"Dear Sir:—I have been somewhat interested in your discussion regarding the source of the Mississippi. Even had you never proclaimed to the world your discoveries, from information received by me from Indians and old mixed-blood Indian voyageurs, there would have always been a doubt existing with me as to whether Itasca was the head of the Mississippi.
"Henry Beaulieu, a brother of Paul Beaulieu, always maintained that Lake Glazier was the true source of the Mississippi. I remember that, after his return from Itasca with Mr. Chambers of the New York Herald, I think in 1872, he said that Winnibegoshish or Cass Lake might as well be called the source of the Mississippi as Itasca. Other mixed-blood have repeatedly stated the same thing. I mention this to show you what the general opinion is among Indians and those of mixed blood.
"Chenowagesic's theory concerning the head of the Mississippi is this: That while Itasca presents a larger surface than Lake Glazier, it does not contain as much water as the latter. He arrives at this conclusion from the fact that Itasca freezes over two or three weeks before Lake Glazier. This, he says, is a sure sign that the latter lake is the deeper of the two, and contains more water. His arguments in favor of Lake Glazier are rather novel, and, as a matter of course, are taken from an Indian's standpoint.
"Yours truly,
"Gus. H. Beaulieu.
"White Earth, Minnesota, December 17, 1887."
IV. PUBLIC OPINION IN MINNESOTA.
The evidence here presented in support of Lake Glazier, is, in our judgment, most conclusive; we may add, overwhelming. Many of the most prominent citizens of the State in which the Great River takes its rise volunteer their endorsement of a claim, of the merits of which, they must necessarily be better informed than persons living at a remote distance from the head of the river. State authorities, including the Governor and his staff; senators and representatives, many of whom have resided from twenty to forty years in Minnesota; pioneers, clergymen, and school-teachers, with many of the leading citizens; editors, school-superintendents, professional men, and others, strongly affirm that Lake Itasca is not the source of the Mississippi, but that the lake to the south of it, definitely located by Captain Glazier, is the primal reservoir or true source of the Father of Waters. These witnesses, moreover, unequivocally assert that the credit of the discovery should be awarded to the man who made it, notwithstanding the groundless opposition of a few cavillers who have never themselves visited within many hundred miles a region they affect to be so marvelously familiar with.