the confluence of the island's foot. This was the condition in 1879 (see Map of the Missouri River, from the government survey, plates xx and xxi), but the channels are constantly shifting.—Ed.