Note I-48 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: ST. LOUIS TO ST. PAUL, AUGUST 9TH-SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1805.

Pike's was luckier than Long's boat-party of 1823, which started from P. du C. as Pike did, but did not get much above Yellow r. It consisted of Thomas Say, the subsequently distinguished naturalist; Prof. W. H. Keating; Mr. Samuel Seymour, the artist; the rascally interpreter Roque or Rocque; and Lieutenant Martin Scott, the latter in command of a corporal and his squad of eight soldiers. These men tapped a keg of liquor, and got too drunk to navigate—the crew did, I mean, for it is well known that officers never drink. Yellow r. is present name of the stream consistently so called since it ceased to be R. Jaune of the French régime; it has been already mentioned as falling in on the W., 3 m. above Bloody Run and N. McGregor. Three miles higher, on the same side, is Paint cr., or Painted Rock cr., near a place full of historic interest; for at one point along the almost unbroken bluffs is the steep escarpment which became known to the F. as Roche Peinte, or Rochers Peints, and which continues to be called Painted Rock or Rocks, from the Indian pictographs with which it was adorned for ages. Beltrami gives it as Pointed Rock, II. p. 196. High places of all sorts, whether the elevation be phallic or terrene, have always been regarded as great medicine by the untutored, from the days of the priests of Baal, Moloch, or Jahveh, to those of the similar shamans and marvel-mongers of Lo. Such theological jugglery is reflected in the present name of Waucon or Waukon Junction, near the mouth of Paint cr., where the Chic., Dub. and Minn. R. R., meandering the river, sends the Waukon branch to Waukon, seat of Allamakee Co., Ia. A town, or something that tried to be one, by the prosaic name of Johnsonsport, is to be found on some maps at the mouth of Paint cr. About 4 m. above Waukon Junction is a place called Harper's Ferry, suggestive of Virginian emigration. The bluffs hug the Iowan bank closely to Paint cr. The opposite side is low for some miles back, with sloughs or bayous known as Marais, Courtois, Sioux, etc., into which drain several creeks, among them one called Fisher's—no doubt for the gentleman who entertained Pike—and another named Pickadee; both these are received in Sioux bayou. But above Paint cr. the channel runs, or recently did run, on the Wisconsin side, having an intricate snicarty on the other, whose various courses are known as Seaman's slough, Big Suck-off, Gordon's bay, Martell's lake, Center, Harper, St. Paul, Crooked, Ferry, etc., sloughs. Wherever the channel was in Pike's time, he says that he camped on the W. side, and I suppose at a point about opposite present town of Lynxville, Crawford Co., Wis., which is reckoned 17 m. above P. du C. by comparatively recent hydrographers. To reach this place he passed Trout cr., which falls in on the right hand nearly opp. Painted Rock, and the site of Viola, at the mouth of Buck cr., also on the right.