Note III-1 — Chapter III · ITINERARY, CONCLUDED: LEECH LAKE TO ST. LOUIS, FEBRUARY 1ST-APRIL 30TH, 1806.

It is simple justice to Pike to state here that, in making this widely erroneous statement, he reflected common report of his day, and that he elsewhere himself qualifies the assertion. Thus, in his general review of the Mississippi (which in the orig. ed. formed Doc. No. 18, p. 41 seq. of the App. to Part 1), he says of the Leech Lake branch: "This is rather considered as the main source, although the Winipeque [read Winnibigoshish] branch is navigable the greatest distance." If the volume of waters collected by Leech l. and then contributed to the Mississippi were made the criterion, the true Itascan source might have to look to its laurels. Deferring other considerations to a more convenient connection, we may here confine attention to the Leech Lake system. The lake itself is much the largest body of water in the Mississippi basin above Mille Lacs, much exceeding in size Lake Winnibigoshish, which itself much exceeds Lake Cass. These three are the largest reservoirs of the whole drainage area whose waters unite at the junction of the Leech Lake branch with the main stream. This area, taken down to Pokegama falls, is about 80 m. from E. to W. and 50 from N. to S.; its content is more than a thousand lakes and rivers, few of which have been named. These are quite clearly divided into two main sets, namely, those of the Leech Lake system on the one hand, and all the rest on the other. Leech l. is not much smaller than Red l. (of a different system); its greatest diameter in one direction is over 20 m.; its figure is extremely irregular, giving a shore-line said to be of about 160 m. length, with 9 principal salient re-entrances and 6 large bays; the feeders, large and small, are 25-30 in number. The "fond du lac" is at that S. W. place where the waters of Kabekona and other lakes discharge by the Kabekona r., in Sect. 9, T. 142, R. 31, 5th M. This series affords, with several portages, a tolerably direct approach to Lake Itasca, which lies at an air-line distance of about 25 m. nearly due W. North of the mouth of the Kabekona, in Sect. 9, T. 143, of the same R. and M., the Kapukasagitowa, Pikesagidowag, or Bukesagidowag r. falls in from the N. W. This point is only 7 m. directly S. of the southernmost part of Cass l., and a chain of 10 small lakes here lies between Cass and Leech, offering a waterway with some portages. Two of these small lakes are Moss and Shiba of Schoolcraft; two others of them are his Kapuka Sagitowa lakes. Further E. on the N. shore of Leech l. a river falls in from the N. in Sect. 14, T. 144, R. 30. This is Carp r. of Schoolcraft, draining from a chain of small lakes which approach the Mississippi itself in that portion of its course which runs from Cass to Winnibigoshish l. The N. E. extremity of Leech l., called Rush l. by Schoolcraft and Pickering bay by Nicollet, reaches within 4 m. (air-line) of Lake Winnibigoshish; there is a small lake between, named Lake Duponceau by Nicollet, but now known as Portage l., from the function indicated by this name. In fact it is easier to go from Winnibigoshish over into Leech than from Cass over into the same. Along the S. W., S., S. E., and E. shores of Leech l. is a succession of affluents, some of the larger of which respectively establish waterways of communication with Crow Wing r., with Pine r., and with Willow r. The largest of these Leech l. tributaries is Kwiwisens or Boy r., which offers by its system of lakes and portages the most direct route by way of Willow r. to Sandy l. Some of the lakes along this line are by Nicollet named Hassler, Gauss, Deluot, Eccleston, Brûlé, and Rosati. One of the communications with Pine r. is made by Sandy r., which falls into Leech l. from the S. (The Crow Wing connections are noticed elsewhere in detail.) Leech l. discharges by Leech Lake r. near its N. E. extremity, the outlet being in Sect. 29, T. 144, R. 28, 5th M. The discharge is now controlled by a dam which, like the similar structures at the outlet of Lake Winnibigoshish and elsewhere, is designed to utilize the lakes as artificial reservoirs to regulate the flow of the Mississippi according to the requirements for navigation. Leech Lake r. is bowed into an arc whose chord is 16 m. long; Mud l. lies in its course, as already said. The principal projection of land into Leech l. from the N. is the well-known Otter-tail pt.; opposite this, from the south, is Big pt.; continuous with which, by a narrow isthmus, is a very extensive peninsula of remarkable form, something like a badly shaped anchor or a distorted letter T. This Tau-formed peninsula is the best known and most historic place about the lake, as the site of a Chippewa village and various other establishments, of which more anon. There are several islands in Leech l.; the largest is Bear or Mukwa isl. (Macuwa of Beltrami); two others are Pelican and Goose. Leech l. derives its English name from the F. Lac Sang Sue, or L. aux Sangsues, originally bestowed in compliment to the sanguisugent annelids with which it was supposed to be peculiarly favored, by the Chippewas, who conveyed their meaning in the voluble vocable Kasagaskwadjimekang.