[II-25] Yanktons and Sissetons: see L. and C., ed. 1893, pp. 94, 100.
[II-26] More probably Chien Blanc, or White Dog—unless we could go so far as to suppose he was called by the less polite and less appropriate name of Chienne Blanche.
[II-27] About opp. the mouth of Pine cr. or Swan r., ½ m. above head of Roberts' isl., and on or near the present site of Gregory, Morrison Co. This place is marked as Aitkin's ferry, trading-post, and hotel, on a Minnesota map, pub. Phila., Cowperthwait, 1850; it is about the middle of the southwesternmost section of Little Falls township (Township 40, Range 32, 4th mer.), say 3 m. below the middle of the city of Little Falls. The head of Pike rapids is 1,071 or 1,072 feet above sea-level. Swan r. bends up a little to fall into the Miss. r., so that its mouth is slightly over the S. border of Sect. 6, Township 128, Range 29, 5th mer. There is a flour mill on its S. side, at the bend, half a mile or less from its mouth. Ledoux P. O. is on this stream, a few miles up, in Swan River township, which lies between North Prairie township and Pike Creek township; Swan r. runs over the N. border of it a mile W. of the Mississippi. By whom Pike's Pine cr. was first called Swan r. I do not know, unless it was Nicollet; it is Wabizio-sibi of Beltrami, Wabezi or Swan r. of Nicollet, 1836, Swan r. of Owen and later writers; but Lieut. Allen has it Elk r. on his map, by error.
[II-28] Less than this, to camp on left or E. bank of the Mississippi, in the present city of Little Falls, Morrison Co., probably about the place where is the lower bridge, a few blocks from the Buckman hotel. Painted Rock rapids is now Little falls. A high, small island at the falls divides the river in two channels; it is Rock isl. of Nicollet, now called Mill isl.; some mills are there, and there is the site of the present dam, immediately below the lower bridge. Little Falls is a flourishing place, as towns with a water-power of 35,000 horses may easily be; pop. now or lately 3,000; dam built 1887-8, said to have cost $250,000; two bridges span the river, the upper one for the N. P. R. R., near the large sawmill which stands on the W. bank; chief industry, milling flour and logs; city incorporated 1889; N. Richardson, mayor for five years: see Little Falls Daily Transcript, Industrial ed., Jan. 1st, 1894, large folio, pp. 28, maps and views, price 5c. The Little falls—cataract, not town—are so called by Pike elsewhere in this work; he also says that "the place is called by the French Le Shute de la Roche Peinture," by which we may understand La Chute de la Roche Peinte; his map legends "Painted Rock or Little Falls." Beltrami names the falls Great Rock and Kekebicaugé. As to the "5 miles" of to-day's journey, we may note that the distance is less now than it used to be by the channel, because there was a bend of the river to the E. which is now straightened out. This bend appears on maps of 20 years ago; it is now city ground, and the march of improvement has effected various other changes in the course of the river. When about a mile from this morning's camp, Pike passed a place where the river was fordable, and may be so still; here was the site of Swan River P. O., on the E. bank, in Little Falls township. When a mile further on, he passed the mouth of a creek from the W. which he calls 2nd cr. (on the map "2d Cr."), and which others have rendered Second cr., though Nicollet and Owen both have it Little Fall cr.; it is now known as Pike cr., and gives name to Pike Creek township. It falls into the Mississippi at the middle of the E. border of Sect. 25, Township 129, Range 30, 5th mer., through the 6th one of the 16 outlots of O. O. Searles, slightly beyond present city limits.
[II-29] To a position at the head of Little Elk rapids, a short distance above the mouth of Little Elk r. This is a sizable stream which comes from the W. through Parker and Randall townships to the S. W. corner of Green Prairie township, touches the N. E. corner of Pike creek township, and then curves a couple of miles to the Mississippi through Sects. 6 and 5, T. 129, R. 29, 5th M. Pike elsewhere notes it with particularity by the name of Elk r. Beltrami says Moska or Mosko and Doe or Bitch r. This last name is a mistaken rendering of R. la Biche or Elk r. of the French—he makes the same singular blunder in the case of Lake Itasca, which he calls Doe or Bitch l., after the French Lac la Biche. The river is the Omoshkos or Elk r. of Nicollet and Owen. It is marked Little Fork cr. on the Minn. map of 1850; and Allen's map makes it Swan r., by an erroneous transposition of names; see [note27] p. 122.
