University of Virginia Library

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INTRODUCTION

THE remarkable series of charts given in this volume
illustrate in detail almost the entire route of the Lewis
and Clark expedition, both on the outward and the
return journeys, with sites of camping-places and Indian villages,
and further enriched with much interesting comment on
the country and the natives. An account of their discovery
will be found in the Introduction to Vol. I of the present
series, pp. l–liii. Save for Nos. 1–3, which are copies of contemporary
French and Spanish manuscript maps, and doubtless
were carried upon the expedition, several traced from rude
Indian drawings, and No. 37, which bears Lewis's chirography,
all appear to have been the work of Clark, who was the recognized
draughtsman of the party. When we consider the
conditions under which these charts were drawn,—in the field,
with crude astronomical instruments, and information derivable
chiefly from daily observation and Indian reports,—their relative
accuracy and topographical comprehension are worthy of
our highest praise; they are eloquent witnesses of Clark's
undoubted engineering skill.

The charts fall readily into certain groups:

I.

• A preliminary series (Nos. 1–3) being tracings of contemporary
  French and Spanish manuscripts. In this series we
  may also include No. 4, showing the neighborhood of the first
  winter's camp in Illinois, at River Dubois, opposite the mouth
  of the Missouri.

II.

• But one map (No. 5) appears to be extant, of the lower
  Missouri—that for the stretch above St. Charles, across a
  large portion of the present State of Missouri. Others are
  missing either by accident or because this portion of the river
  was well known to French and Spanish fur-traders, who even
  

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  thus early made annual voyages as far as the present site of
  Omaha.

III.

• When the expedition entered the comparatively unknown
  region peopled by the fierce Sioux and Arikara tribes,
  a careful record of the river's course is shown in a series of
  small but exceedingly accurate maps (Nos. 6–11). These lay
  down the river channel continuously from a point near the
  southern boundary of South Dakota as far up as the site of
  Fort Mandan, some thirty-five miles above the present city
  of Bismarck—thus giving almost the entire stretch of the
  Missouri's course across the two Dakotas, with the islands,
  bends, and Indian villages upon the banks as they were found
  by the expedition a hundred years ago.

IV.

• This group consists of Nos. 11–13, prepared at Fort
  Mandan on information received from French and British
  traders, as well as from native reports. No. 11 shows the trail
  from the Assiniboin region, over which the Northwest Company's
  factors had come—to find, to their chagrin, that the
  Americans had established themselves among the Mandans,
  who were accounted the former's especial customers. Nos. 12
  and 13 are conjectural maps of the country to the west, indicating
  the overland trail to the Yellowstone and the chief
  topographical features of the eastern slope of the Rocky
  Mountains.

V.

• No. 14 is one of the principal maps of the series. It
  represents the course of the Missouri from Fort Mandan as
  far as the Falls, and embraces the route of the summer's travel
  in 1805—from the time the Mandans were left behind
  (April 7) to the date when the portage was completed and
  the river approached through the Gates of the Mountains
  (July 15). This map was prepared by Clark with skilful care;
  it embodies the results of a series of preliminary field sketches
  (Nos. 15–25), draughted from day to day on rough sheets on
  which the "Courses and Distances" for each day's travel were
  also indicated. Using these eleven maps as a basis, Clark
  gives us in No. 14 the natural features, the affluents, the character
  

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  of the banks, and the camping-places both going and
  returning; all this data being presented upon a Mercator's projection
  of squares of latitude and longitude. It is interesting
  to note that not possessing sheets of paper of sufficient size to
  produce so large a map, he pasted together those of ordinary
  dimensions. This was done at such angles that the sinuous
  course of the river is graphically represented. Nos. 26 and 26a
  are sketches of the topography of the Falls of the Missouri,
  and supplement those already published in volume three of
  this work, which were found in the codices of the journals
  proper.

  Four additional maps were needed to complete the water
  route to the head-springs of Jefferson River, where the canoes
  were finally abandoned. These (Nos. 27–29a) portray in like
  careful manner: the Missouri through the Rocky Mountains,
  the Three Forks of that river, and the course of the Jefferson
  from its junction with Madison and Gallatin rivers through
  Beaver Head Valley to its upper forks. This was the course
  over which the expedition painfully struggled (July 16–Aug.
  20, 1805) from the Great Falls, until it was no longer possible
  to drag or pole the canoes through the shallowing stream.

