Vlll ' PREFACE. 



population over regions where, but lately, tlie Indian was the 

 only tenant, that we are in danger of having but a confused re- 

 cord of them, if not of losing it altogether. It is some abatement 

 of this fear to know that there is always a portion of the com- 

 munity who take a pleasure in remembering individuals; who 

 have either ventured their lives, or exerted their energies, to pro- 

 mote knowledge or advance discovery. It is in this manner that, 

 however intent an age may be in the plans which engross it, the 

 sober progress and attainments of the period are counted up. An 

 important fact discovered in the physical geography or natural 

 history of the country, if it be placed on record, remains a fact 

 added to the permanent stores of information. A new plant, a 

 crystal, an insect, or the humblest invertebrate object of the zoo- 

 logical chain, is as incontestable an addition to scientific know- 

 ledge, as the finding of remains to establish a new species of 

 mastodon. They only differ in interest and importance. 



It is not the province of every age to produce a Linnaeus, a 

 Buftbn, or a Cuvier; but, such are the almost endless forms of 

 vegetable and animal life and organization — from the infusoria 

 upward — that not a year elapses which may not enlarge the 

 boundaries of science. The record of discovery is perpetually 

 accumulating, and filling the list of discoverers with humbler, yet 

 worthy names. Whoever reads with care the scientific desiderata 

 here olfered will find matter of description or comment which has 

 employed the pens of a Torrey, a Mitchell, a Cooper, a Lea, a 

 Barnes, a Houghton, and a Nicollet. 



It is from considerations of this nature, that the author has 

 appended to this narrative the original observations, reports, and 

 descriptions made by his companions or himself, while engaged in 

 these exploratory journeys, together with the determinations made 

 on such scientific objects as were referred to other competent 

 hands. These investigations of the physical geography of the 

 West, and the phenomena or resources of the country, constitute, 

 indeed, by far the most important permanent acquisitions of the 

 scrutiny devoted to them. They form the elements of classes of 

 facts which will retain their value, to men of research, when the 

 incidents of the explorations are forgotten, and its actors them- 

 selves have passed to their final account. 



It would have been desirable that what has here been done 



