28 EXPLORATIONS FROM A. D. 1800 To A. p. 1832. 
LIEUTENANT HARDY, R. N.—EXAMINATION OF GULF OF CALIFORNIA, 1825-’26~’27-'28. 
Lieutenant Hardy visited the whole coast of the Gulf from Mazatlan around by the mouth 
of the Colorado to Loredo, in search of pearl fisheries. He did not determine any position® 
by astronomical observations, and his map has not been used by me. 
ROSS COX.—ADVENTURES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 
This book is entitled **Adventures on the Columbia River, including a Narrative of six 
years on the Western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto 
unknown, together with a Journey across the American Continent: By Ross Cox. Published 
by J. J. Harper, New York.—1832." 
The journey across the continent was made up the Columbia to one of its a sources, 
crossing the Rocky mountains at the head of the Athabasca river, near Mount Hooker, in about 
latitude 52° 10 north. The book is very interesting and instructive in regard to the early 
operations of the fur companies. 
RECONNAISSANCE OF THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, BY LIEUTENANT J. ALLEN, U. S. A., 1832. 
The report of Lieutenant Allen, with map, on a scale of 5.75 miles to an inch, exhibiting 
the Mississippi river from Lake Pepin to its source, together with the country adjacent to his 
routes, is printed in Ex. Doc. No. 323, 1st session 23d Congress. 
He states that ‘‘the route of the expedition was up Lake Superior to Fond du Lac; thence 
up the Fond du Lac river ninety-one miles to the mouth of the East Savanne river, and across 
by the latter river, the Savanne portage, and the West Savanne river, to Sandy lake and the 
Mississippi; thence up the Mississippi, through Lake Winnipeg, Upper Red Cedar or Cass lake, 
and Lac Traverse, to Lac la Biche or Elk lake, the source of the river; thence returning back to 
Cass lake, and across the country by small lakes and portages to the source of Crow Wing river, - 
and down this to the Mississippi river again; down the Mississippi fifty-nine miles below the 
Falls of St. Anthony to the St. Croix river, up the latter to its source in upper Lake St. Croix, 
and thence down the Bois Brule river to Lake Superior again, twenty miles from Fond du Lac 
river, by which we had left the lake on our way up, and thence back to St. Ste. Marie, the 
point from which we started. We were about eighty days, between the 6th of June and 26th 
of August, and travelled in that time-2,000 miles. * * * *” 
“I was not furnished with, nor could I procure at Fort Brady, any instruments by which to 
fix, from astronomical observations, the true geographical positions of points necessary to be 
known for the construction of an accurate map; and to obviate this inconvenience I had 
recourse to a method of tracing the whole route between the few points fixed and given by the 
observations of former travellers. For this purpose a compass, the only instrument I had, was 
placed in my canoe, where it was constantly under my eye; and as the canoe proceeded in the 
line of a river, I carried my observations from the compass to a field-book at every bend or 
change of direction, thus delineating in my field-book all the bends of the river precisely as 
they occurred; and by establishing a scale of proportions in the lengths of the reaches, I was 
also in this way enabled to lay down and preserve the general curve of a river with surprising 
accuracy, as was tested afterwards in constructing on my map the routes of rivers between 
known points. The distances were estimated with great pains and care, and from the combined 
judgment of all the gentlemen of the party. * * * 
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