PREFACE. 



The following pages embrace the substance of the narratives 

 of two distinct expeditions for the discovery of the sources of the 

 Mississippi River, under the authority of the United States. By 

 connecting the incidents of discovery, and of the facts brought 

 to light during a period of twelve years, unity is preserved in 

 the prosecution of an object of considerable importance in the 

 progress of our geography and natural history, at least, from the 

 new impulse which they received after the treaty of Ghent. 



Geographers deem that branch of a river as its true source 

 which originates at the remotest distance from its mouth, and, 

 agreeably to this definition, the combined narratives, to which 

 attention is now called, show this celebrated stream to arise in 

 Itasca Lake, the source of the Itasca Eiver, 



Owing to the time which has intervened since these expeditions 

 were undertaken, a mere revision of the prior narrations, in the 

 journal form^ was deemed inexpedient. A concise summary has, 

 therefore, been made, preserving whatever information it was 

 thought important to be known or remembered, and omitting all 

 matters not partaking of permanent interest. 



To this summary, something has been added from the original 

 manuscript journals in his possession. The domestic organiza- 

 tion and social habits of the parties may thus bo more perfectly 

 understood. The sympathies which bind men together in iso- 

 lated or trying scenes are sources of interest long after the link 

 is severed, and the progress of science or discovery lias passed 

 beyond the particular points at which they then stood. Events 

 pass with so much rapidity at present, in the difiusion of our 