[II-30] From Little Falls to Crow Wing is only 26 m. by the river. Pike does not reach Crow Wing till the 21st, and his party does not get up till the 23d or 24th. Exactly what distance he makes it cannot be said, as mileage is missing some days. He appears to have thought it some 50 or 60 m. Thus the itinerary does not afford data for fixing camps with precision, and hence we can only check him approximately from day to day. The sledge-party does not average 3 m. a day, but Pike himself seems to skirmish about for many more miles—perhaps the excessive mileages represent his own activities, not the actual advance of the Expedition. The average course is due N. On the 12th Conradi shoal and Belle Prairie were passed, to camp in the vicinity of Fletcher cr. Belle Prairie is a comparatively old settlement on the E. bank, founded by Frederick Ayer, a missionary, in 1848; pop. 800. This is only 4½ m. by rail from Little Falls. The town is directly opposite the shoals. These are the Fifth rapid of Nicollet. A small creek comes in opposite them from the W., in Green Prairie township. Fletcher cr. is mapped by Nicollet without name; it is McKinney's r. on the 1850 map of Minn. It falls in from the E. through Sect. 1, T. 41, R. 32, 4th M.
[II-31] In the vicinity of Topeka, a town and station on the N. P. R. R., on the E. bank of the river.
[II-32] Camp of the 14th, 15th, and 16th seems to have been on the W. bank of the river, at the head of Olmsted's bar, and was very likely opp. the point of land in Sect. 15, T. 42, R. 32, 4th M., where one Baker located his trading-house in 1831. It is formally named Pine camp when it is passed on the way down, Mar. 4th, 1806: see [that date]. Olmsted's bar is the Sixth rapid of Nicollet, at a place where the river expands and contains a cluster of small islands, called The Sirens by Beltrami, II. p. 466.
[II-33] This cache was in the vicinity of present Fort Ripley. The town now so called is on the E. side; railroad; pop. 500. Old Fort Ripley itself is on the W. side, a mile off; some of the buildings still stand. This post, or another in the same place, was once called Fort Gaines; Prairie Percée of the F. intersected the river a little below. The fort is in the N. E. ¼ of Sect. 7, T. 131, R. 29, 5th M., about a half mile below the mouth of Nokasippi r., which falls in from the E. through Sect. 27, T. 43, R. 32, 4th M. This is a considerable stream: Nokasippi and Noka Sipi of Schoolcraft; Nokay r. of Nicollet and of Owen; Nokasele on one of my maps, Nankesele and Nankele on others; Woco-sibi of Beltrami's text, II. p. 466, Wokeosiby and Prophet r. on his map. This hint that the name is a personal one is correct. Noka was a Chippewa, the grandfather of White Fisher or Waubojeeg. "It is from this old warrior and stalwart hunter, who fearlessly passed his summers on the string of lakes which form the head of the No-ka river, which empties into the Mississippi nearly opposite present site of Fort Ripley, that the name of this stream is derived," says W. W. Warren, Minn. Hist. Coll., V. 1885, p. 266. It is mapped by Pike and mentioned by him beyond at date of Mar. 3d, 1806; but he has no name for it. Allen's map gives it as Long r. But the earliest name of the stream I can discover is on Lewis and Clark's map, pub. 1814, where it is called Scrub Oak r., no doubt from the prairie above it, to which Pike gave that name. On reaching ownline 42-3, Pike leaves Morrison for Crow Wing Co., on the right, but still has the former on his left, up to Crow Wing r.
[II-34] To some point probably more than halfway between the Nokasippi and Crow Wing rivers, perhaps not far from the station or siding Albion (St. Paul Div. of N. P. R. R.). It is beyond Lenox, and a little above that creek for which I find no name, but which falls in from the W. through Sect. 24, T. 132, R. 30, 5th M.