Volume 1

DOWN RAINY LAKE RIVER. 21
below Manitou rapids," where we found several Indians
fishing.
They had a great many sturgeon and various kinds
of small fish, a few of which were exchanged for liquor.
The Indians were drinking all night, but not troublesome.
Au£: ^th. At daybreak we embarked and passed the old
H. B. Co. establishment, which has been abandoned for several
years. Soon after we came down the Long Sault." At
twelve o'clock passed Rapid river,^' at two o'clock passed
^' Three rivers which fall into Rainy r. below Rainy 1., through Itasca Co.,
Minn., and thus from the right, are : i. Pogonowisebe or Little Fork r. 2.
Big Fork r. This arises in a multitude of lakes in the region N. and N. E. of
Winnibigoshish, Bowstring, and Ball Club lakes, and thus from the divide
between Mississippian and Hudsonian waters. Its average course is due N.
It seems to have acquired consequence as a route of the A. F. Co., after
Henry's time ; Thompson describes it in 1798. 3. Black r., a small stream
falling in 4 m. below Big Fork r. The first of these Henry passes unnoticed ;
it falls in opposite the Indian reserve, 3^ m. below Isherwood P. O., Ont.
The Big Fork he mentions is about 6 m. below Little Fork r. ; nearly midway
between these two, on the right, comes Lavallee r., and about the mouth of the
Big Fork are places called Big Forks P. O., Ont., and Hannafoi-d, Minn.
Between the Big Fork and Black r. is a cluster of islands. All the streams
here in mention, and several lesser ones, enter Rainy r. in a large loop which
the river makes southward, and where it is flowing W. ; but a mile or two beyond
Black r. the river turns N. and then curves W. to Manitou rapids, where
Indians were fishing when Henry camped. Here is still the site of an Indian
village in a reserve 3 m. square on the Ontario side (No. 11, Barwick).
Thompson says he ran the rapid S. 10' W. 176 yards on the left, and notes the
small island ^ m. below, on the right.
^® The Long Sault is a rapid which appears on some modem maps, e. g. , the
Rand-McNally, Chicago, 1894, as " Long Sioux," by confusion of similarly
sounding words ; it appears correctly on the Jewett map, St. Paul, 1894 ; but
neither this nor Manito rapids is marked on the latest G. L. O. map of Minnesota,
1894, which is very crude and defective in detail all along the route we are
pursuing. The distance appears to be about 8 m. from Manitou rapids to the
Long Sault ; and the latter is the location of an Indian reserve, 5 m. square, on
the Ontario side,
^'
Rapid r. is the present name of the only other one Henry notices of several
streams running into Rainy r. on the Minnesota side. It flows in Beltrami Co.,
and empties near the W. boundary of Itasca Co. Two others are Baudette r.
and Winter Road r. But there is some uncertainty about these streams, as the
country is not yet surveyed. The G. L. O. map brings in a nameless river
exactly on the boundary between Itasca and Beltrami cos., then Rapid r. and
Baudette r., but runs Winter Road r. into Lake of the Woods, several miles