California and the North-west Coast. 255 



which he could reach the Lake of the Woods, which is in 

 latitude 49° and longitude 95°, and writes of it as an im- 

 portant fact he had substantiated that there was no navi- 

 able passage to the east from latitude 30° to 56°. Capt. 

 Hendrick, an American, in 1789 went around Vancouver's 

 island. 



While it is within eighty years since we have learned 

 what is the coast outline of our continent, it is not till 

 within a period less than half of that, that we have become 

 acquainted with the outlines of its interior geography. 

 The continent a hundred years since had never been tra- 

 versed by a European, north of Mexico; nor in Mexico, 

 north of the gulf of California. Delisle's map of 1785 has 

 in an immense blank space the record: "the whole inte- 

 rior is unknown." 



The plan of Jonathan Carver of Connecticut for cross- 

 ing from ocean to ocean in 1772 had failed. His scheme 

 was to have a military post established at the straits of 

 Anian near Oregon. His map of 1778 contains a deline- 

 ation of the sea of the west, the straits of Anian and of 

 De Fuca, now fables of the past. 



John Ledyard, also of Connecticut, in 1786, persevered 

 in a scheme, in which he was aided by Jefferson, to tra- 

 verse the American continent by entering it from Russia; 

 but was hindered from accomplishing it, owing to his im- 

 prisonment by the Russians. 



Samuel Hearne of London, in 1772, by his journey of 

 thirteen hundred miles from Fort Prince of Wales in lati- 

 tude 60° to the Coppermine river, established the fact that 

 the continent did not extend to the North pole. 



Alexander McKenzie in his first journey westward in 

 1789, reached only the Arctic ocean, but farther west 

 than Hearne, to the river still called after his name as dis- 

 coverer. In his second journey in 1793, he was the first 



