VIU PREFACE. 



servations. Besides which, the journals kept by each of 

 the gentlemen, have frequently completed the remark? 

 made by some other member of the party. It has been 

 deemed unnecessary to state in all cases by whom the ob- 

 servations were made or recorded. This has, however, 

 been done, whenever the facts appeared sufficiently inte- 

 resting to require that the names of the observers should 

 be annexed to them. 



As Major Long's report to the war department presents 

 a concise summary of the general features of the country 

 visited by the party, it has been thought adviseable to in- 

 troduce it as a conclusion to the narrative. Having been 

 ordered to the Ohio to make an experiment to improve its 

 navigation according to the provisions of a late act of Con- 

 gress, Major Long was absent from Philadelphia during 

 the preparation of that part of the manuscript which follows 

 the three first chapters of volume first ; this may account 

 for some of the inaccuracies which the work will be found 

 to contain; it is presumed that by his presence they would 

 have been avoided. 



The compiler has found it impossible in the description 

 of the scenery of the Mississippi, &c. to avoid the intro- 

 duction of several words, which, although they are not 

 sanctioned by the dictionaries, seem to be characteristic, 

 and essential to such descriptions; of this nature are the 

 words bluff, prairie, &c. The term creek, being used in 

 different acceptations in England and America, has been 

 avoided in all cases, though with some inconvenience. The 

 word run will, it is believed, be found but once in the 

 body of the work. Lest any false impression should be 

 drawn from the introduction of the term estuary, it may 

 be proper to state, that it has been inadvertently used in 

 several cases, to designate the outlets of streams where the 

 tides do not reciprocate. 



