Note VII-19 — Chapter VII · GEOGRAPHY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[VII-1]

Lac à la Queue de Loutre of the F., whence the E. name. This is the largest body of water into which the Red River of the North expands in Minnesota, and may be called a principal source of that river, as Pike says, though it compares with the true source very much as Leech l. or Winnibigoshish l. does with that of the Mississippi. It is situated about the center of Otter Tail Co., some 60-70 m. S. W. of Leech l.; Pike's map tucks it up snug under Leech l. The Leech-Otter Tail traverse, or route by which one passed from Mississippian waters to those of Red r., as beyond indicated by Pike, is given in detail by Schoolcraft upon information of traders who were familiar with this chain of lakes. Using the nomenclature of his Narrative, etc., 1834, p. 105, it may be stated as follows: From Leech l. through lakes called Warpool, Little Long, of the Mountain and of the Island, to the Crow Wing series, or Longwater, Little Vermillion, Birch, and Plé. Lake Plé was the one where the route forked—one way leading on down the Crow Wing series, the other turning off to the Otter Tail series. The latter consisted in, first, a portage of four pauses to Island l.; portage of one pause into a small lake which led into another, and this into Lagard l.; half a pause to a small lake; pause and a half to another; four pauses into Migiskun Aiaub or Fishline l.; a pause into Pine l.; five pauses into a small river which runs into Scalp l. The latter has an outlet which expands into three successive and about equidistant lakes, and is then received into Lac Terrehaute, or Height of Land l. The outlet of this last expands into a lake, and again into water called Two Lakes from its form; whence the discharge is into Otter Tail l. It is not easy to pick this exact route up from a modern map; but I may add that it runs in Hubbard, Becker, and Otter Tail cos.; that some of the lakes on or near this series are known as Height of Land, Little Pine, Pine, and Rush (these being on the course of Otter Tail r., and therefore on the Red River water-shed); and that some places on or near the route are called Park Rapids, Osage, Linnell, Shell Lake, Jarvis, Erie, McHugh, Frazer City, Lace, Perham, and St. Lawrence. The N. P. R. R. from Moorhead to Brainerd crosses the route in two or three places, one of these being between Pine and Rush lakes.