28 ESSAYS. 
devoted to an examination of the region between Quebee and 
Hudson’s Bay, the botany of which, as is well known, he was 
the first to investigate. His journal comprises a full and 
very interesting account of the physical geography and vege- 
tation of that inclement district. 
Leaving Quebee in October, and returning by the same 
route, we find our persevering traveler at Philadelphia early 
in December. It appears that he now meditated a most for- 
midable journey, and made the following proposition to the 
American Philosophical Society: “ Proposé a plusieurs mem- 
bres de la Société Philosophique les avantages pour les Etats- 
Unis d’avoir des informations geographiques des pays a louest 
de Mississippi, et demandé qu’ils aient 4 endosser mes traites 
pour la somme de £3600, si je suis disposé a voyager aux 
sources du Missouri, et méme rechercher les rivieres qui 
coulent vers l’ocean Pacifique. Ma proposition ayant été 
accepté, j'ai donné a Mr. Jefferson, Secretaire d’Etat, les 
conditions auxquels je suis disposé a entreprendre ce voyage. 
. . . J’offre de communiquer toutes les connoisances et infor- 
mations geographiques a la Société Philosophique ; et je re- 
serve 2 mon profit toutes les connoisances en histoire naturelle 
que j’acquirerai dans ce voyage.” Remaining in Philadelphia 
and its vicinity until the following summer, he set out for 
Kentucky in July, 1793, with the object of exploring the 
western States (which no botanist had yet visited), and also 
of conferring with General Clarke (at Mr. Jefferson’s re- 
quest) on the subject of his contemplated journey to the 
Rocky Mountains. He crossed the Alleghanies in Pennsyl- 
vania, descended the Ohio to Louisville, Kentucky, traversed 
that State and western Virginia to Abingdon, and again trav- 
eled through the valley of Virginia to Winchester, Harper's 
Ferry, ete., arriving at Philadelphia on the 12th of December 
of the same year. Conferences respecting his projected expe- 
dition were now renewed, in which Mr. Genet, the envoy from 
the French republic, took prominent part; but here the mat- 
other locality is given than the high mountains of North Carolina. Major 
Le Conte found it several years ago in the southwestern part of New 
York, and Mr. Lapham has recently detected it in Wisconsin. 
