January 1, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



completed) afford a valuable Insight into the 

 conditions existing at that time, but time 

 will not admit of any considerable quota- 

 tion from them. He is to inform himself 

 about the Rio Bravo, which flows into the 

 Gulf of Mexico, and the Eio Colorado, 

 which runs into the Gulf of California, 

 which are ' understood to be the principal 

 streams heading opposite to the Missouri 

 and running southwardly.' Among the 

 objects worthy of notice are mentioned : 

 ' the remains and accounts of any animals 

 which may be deemed rare or extinct; the 

 mineral productions of every kind, but 

 more particularly metals, limestone, pit-coal 

 and saltpetre ; salines and mineral waters, 

 noting the tempei'ature of the last and such 

 circumstances as may indicate their char- 

 acter ; volcanic appearances ; climate,' etc. 



Lewis left Washington on July 5, 1803, 

 and did not reach there on his return until 

 the middle of February, 1807. Meanwhile, 

 after spending the winter of 1804-5 at the 

 Mandan villages, in a bend of the Missouri 

 about 40 miles above the present crossing 

 of the ISr. P. R. R., at Bismarck, they had 

 made a most successful trip across the 

 mountains to the mouth of the Columbia 

 river and back, an account of which is set 

 forth in the admirable narrative first pub- 

 lished in 1814 and recently republished with 

 notes by Dr. Elliott Coues. This narrative 

 shows a most intelligent observation of na- 

 tural phenomena and makes mention of the 

 existence of stone-coal along the upper Mis- 

 souri river. 



Schoolcraft's account of his visit in 1818 

 to St. Louis, then a city of 5,000 inhabit- 

 ants, describes a museum established by 

 Clark (then Governor of the Territory) con- 

 taining a collection from his trip to the 

 Rocky Mountains, including ' minerals, 

 fossils, bones and other rare and interesting 

 specimens,' and Nicollet in 1839 speaks of 

 Cretaceous fossils brought in by Lewis and 

 Clark from the upper Missouri river. 



1805-7. Scarcely less remarkable were 

 the explorations of Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike 

 to the sources of the Mississippi in 1805, 

 and in 1806-7 to the headwaters of the 

 Arkansas, on the latter of which he made 

 an unsuccessful attempt to climb the peak 

 which has since born his name, and was 

 finally taken from Santa Fe to Chihuahua 

 as prisoner by the Mexican authorities. 



Pike's expeditions were conducted under 

 orders of Gen. Wilkinson, and were essen- 

 tially military in their nature. A surgeon, 

 Dr. Robinson accompanied them, but 

 neither he nor Lieut. Pike have left any 

 record of scientific observations in the nar- 

 rative which was published in 1810. 



1812. The war of 1812 now diverted the 

 attention of government officials from West- 

 ern explorations, but with the close of this 

 war, when the treaty of Ghent had relieved 

 the frontiers from the sanguinary Indian 

 wars from which the people had been suffer- 

 ing, the prospect of a renewed emigration 

 westward revived interest in exploration. 



1820. J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War 

 under Monroe, a man of great intellectual 

 grasp and energy of character, encouraged 

 every means of acquiring a knowledge of 

 the geography of the West. Two expedi- 

 tions were organized under his orders in 

 the year 1820, that of Maj. J. H. Long to 

 the Rocky Mountains, and that of Gen. 

 Lewis Cass along the south shore of Lake 

 Superior to the sources of the Mississippi 

 river. 



To the former was attached Dr. Edwin 

 James as botanist and geologist, who wrote 

 the narative of the expedition, together with 

 a report on the geological character of the 

 country, which was published in 1823. 



To Gen. Cass' expedition, an important 

 part of whose object was to investigate the 

 deposits of copper, lead and gypsum sup- 

 posed to exist in the Northwest, a mineral- 

 ogist was appointed in the person of H. R. 

 Schoolcraft, a native of Albany Co., E". Y., 



