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scientific officer who had directed the ex- 

 pedition to the Rocky Mountains. Its ob- 

 jects were to explore that district included 

 between the Mississippi, Missouri, and the 

 northern boundary of the United States. 

 The naturahsts attached to the party were 

 Mr. Say as Zooh^gist, and Mr. Keating as 

 Mineralogist, and Geologist. Leaving Chi- 

 cago, at the southern extremity of Lake 

 Michigan, the party proceeded westerly, 

 across the country watered by the Rock 

 River arid its tributaries to Prairie du Chien, 

 6n the Mississippi, \scending this river to 

 the mouth of the St. Peter, they ascended 

 this latter three hundred and twenty-five 

 miles, to its source in the Bigs+one Lake, 

 Within three miles of this lake they came 

 to the shores of Lake Travers, the princi- 

 pal source of the Red river, which flows 

 into Lake Winnipeck. We have thus with- 

 in a small space, the sources of rivers which 

 empty severally into the St. Lawrence, 

 Hudson's Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico. 

 Contrary to what might have been anti- 

 cipated from such an elevated region, it is 

 full of marshes, quagmires, and standing 

 pools; through which the streams lazily 



