Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the Years 1819 and '20, by Order of the Hon. J. C. Calhoun, Sec'y of War

Book Description

Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, 1823 First edition. 2 volumes. Pp. [4], 5, [3], 503 + [6], 442, xcviii. Lacking atlas volume. Later three-quarter leather, marbled boards, spines gilt. Scattered light foxing, minor age-toning, contemporary owner's name. A very good, attractive set. This notable government expedition (commanded by Major Stephen H. Long) supplemented earlier discoveries of Pike and Lewis and Clark, and eventually pronounced the "plains region as nothing but a desert, incapable of cultivation" (Howes). Long was appointed by the government to explore the Yellowstone, but attempts to ascend the Missouri in a steamboat built for that purpose were unsuccessful. The expedition continued overland and finally crossed the plains through present-day Kansas and Colorado to the foot of the Front Range. The expedition failed to attain either of its objectives (reaching the headwaters of the Yellowstone and determining the sources of the Red River) but did add greatly to the geographical knowledge. This set contains the appendix, entitled Astronomical and Meteorological Records, and Vocabularies of Indian Languages, taken on the Expedition for Exploring the Mississippi and its Western Waters... It is present with a separate title page dated Philadelphia, 1822. The appendix (98pp.), which Thomas Say contributed a section on Indian language, is frequently lacking. [Graff: 2188; Howes I: J-41; Howes II: J-40; Streeter Sale: 1783; Wagner-Camp: 25:1]..

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