NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION 



TO THE 



SOURCE OF ST. PETER'S RIVER, 



CHAPTER I. 



Departure from Philadelphia. Geology of the Allegha- 

 nies. Cumberland Road. Wheeling. 



THE success which attended the expedition to the 

 Rocky Mountains, and the important information which 

 it imparted concerning the nature of the valley drained by 

 the Missouri and its tributaries, of which nothing was 

 Jknown but what had been observed by Lewis and Clarke, 

 induced the government of the United States to continue 

 its endeavours to explore the unknown wilds within its 

 limits. The first object which appeared to it deserving of 

 investigation was the district of country bounded by the 

 Missouri, the Mississippi, and the Northern Boundary of 

 the United States. 



This triangular section includes about three hundred 

 miles of longitude and seven hundred of latitude. Governor 

 Cass had, on his late expedition, explored the southern 

 shore of Lake Superior to the mouth of St. Louis river, 

 and the water communication between Fond du Lac and 

 the Mississippi, which river he ascended to the Upper 

 Red Cedar or Cassina Lake, and then descended to the 

 mouth of the Wisconsan. By this journey much light wars 



Vol, I. 2* 



