Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-08
THE cONNECTICUT'S SOURCE
BEGINNINGS OF THE RIVER
WERE LONG A MYSTERY.
Exploration Of Adrian Block, Dutch
Navigator-Head Waters Not
Mapped Till 1915.
rom the New Haven Palladium.

From the New Haven Palladium.
The Connecticut river in its entirety
did not spring on the world in breath.
Long after the peoples became aware
of its existence its upper course and still
more its birthplace were shrouded In
mystery. To show how it first became
known how it's course was more and
more revealed and how its ultimate
sources were brought to light are the
objects of display of unfamiliar ana
sometimes curious maps, charts. etc, at
the watknson Library at Hartford.
When the Dutch navigator Adrian
Block set out from Manhattan to ex-
pIore the eastward coast, he hoped, IKE
the other navgators of his time. that
every estuary he met was channel
to the South sea, or. at worst. to lake
whence ran another stream to that sea
So as he steered his fcrty-four-foot,
sjxteen-ton yacht Restless up the mouth
of powerful stream opposite the middle
of Long Island even its volume of fresh
water did not kill his hope that 1t was
not common blind alley of river. But
after ascending fifty or sixty miles ne
saw that II was no thoroughfare. dubbed
il the Fresh river, as distinguished from
the tide-brackish Hudson and retraced his
course to look further for the hole through
the continent.
Early Maps
Ills discovery III tiic eoiiS 80 SN>'A''
through lands which his employers, the
states general of the United Netherlands
hoped to control was communicated to
them. and through them came to the map
makers. Just how soon these, in street
phrase. were ION to- it, we do not know;
but the first public proof of their knowl-
edge is curiously. double. two maps, pub
lished independently in the same year
163O-containing the river. One is the
1i.,' nf
de I.aet. giving the northeast American
coast to Nova Scotia. The other. far
more strikingly is the world map. In
hemispheres of Hendrix Hondt or Hon
dius. in which the Connecticut appears as
firmly drawn and correctly placed as in
De Laet's small section. Very few world
maps of today give 1t place at all.
But just whittier its upward course
tended was not we'll known for many
years. and its exact source was not deter
mined for more than two hundred Not
till 1916 was it fully traced on any map or
known to any save a few
In the series of interesting maps on ex-
hibition at the library, the unfolding OF
knowledge concerning it can be followed
step BY step. with occasional grotesque
guesses or blunders. Some of these maps
were epoch makers in their day. referred
TO in all diScourseS for many years as
authorities. and even used by great gov
ernments as deciding evidence in inter-
would be added to these old maps with
successive editions, but the ancient plates
still did duty.
Aliases of Other Centuries.
In the exhibit there is. for example
the great atlas of Jan Blaeu. published
about 1870 There is the famous Mon
tanus map of 1871. made to illustrate the
work on the New and Unknown World,
(as It's Dutch title means). There is the
Mitchell map of 11J5, still an authority,
a half century later, for International
claims. Our country Is represented by
Samuel Lewis map of 1904. which MAIN
tanned it's position for a quarter century
or SO, with new items added, and there
are various others.
. For many years after our independ-
ence the exact source of the river re-
manned a lesser mystery. akin to that
Of the Nile. Pioneers and trappers doubt
less knew it. but appear to have kept
the knowledge to themselves. The imme-
date cause of its proclamation was the
appointment of commissioners in pursu
ance of the treaty of Client in 1914
Shortly after the Hartford convention)
to determine the northeastern boundary
between the United States and British
possessions, a matter finally not settled
till the much-execrated Ashburton treaty
Of 1872. The surveyors plotted the Cana
dian lines, and made known that one
brook. helping to form the undisputed
Connecticut. rose In lake 51a by 2N
miles in size. in extreme northern New
Hampshire. This they named Connecticut
lake. One P. Carrigan was the first to
place this on a map dn 1816-a map of
New Hampshire. He must have been
close to the fountain of knowledge before
1t had leaked much. for a gazetteer Of
New Hampshire published the very next
year knows nothing of 1t, and 1t is not
mentioned in print until one Of 1923. A
reproduction of this map with a few
changes. made a few years later, is
shown at the Watkinson.