Note II-51 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: ST. PAUL TO LEECH LAKE, SEPTEMBER 22D, 1805-JANUARY 31ST, 1806.

See note49, p. 137, for Willow r. Pike calls it "Leech Lake river" in this place, not because that was then or ever has been its name, but because it was on the route he was going to take from Sandy l. to Leech l. He flatters our intelligence further by giving us a perfectly blind snow-shoe trail, for the most part 'cross lots, without a single compass-point, with wild mileage or none, and not even a geographical hint, from the 20th to the 26th. He takes it for granted that we know all about the swamps of N. Minnesota in midwinter. Luckily, we are not without the means of bringing him to book. He continues on the Willow River route toward Leech l. with his whole party till the morning of the 26th, when he leaves the party to follow up that route, and goes himself with Boley and the Indian to Mr. Grant's house "on the Mississippi." The Mississippi is a pretty long river, but it happens that we can discover where Mr. Grant's was in 1805: see Pike's map, place marked "N. W. Co.", on the right bank (W. side) of the river, a little below the place marked "Ripple." This was directly opposite the present town of Grand Rapids, Itasca Co., 3 m. below Pokegama Falls. The air-line distance from the outlet of Sandy l. to Grand Rapids is supposed to be 32⅕ m.; by the way Pike went perhaps 40-45 m. The course is about N. N. W. This cuts off a considerable segment from the winding course of the Mississippi, which makes a large elbow eastward. Pike subtends this bend; having crossed the Mississippi near Sandy l., and thus continued across what he calls the "portage" to Willow r., he goes up this, not far from parallel with the Mississippi, till Willow r. bears more to the left; when he leaves it to continue his course to Mr. Grant's house, having the Mississippi on his right, but at several (say 5 to 10) miles' distance, representing the amount of cut-off he makes. On the 26th, with Boley and an Indian, he forges ahead of his party, who do not get up to Grant's house till the evening of the 28th, though he is there on the night of the 26th with the Indian, and Boley comes up on the morning of the 27th. That section of the Mississippi which Pike thus avoids may be passed over briefly, as it offers little of interest. There are some rapids above Sandy l. Three of these are duly charted by Nicollet, being his lower, middle, and upper "Small" rapids, respectively now known as Ox-portage, Crooked, and Pine rapids. The first of these are in Sect. 2, T. 50, R. 24, 4th M.: the others in the next township above, of the same range. By far the most important tributary of the Mississippi in this portion of its course is Swan r., which falls in from the E. in Sect. 9, T. 52, R. 24, 4th M., 1¼ m. (direct) south of the boundary line between Aitkin and Itasca cos., which here runs on the line between T. 52 and T. 53. The Duluth and Winnipeg R. R. from Duluth meanders the St. Louis r. as far as Floodwood, continues N. W. to Wawana, along some tributaries of Floodwood r., to the divide between Laurentian and Mississippian waters in the vicinity of Swan r. The latter is marked "Wild Swan R." on the U. S. Engineers' chart—which is well enough, as all the swans in that country are wild, though this name apparently arose from misunderstanding the legend "W. Swan R." on Nicollet's map. This stands for West—not Wild—Swan r., and Nicollet meant by it to contrast this stream with that tributary of the St. Louis which he called East Swan r. At a distance of 6½ air-line miles, but fully 14 m. by the meanders of the Mississippi, above the mouth of Swan r., a small stream comes in from the W., nearly if not exactly on the common corner of Sects. 21, 22, 27 and 28 of T. 53, R. 24, 4th M. This is Split Hand r.—the Cut Hand cr. of Nicollet and of Owen, draining from a lake of the same incisive name, from Willibob l., and some others, all of which lie southeastward of the large Lake Pokegama. This is the stream called by Beltrami Singonki-sibi or Marten r. Above Split Hand r. are several streams on either hand. The one which I take to be Nicollet's Blueberry cr. falls in from the E. in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 21, T. 54, R. 24, 4th M., ¾ of a mile due S. of a considerable hill in the next section above, and 3 m. due E. of Hale l.—that little lake which is at the tip of the longest eastward finger of Lake Pokegama. Ascending the Mississippi still, we next come to Trout r. or cr., from the E., whose mouth falls in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 5 of the township just said. This has held its present name since the days of Schoolcraft and Allen, though Beltrami called it Namago-sibi. Here we are already approaching Grand Rapids, where we shall find Pike: for the many important features of that vicinity see next note.