274 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



been other reasons for it, but Hitchcock allowed the observations to 

 pass unnoticed until 1842 when the subject was brought up by 

 no less an authority than Murchison, in his anniversary address before 

 the Geological Society of London. "I take leave of the glacial 

 theory, 1 ' said Murchison, "'in congratulating American science in 

 having possessed the original author of the best glacial theory, though 

 his name has escaped notice, and in recommending to you the terse 

 argument of Peter Dobson, a previous acquaintance with which might 

 have saved volumes of disputation on both sides of the Atlantic.' 1 " 

 Supported by this somewhat enthusiastic indorsement, Hitchcock then 

 gave the letter to the public through the American Journal of Science, 6 

 though at the same time remarking that he had himself derived his 

 ideas concerning the joint action of ice and water from the writings 

 of Sir James Hall. 



April 25, 1823, Maj. S. H. Long received orders from the* War 

 Department to make an expedition for a general survey of the coun- 

 try in the vicinity of the Great Lakes and the sources of the Missis- 

 sippi: to prepare a topographic description of the 



The Longdating ll ' l r ,,,,., j , , ., . , ,, 



Expedition, same; to ascertain the latitude and longitude ot all 



1821=1825 



the remarkable points; to investigate its productions, 

 animal, vegetable, and mineral, and to inquire into the characteristics 

 and customs of the Indians. The route of the expedition (see map, 

 tig. 16) beginning at Philadelphia, was through Wheeling, West Vir- 

 ginia, to Chicago by way of Fort Wayne; thence to Fort Crawford and 

 up the Mississippi to Fort St. Anthon3 T , and the source of the St. 

 Peters River; thence to the point of intersection between Red River 

 and the forty-ninth degree of north latitude; along the northern bound- 

 ary of the United States to Lake Superior, and thence homeward by 

 the Great Lakes. 



Although not intended primarily as a scientific survey, it was accom- 

 panied by Thomas Say, zoologist, and William II. Keating, mineralo- 

 gist. It was expected that Dr. Edwin .lames, who with Say had been 

 a member of the expedition of 1819-20, would be a member of this 

 also, but through failure to connect with the party at Wheeling or 

 Columbus the expedition was deprived of his services. 



An account of this survey, under the title of Narrative of an 

 Expedition to the Sources of St. Peters River, etc., was prepared by 

 William H. Keating and published in two volumes in London in 1825. 

 Keating, it should be noted, was professor of mineralogy and chemis- 

 try as applied to the arts in the University of Pennsylvania, and 

 though his published notes contain little or nothing along the broad 

 lines of geology, they are full of references which, at the time they 

 were written, were of value. 



" Anniversary address, Proceedings of the (ieological Society of London, 1S42. 

 b Volume XLVI, 1844. 