VI.

• We now come to three large maps, of which the first
  (No. 30) is probably the most important of the entire series:
  for herein is portrayed the much-discussed and little-understood
  route over the range of mountains lying between the head-springs
  of the Missouri and the plains of the Kooskooskee
  (Clearwater), where the friendly Flatheads (Chopunnish) preserved
  the expedition from starvation. On sheets of paper
  pasted together in the same ingenious fashion as before, Clark
  has laid down the entire horseback tour from Shoshoni Cove
  to the banks of the Lemhi; the crossing to the Bitterroot
  Valley—not perfectly elucidated up to the present publication;
  the passage down the Bitterroot; the rendezvous at Traveller's
  Rest; and the mountainous trail to the west, along the ridge
  north of the middle fork of the Kooskooskee, including the
  courses of Hungry and Collins creeks (so difficult to identify);
  

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  and finally, the emergence upon Weippe Prairie, the habitat
  of the hospitable Flatheads.

  No. 31 shows the entire course of the Kooskooskee, its
  junction with Lewis (Snake) River, and the latter's bed as far
  as the Columbia, which is also given to the Umatilla, as well
  as some portion of its course above the junction of the Lewis.
  The point where the canoes were built is indicated, and the
  descent of the three rivers from October 17–19 is charted in
  much detail.

  The third of the three large maps (No. 32) portrays all the
  lower stretch of the Columbia, from about the point where it
  becomes the boundary between the present States of Oregon
  and Washington, to its discharge into the Pacific, together
  with a part of the coast line of the latter. This is interesting
  not only for the detail and accuracy with which the river's
  course is traced, but as being probably our first chart of that
  great waterway above the tidal region.

  There follow several small sketch maps (Nos. 33–36), showing
  details of the Columbia, evidently prepared only as preliminary
  to the making of No. 32. They have, however, an
  interest of their own, in marking certain camping-places and
  giving some other particulars not reproduced on the larger
  chart.

VII.

• Nos. 37–39 were those made at Fort Clatsop. No.
  38 shows Clark's exploration of the coast when on his journey
  (Jan. 6–10, 1806) in search of the spoils of the stranded
  whale.

VIII.

• The next group of maps (Nos. 40–44) are all of
  Indian origin, and represent the information obtained on the
  return journey from the natives of the Western slope, in relation
  to tribal location, natural objects, and various mountain
  trails. It was upon the data thus gathered that the explorers
  based the bold conception of dividing the party, each section
  seeking not only increased geographical knowledge, but a
  more practicable passage than they had found on the outward
  journey, between Missouri and Columbia waters.

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  No. 43 is especially interesting in this connection. It maps
  several native trails over the great divide, and three available
  routes from Traveller's Rest to the Missouri—the most
  northerly of which was followed by Lewis, and the most southerly
  by Clark.

IX.

• The last group is devoted to Clark's return route.
  Of these, Nos. 45 and 46 refer to his crossing (July 4–9, 1806)
  from the Bitterroot Valley to the Forks of the Jefferson, and
  are somewhat contradictory and confused. A careful local
  study, however, may elucidate the main features of the trail, as
  well as throw light upon the outward journey between these
  two points.

  Nos. 47 and 48 likewise indicate the journey from the Three
  Forks to the Yellowstone, over what is now the famous Bozeman
  Pass, and approximating the present route of the Northern
  Pacific Railway.

  The remainder of the maps (Nos. 49–53) portray the basin
  of the Yellowstone. Here is the only gap in the continuity of
  the series. The first four maps are contiguous, and bring
  us to the neighborhood of old Fort Sarpy, near the eastern
  boundary of the present Crow Indian Reservation. One small
  map (No. 53) of the Yellowstone, near its junction with the
  Missouri, closes this series of original charts.

X.

• No. 54 has been prepared especially for this volume, on
  the basis of the maps above enumerated, and represents, on a
  condensed scale, the route of the entire journey in relation to
  modern conditions, from the mouth of the Missouri to the
  Pacific and return. Necessarily compressed in order to present
  a bird's-eye view of the whole, the details must be sought
  through a close study of Clark's originals, in connection with
  the text of the journals themselves.

The points of the compass are roughly indicated by the
placing of the captions at the south side of the maps.