Cones.] lo [Jan. 20, 



account of thorn in detail, as I have arranged Ihem in a series of codices, 

 which I call alphabetically Codex A, etc., to T. 



I. The Books and Papers as Found. 



Of four sorts : (1), (2), (8), three diflerent styles of boup.d field Note- 

 books and Journals ; (4), several lots of loose papers, mainly belonging 

 with one of the styles of the bound volumes. 



1. Thirteen (13) bound volumes, all alike, forming the most conspicuous 

 part of the collection, and known since Biddle'stime as "the red books." 

 These are Journals and Notebooks of Lewis and of Clark, res[)ectively, 

 all in the handwriting of one or the other of the explorers. Eleven (11) 

 of these are a part of the Biddle deposit ; one (1) was deposited by Mr. 

 Jefferson ; one (1) is an unrecorded deposit. All are in remarkably good 

 order, clean and sound inside and out ; form oblong ; back along short diam- 

 eter, and as the p.iges were written on both sides, up and down, across the 

 same diameter, the books open to and from the reader, not right and left ; 

 covers smooth bright red morocco, gilt-tooled edges, marbled inside, fas- 

 tened at the fore end with brass clasps (now gone from eight of the volumes, 

 intact on five of them) ; size of covers 8| x 5^ inches (very nearly same size 

 and shape as the leaves of the printed Philadelphia edition of 1814) ; 

 paper about one quarter inch smaller each way tlian cover, or 7| x 4|, 

 rather thin, rough and tough, white (now with a slight brownish tinge), 

 unruled ; gathering supposed to be 76 folios or 153 pages in each book, 

 exclusive of a pair of flyleaves marbled one side like inside of cover ; 

 but tlie number of leaves varies a little, and in several cases some 

 leaves have been intentionally torn out— nowhere breaking the text, 

 but to write something else on, or for another purpose. Tliese books, 

 as a whole, are written almost entirely full. Lewis' hand is particu- 

 larly fine, lair and even ; Clark's is larger, stronger and less regular ; 

 both are so good, and the pages are so perfectly preserved, that there is 

 perhaps not a word, possibly not a letter, in the whole of these manu- 

 scripts not now distinctly legible. Seven (7) of these thirteen books are 

 by Lewis alone ; six (G) are by Clark alone. Eleven (11) are "Journals " 

 — i. e., narratives of the progiess of the Expedition day by day, entered 

 under consecutive dates. Two (3) are "Notebooks" — i. e., miscellane- 

 ous entries, of various dates or none, of astronomical, geographical, 

 ethnological, zoological, botanical, etc., items. In my arrangement these 

 thirteen books become Codices D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P 

 (see further on). With them belong more or less intimately certain par- 

 cels of loose sheets (see on). 



2. One (1) bound volume, the "brown " book, standing alone. This 

 is almost exactly the size, shape, etc., of the foregoing, but quite unlike 

 them in appearance. It is bound in rough brown leather, sides and edges 

 alike, not marbled inside ; it is thicker than any of the other volumes, 

 the paper being heavier and coarser ; the leaves are 137, pages 274. This 



