American Expedition of Discover^/. 1 3 



over the face, neck, and -chest. It is of a yellow colour 

 mixed with black. The body, the legs, and the arms, are 

 furnished with a very short shining hair, of a fine black ; 

 its tail is of a snow-white colour, and is terminated by a 

 tuft of hair jet black. 



This ape, which is nearly a metre in height when stand- 

 ing on its hind legs, according to Pennant, inhabits the fo- 

 rests of Sierra Leone and Guinea, where the negroes call it 

 the king of' the apes. We shall characterize it as follows ; 

 Ateles polycomos j ateles comatus, palmis tetradactylis, 

 Cauda alia. 



II. Account of the Success of the American Expedition of 

 Discovery under the Command of Captain Lewis: com- 

 mimicated in a Letter from Captain Clark to his Brother 

 General Clark. 



^-.^ DEAR BROTHER, St. Loirts, Sept.23, 1805. 



W E arrived at this place at twelve o'clock to-day from 

 the Pacific Ocean, where we remained during the last winter, 

 near the entrance of the Columbia river. This station we left 

 on the 27th of March last, and should have reached Saint 

 Louis early in August had we not been detained by the snow, 

 which barred our passage across the Rocky Mountains until 

 the 24th of June. In returning through those mountains 

 we divided ourselves into several parties, digressing from the 

 route by which we went out, in order the more effectually 

 to explore the country, and discover the most practicable 

 route which docs exist across the continent by tlie way of 

 the Missouri and Columbia rivers. In this we were com- 

 pletely successful, and have therefore no hesitation in de- 

 clarine, that, such as nature has permitted, we have disco- 

 vered the best route which di)cs exist across the continent of 

 North America in that du-ection. Such is that by way of 

 the Missouri to the foot of the rapids below the great falls 

 of that river, a distance of 2575 miles ; thence by land pass- 

 ing by the Rocky Mountains to a navigable part of the Koos- 

 kooske, 310: and with the K.ooskouske 73 miles, Lewis';* 



river 



