EXPLORATIONS OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 253

CHAPTER XVI.

MINESOTA TERRITORY.

Explorations of the Upper Mississippi — Location of the Territory "The New England of the West"- Territorial boundary-Laws Counties Population Nature of the population - Crops -General surface of the territory-Geology - Above Crow Wing River— Chalk formation-James River - Buffalo pasture-ground - Big Sioux River Red pipe-stone quarry-St. Peters River - Bottom lands Blue Earth River-St. Peters Valley - The paradise of farmers-Lake Pepin - Terror of the lumbermen of the north — Timber - Wild rice-Soil and its products - The Red River of the North Springs and lakes - Minesota the artesian fountain of the continent - Underground hydraulic power - Boiling springs Magnificent forest - Destiny of Minesota - Indian summers- - Manner of perfecting a squatter's title - St. Paul - Table of distances from Galena, to St. Paul - Rates of fare.

THE Mississippi River extends, in a direct line, through nineteen degrees of latitude. Nine states and one territory are watered by its magnificent stream. The great valley, which slopes from the east and from the west to the banks of that river, is barely cultivated sufficiently to afford an indication of its vast capabilities. The lower waters of the Mississippi had been explored nearly three hundred years before any white man ever stood upon the sources of its exhaustless tide. Countless steamboats were stemming the torrent, for a distance of two thousand miles, while yet the region whence it emanated was as unknown as the interior of Ethiopia. Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, with a military expedition, in 1805, ascended the Mississippi one hundred and twenty miles

above the Falls of St. Anthony; but he had set out late in the season, and the snows and ice compelled him to delay, for the purpose of erecting a block-house and securing his stores. Tramping about in the winter on snow-shoes did not afford him much opportunity for examining the country. With the spring, his expedition had returned.

In 1820, another expedition, which had been projected by Governor Cass, of Michigan, left Detroit in a fleet of birch-bark canoes, and, passing up through Lake Superior, crossed over the country between the St. Louis River and the Sandy Lake, in the valley of the Mississippi, and from thence explored the river as high as the Cass Lake. Twelve years afterward a third expedition, commencing its explorations at Cass Lake, followed up the channel of the river, through all its windings and lakes, to its source in Itasca Lake. The last two expeditions were fortunately accompanied by an intelligent chronicler of their adventures, in the person of Henry R. Schoolcraft, to whose narratives the public is indebted for much of the knowledge which it possessed of those distant regions.

Upon the head-waters of the Mississippi and of the Red River of the North lies the territory of Minesota, extending from Iowa to the British possessions, and from Lake Superior to the Missouri River. The most accurate information concerning the soil and climate of the various portions of the territory is derived from the geological surveys made under the authority of the federal government; and in the immediate vicinities of the settlements above the mouth of the St. Peter's, the country has been pretty thoroughly explored; but the extent of exact knowledge acquired in that manner is about as a stone's throw to the wide reach of the territory itself.

Concerning Minesota-"the New England of the

TERRITORIAL BOUNDARY.

255

West" but little, indeed, was heard or known until in 1849. Emigration had continued flowing, year after year, into regions further south, and not so far west. Fertile lands, comprising millions of acres, far easier of access, lay spread out invitingly to the settler, nearer home. The whole intervening country still contains but a sparse and scattered population. Wisconsin, which lies between the sources of population in the older states and the vast territory of the north, is yet a new country, more than half of it a wilderness, and but little explored. Iowa, too, is receiving an immense influx of immigration, the entire western and northern portions of the state being comparatively wild and tenantless. And for two years. past, the political excitement in Kansas has been drawing public attention to that quarter, and political motives are urging on settlers from all parts of the Union to seek there for homes. Minesota, therefore, has been, and is, to some degree, neglected and forgotten.

The southern limit of the territory is the boundary of Iowa. On the east, the line follows up the Mississippi to Prescott, at the mouth of the St. Croix; thence up the latter river to Lake Superior. On the north, the line, commencing at the mouth of the Arrow River, opposite Isle Royale, runs north-westerly through Rainy Lake to the southern extremity of the Lake of the Woods; thence westerly to the White Earth River, which empties into the Missouri at its extreme northerly bend. The boundary on the west is, for a little way, along the White Earth River; thence, following down the Missouri, throughout its windings, for a thousand miles, it terminates at the mouth of the Big Sioux River. Minesota extends through more than six degrees of latitude and twelve degrees of longitude. Its extreme length, from east to west, has been computed at six hundred miles, and its