POSTSCRIPT. 
In the foregoing sketches I submit to the public 
some off-hand observations on a journey that was 
made off-hand. I make no claim to a scientific treat- 
ment of my subject. Neither my time, nor my means, 
nor my knowledge in the natural sciences, of which 
I never made a specific study, would permit of this. 
My purpose in writing these sketches was solely to 
give the reader an appreciable picture of the un- 
known west of the United States with the peculari- 
ties of the country and the still greater peculiarities of 
its inhabitants, and to present in suitable groups, 
as it were through a panorama, those objects which 
passed one by one before my eyes, with often fatigu- 
ing slowness. With romantic trimmings the picture 
might perhaps have been made more attractive to 
some readers, but I have preferred to copy nature 
and life as faithfully as possible, and to give due heed 
to the shades as well as the lights. If I have accom- 
plished this purpose, however imperfectly, I shall feel 
adequately compensated for the fatigues and dangers 
of such a trip. 
As an aid for following the geography I have ap- 
pended a little map of my journey, in which are in- 
dicated the trend of the Rocky Mountains and of the 
streams arising in them, filled in with more detail at 
the point where I crossed the Rockies. As there are 
