Note II-30 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: ST. PAUL TO LEECH LAKE, SEPTEMBER 22D, 1805-JANUARY 31ST, 1806.

From Little Falls to Crow Wing is only 26 m. by the river. Pike does not reach Crow Wing till the 21st, and his party does not get up till the 23d or 24th. Exactly what distance he makes it cannot be said, as mileage is missing some days. He appears to have thought it some 50 or 60 m. Thus the itinerary does not afford data for fixing camps with precision, and hence we can only check him approximately from day to day. The sledge-party does not average 3 m. a day, but Pike himself seems to skirmish about for many more miles—perhaps the excessive mileages represent his own activities, not the actual advance of the Expedition. The average course is due N. On the 12th Conradi shoal and Belle Prairie were passed, to camp in the vicinity of Fletcher cr. Belle Prairie is a comparatively old settlement on the E. bank, founded by Frederick Ayer, a missionary, in 1848; pop. 800. This is only 4½ m. by rail from Little Falls. The town is directly opposite the shoals. These are the Fifth rapid of Nicollet. A small creek comes in opposite them from the W., in Green Prairie township. Fletcher cr. is mapped by Nicollet without name; it is McKinney's r. on the 1850 map of Minn. It falls in from the E. through Sect. 1, T. 41, R. 32, 4th M.