Note VII-13 — Chapter VII · GEOGRAPHY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[VII-1]

Keating, I. 1824, p. 287, cites Long's MS. 1817, fol. 12, that Major Long's "boat crossed it, from a dead start, in 16 strokes." Referring to note69, p. 70, for some historical remarks on St. Pierre's r., I wish to add here that this remarkable stream was at one period the main course of the Mississippi. The evidence of the rocks supports the opinion that the Falls of St. Anthony were once opposite the position of Fort Snelling. The Mississippi above the mouth of St. Pierre's differs in various particulars from the character it acquires below that point, and was once tributary to a then greater stream. This case does not seem to have attracted the attention to which it became entitled after its forcible presentation by General Warren. It is not so well marked as the obvious case of the Missouri vs. the Mississippi, in which there is no question which is the main and which the subsidiary stream; but it is similar. In other words, what the Mississippi is to the Missouri above St. Louis, that the Mississippi has been to the Minnesota above Fort Snelling.