Note I-16 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: ST. LOUIS TO ST. PAUL, AUGUST 9TH-SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1805.
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About 10 m., from Gregory's ldg. to "the point of a beach" within the present city limits of Keokuk, Lee Co., Ia., immediately above the mouth of Des Moines r., which for some distance separates the States of Missouri and Iowa; opposite is Hancock Co., Ill. The place where Pike got sawyered was very likely between Hackley's and Fox isls. The place is a bad one; there has been a good deal of engineering work done in damming Hackley's chute, and jettying the channel over to the other side. Fox r. (once called R. Puante, whence also Stinking cr.) is not mentioned by Pike in the present connection; but he speaks of it elsewhere, and lays it down on his map without name, marking an Indian village on the Illinois side between its mouth and that of Des Moines r. The present or a very recent arrangement of its discharge is by Fox slough, a small snicarty that begins at Alexandria and runs 5 m. down to Gregory's ldg. This cuts off a piece of bottom which the railroad traverses between the points said, besides Fox and several lesser islands.