92, Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 
stirred up interest in natural history from one end of 
the land to the other, and after his settlement in the west 
he was readily accessible to scientists and travelers. 
Schoolcraft was a geologist, who did considerable spe- 
cial work in mineralogy, then an almost unknown science 
in the United States, and studied the phenomena of 
meteorology. He was a great traveler, always on er- 
rands of scientific interest, an enthusiastic student of 
archeology, and was particularly known as an investi- 
gator and standard authority in all that pertained to the 
ethnology of the North American Indian. 
In 1817 he decided to study the topography, geology 
and mineralogy of the Mississippi Valley, as well as its 
ethnology. This offered great opportunities on account 
of its curious mounds, its antiquities and existing Indian 
tribes. The localities he explored were principally in 
Missouri, and Schooleraft’s name is indelibly linked with 
the natural history of this state. From Pittsburg he 
journeyed down the Ohio river to its mouth and up the 
Mississippi to St. Louis, traveling at the rate of five or 
six miles a day. While the men poled the barges he ex- 
plored the country west of the Mississippi, which is noted 
for its mines. It took him about three weeks to reach 
Herculaneum, and for the remaining thirty miles to St. 
Louis he tramped through the woods and over the hills, 
noting in his journal every peculiar topographical fea- 
ture. Schoolcraft was greatly pleased with St. Louis, 
being particularly interested in the private museum of 
Governor Clark. 
He did not stay very long in the city, but moved to 
Potosi, which he made the center of his investigations in 
the mining regions of that district. Having made a very | 
minute mineralogical study of the region, and wishin 
to ascertain its geological connection with the Ozarks 
and neighboring mountains, he explored the southwest- 
ern part of Missouri and Arkansas. ; 
After 1811 no scientific expeditions penetrated the Far 
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