380
HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
perpetuated the records of early discoveries, reduced the language, and even dialects, of the aborigines, to grammatical rules, and preserved the original traditions and described the customs of the savages. (Authorities: Shea and Kip's "Catholic Missions," ''Magazine of Western History," Winsor's "America/' and Shea's "Catholic Church in Colonial Days.")
MISSISSIPPI RIVER. (Indian name, "Missi Sipi," the "Great Water.") Its head waters are in the northern part of Minnesota, 1,680 feet above tide-water. Its chief source is Itasca Lake, which is 1,575 feet higher than the sea, and which is fed by a stream having its source within one mile of the head waters of the Red River of the North. From this sheet of water to the mouth of the river, the distance is variously estimated at from 3,000 to 3,160 miles. Lake Itasca is in lat. 47° 10' north and Ion. 95° 20' west from Greenwich. The river at first runs northward, but soon turns toward the east and expands into a series of small lakes. Its course, as far as Crow Wing, is extremely sinuous, below which point it runs southward to St. Cloud, thence southeastward to Minneapolis, where occur the Falls of St. Anthony, establishing a complete barrier to navigation for the lower Mississippi. In less than a mile the river descends 66 feet, including a perpendicular fall of 17 feet, furnishing an immense water-power, which is utilized in operating flour-ing-mills and other manufacturing establishments. A few miles below St. Paul it reaches the western boundary of Wisconsin, where it expands into the long and beautiful Lake Pepin, bordered by picturesque limestone bluffs, some 400 feet high. Below Dubuque its general direction is southward, and it forms the boundary between the States of Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and the northern part of Louisiana, on the west, and Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, on the east. After many sinuous turnings in its southern course, it enters the Gulf of Mexico by three principal passes, or mouths, at the southeastern extremity of Plaquemines Parish, La., in lat. 29° north and Ion. 89° 12' west. Its principal affluents on the right are the Minnesota, Iowa, Des Moines, Missouri, Arkansas and Re
Dundee Area History
