Note II-56 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: ST. PAUL TO LEECH LAKE, SEPTEMBER 22D, 1805-JANUARY 31ST, 1806.

On leaving White Oak pt. on the morning of Jan. 31st, Pike and Miller proceeded approximately up the course of the Mississippi to the "fork" above said, i. e., the confluence of Leech Lake fork with the main stream. This stretch, which Pike calls "nearly 15 miles long," is just 6 m. in an air-line, and not much more by the trail. The Mississippi here flows through "meadows," as Pike correctly says; these meadows are in part what Nicollet named Eagle Nest savannah. It is absolutely flat and low marshy ground, alternating with haying fields, extending widely on both sides of the river, S. and W. of White Oak l. Little White Oak pt. reaches the river in a narrow tongue of higher ground, from the N., while higher up several bends of the river abut against woodland on the S. Throughout this reach the river is exceeding tortuous; its bends are, moreover, so connected with collateral channels, in part natural and in part artificial, that the stream is virtually double and incloses a series of large islands in its sinuous folds. Some of these thoroughfares float the steamboats that ply on the river to transport the hay; others are mere ditches, through which only canoes can be shoved. Two m. below (N. N. E. of) the Leech Lake fork, the Mississippi receives an important affluent, namely, the discharge of Ball Club l., which enters at about the middle of the S. border of Sect. 31, T. 145, R. 25, 5th M., and thus only about 4 m. due W. of Deer River (town). The difference in level between this lake and the river is so slight that sometimes, when the latter is full, it backs up into the former. Ball Club is a pretty large lake—6 m. long, usually called 7, and 1 to 2 m. broad in different places, with its long axis about N. W. and S. E.; its shape is not very well delineated on the Engineer chart, being not elbowed enough. The outlet is from the lower broad end, in the same Sect. in which it joins the Mississippi, and is thus less than 1 m. long (little over ½ m.). This lake is notable because it is the usual and direct route up to Little Lake Winnibigoshish and so on, to avoid the more circuitous course of the Mississippi itself. You traverse the main axis of the lake from its outlet N. W. to its head, and there make a portage of a mile or so over into Little Lake Winnibigoshish. "Ball Club," the now universal name of this body of water, is a term which translates the F. La Crosse; Schoolcraft renders once Lac a la Crose; Pike has Lac Le Crosse and Le Cross. Schoolcraft has in another place Bogottowa l., which aboriginal name is rendered Bagatwa by Beltrami, Pagadowan by Nicollet, by others Pagadawin, etc. All these names refer to the celebrated game of ball, which the learned Anglojibway Warren calls baugahudoway. Several streams feed this lake; one of them comes in at the head, from a small lake which Schoolcraft named Helix l., from the abundance of its snails of that genus. To return from this excursus to Pike at the mouth of the Leech Lake fork, up which he goes: This is of course a definite and well-known point, exactly on the dividing line between the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 7, T. 144, R. 25, and the S. E. ¼ of Sect. 12, T. 144, R. 26, 5th M. I had a good view of the confluence from a bit of high bank on the left or N. side of the Mississippi, looking across the mazes of marsh and meadow land through which both streams meander to their junction. Leech Lake r. is a very large branch of the Mississippi, deserving the name of "fork" which Pike applies; he also calls it the South, and the Sang Sue branch or fork. Beltrami essays the Chippewa name, as Cazaguaguagine-sibi. Inasmuch as Pike considered this river to be the main stream, I propose to designate Leech Lake and its feeders and discharge as the Pikean Source, in distinction from the Julian, Plantagenian, and Itascan sources we shall discuss beyond. Passing the Forks, Pike and Miller go up Leech Lake r., Jan. 31st, to some undetermined point in the vicinity of the largest lake into which this stream expands, and which Pike calls Muddy l. This is of an oval figure, about 4 m. long by half as broad; its outlet is 3¼ m. up Leech Lake r. from the forks. Nicollet named it Lake Bessel, after the famous scientist—his map fairly glitters with the galaxy of illustrious names he reflects from the bosoms of lakes in Northern Minnesota, though I cannot recall an instance in which such academic nomenclature has been "understanded of the people" and retained in their speech. The lake in present mention is always called Mud or Muddy, and is much frequented by the Indians for the eminently utilitarian purpose of gathering wild rice. I saw a string of their canoes heading that way Aug. 15th, 1894.