12 EXPEDITION TO THE 



Topographical Engineers, commanding the Expedition— 

 Thomas Sav, Zoologist and Antiquary — William H. 

 Keating, Mineralogist and Geologist — Samuel Seymour, 

 Landscape Painter and Designer, Messrs. Say and Kea- 

 ting were likewise appointed joint literary journalists to the 

 expedition, and charged with the collecting of the requisite 

 information concerning the names, numbers, manners, cus- 

 toms, &c. of the Indian tribes on the route.* 



The party travelled in light carriages from Phila- 

 delphia to Wheeling, where they disposed of them and 



* Lieut. Andrew Talcott of the United States' Topographical Engi- 

 neers, had been appointed second in command of the expedition, and 

 was to have assisted the commander in the astronomical and topographi- 

 cal department, but his services being required in another direction, 

 James Edwahd Colhoux was appointed astronomer and assistant topo- 

 grapher, and leaving the City of Washington, proceeded to Columbus, 

 (Ohio,) where he joined the party on the 20th of May. 



Dr. Ebwiu James, Botanist, &c.to the Expedition to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and Surgeon in the United States' army, had been appointed 

 botanist, geologist, and physician to the expedition. In pursuance of 

 which, orders were sent to him at Albany, where he then was, to join 

 the party at Wheeling or Columbus, and as it was apprehended that 

 he might have already left that place on Lis way to Bellefontaine on 

 the Mississippi, (to which post he had been previously ordered,) letters 

 were written with a view to intercept him, but which unfortunately 

 did not reach him in season, and at the time when the party passed 

 through Wheeling he was in Pittsburg, where he remained until it 

 was too late for him to overtake them. By tliis unfortunate misunder- 

 standing the expedition was deprived of the serA'ices of this active offi- 

 cer. An apprehension that some unforeseen event might prevent Dr. 

 James from joining the expedition, induced the commanding officer to 

 obtain a division of the services allotted to him, and the appointment 

 of Mr. Keating to the geological department, while the botanical was 

 reserved for Dr. James. It continued vacant during the expedition, a 

 circumstance which was much to be regretted. Mr Say undertook 

 however to collect such plants as might appear to him interesting, but 

 with that diffidence with which a man will attend to a task with which 

 he does not profess to be conversant. 



