Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820 / Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832

by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

TABLE OF GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS—Continued

Regions of the Sources of the Mississippi.

PLACES OF OBSERVATION.	Altitudes above the Gulf of Mexico.	North latitudes.			WEST OF GREENWICH.						Authorities, &c.
					Longitudes in time.			Longitudes in arc.
	Feet.	°	´	´´	h.	m.	s.	°	´	´´
Gayashk River, or Little Gull River, the mouth	1,131	46	18	50	6	17	44	94	26	00	Nicollet.
Gayashk Lake, or Little Gull Lake, end of Long Point	1,152	46	24	28	6	17	30	94	22	30	do.
Kadicomeg Lake, or WhiteFish Lake, the entrance of Pine River	1,192	46	40	25	6	16	10	94	2	30	do.
Lake Chanché, southwest end	...	46	46	35	...			...			do.
Lake Eccleston, northwest end	...	46	57	00	...			...			do.
Leech Lake, Ottertail Point	1,380	47	11	40	6	17	20	94	20	00	do.
Leech Lake, the bay opposite Ottertail Point	...	47	7	22	6	17	28	94	22	00	do.
Kabekonang River, the junction of the upper fork, near the nextmentioned portage	1,406	47	16	00	...			...			do.
Portage from Kabekonang River to La Place River, near the west end	1,540	47	15	00	...			...			do.
Assawa Lake, below the south end	1,532	47	12	10	6	19	40	94	55	00	do.
Highest ridge on the portage between Assawa Lake and Itasca Lake	1,695	...			...			...			do.
Cleared pine camp, on Leech Lake River	...	47	18	00	6	16	00	94	00	00	do.

5. SCENERY.

X.
Scenery of Lake Superior. By Henry R. Schoolcraft.

Few portions of America can vie in scenic attractions with this interior sea. Its size alone gives it all the elements of grandeur; but these have been heightened by the mountain masses which nature has piled along its shores. In some places, these masses consist of vast walls, of coarse gray, or drab-colored sandstone, placed horizontally, until they have attained many hundred feet in height above the water. The action of such an immense liquid area, forced against these crumbling walls by tempests, has caused wide and deep arches to be worn into the solid structure, at their base, into which the billows roll, with a noise resembling low-pealing thunder. By this means, large areas of the impending mass are at length undermined and precipitated into the lake, leaving the split and rent parts, from which they have separated, standing like huge misshapen turrets and battlements. Such is the varied coast, called the Pictured Rocks.

At other points of the coast, volcanic forces have operated, lifting up these level strata into positions nearly vertical, and leaving them to stand, like the leaves of a vast open book. At the same time, the volcanic rocks sent up from below, have risen in high mountains, with ancient gaping craters. Such is the condition of the disturbed stratification at the Porcupine Mountains.

The basin and bed of this lake act like a vast geological mortar, in which the masses of broken and fallen stones are whirled about and ground down, till all the softer ones, such as the sandstones, are brought into the state of pure yellow sand. This sand is driven ashore by the waves, where it is shoved up in long wreaths, and dried by the sun. The winds now take it up, and spread it inland, or pile it immediately along the coast, where it presents itself in mountain masses. Such are the great sand dunes of the Grande Sables.