PREFACE. 



IN offering this work to the public, the compiler regrets 

 that it has been delayed longer than was originally intend- 

 ed; the difficulties which he has encountered in the per- 

 formance of a task for which he was quite unprepared, af- 

 ford him his only apology. Inexperienced in the art of 

 writing for the public, it is probable that he has fallen into 

 many errors which, with more time, he might have avoid- 

 ed ; but works of the nature of this admit of but little de- 

 lay. Narratives of voyages of discoveries lose much of their 

 interest, if the publication be long deferred. 



The principal object which the compiler had in view, 

 was to unite the documents confided to him, so as to pre- 

 sent a faithful description of the country over which the 

 .. party travelled, and of the few adventures which inter- 

 rupted the monotony of a journey through a wilderness. 



It may be well to state that the historical part of the 

 narrative, together with the topographical, and much of 

 the descriptive matter, has been drawn from Major Long's 

 notes. Mr. Colhoun's manuscripts, besides contributing to 

 the same departments, and yielding the astronomical ob- 

 * servations, have been very valuable in furnishing the 

 "• greater part of the references to older writers. The com- 

 S parisons between the observations made by our party and 

 the assertions of former travellers, are almost entirely due 

 to that gentleman. From Mr. Say's notes, all that relates to 

 the zoology and botany of the country traversed has been ob- 

 tained, as well as much of the matter relating to the Indians. 

 This last department has been completed from the compiler's 

 own notes, which have likewise furnished the geological ob- 



