Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-05
EXPLORING THE WEST
The Expedition of Lewis and
G ark Recalled.
LONG POWDERED IDEA
JEFFERSON SUGGESTED 1T TWEEN
TY YEARS BEFORE ATTEMPT.
Feared That the English Had Thoughts
Of Attempting to Colonize the
Great Northwest.
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.

By WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Written for The Evening Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.
DIR. Olin d. Wheeler OF the Northern Pa
cifc railroad, at st. Paul. has traced the
trail of Lewis and Clark all the way from
St. Paul to their winter quarters at Fort
Clatsop, near Astoria. Ore and identified
from day to day the landmarks noted in
their journals. the originals OF which.
twenty In number, are preserved in the Ii
brary of the Philadelphia Historical So
ciety Mr.. Wheeler has been engaged in
this work during the summer vacation for
several years, and has secured much inter-
esting historical material from the tradi-
tons Of the Indian tribes along the Mis-
souri, and Columbia rivers and the noun
tains.
Jefferson proposed the exploration of the
northwest coast of North America twenty
years before the purchase of Louisiana ter
ritory. In 1873 he wrote George Rogers
Clark of Virginia, the man who won the
Ave great states between the Alieghenies
and the mississippi river to the Union, the
following letter. the original of which is
in the Draper collection of manuscripts,
belonging to the Wisconsin Historical So
ciety at Madison, Wis.
Jefferson Suggests the Trip.
ANNAPOLIS. December 4, IIs3.-Dear
Sir: received here about a week ago your
obliging letter of October II, 1888 with the
shells and seeds, for which l return you
many thanks. You are also so kind as to
keep alive the hope of getting for me
many of the different species of bones teeth
and tusks Of the mammoth as can now be
found. This will be most acceptable. Pitts
burg and Philadelphia or Westchester Will
be the surest channel of conveyance. | find
they have subscribed a very large sum OF
money In England for exploring the coun-
try from the Mississippi to California. They
pretend 1t is only to promote knowledge. I
into that quarter
Some of US have been talking here In a
feeble way of making the attempt to search
that country, but i doubt whether we have
enough of that kind of spirit to raise the
money. How would you like to lead such
party? Though l am afraid our prospect
is not worth asking the question. The de-
finitiye treaty of peace has at length arrived.
1t is not altered from the prelminaries. The
cession of the territory west of Ohio to the
United States has been at last accepted by
Congress with some small alterations OF
the conditions. We are daily in expectation
of receiving it with the final appreciation of
Virginia.
Congress have been lately agitated by
questions where they should fix their resi-
dence. They first resolved on Trenton. The
southern states, however, contrived to get
a vote that they would give half their time
to Georgetown at the Falls of the Potomac;
still we consider the matter as undecided
urge the latter as the only point of union
which can cement us to our western friends
when they shall be formed into separate
states. l shall always be happy to hear
from you, and am, with very particular es-
TEEN, dear sir, your friend and humble
servant. TIL. JEFFERSON
Jefferson's Scientific knowledge.
Jefferson had many fantastic ideas con-
corning the northwest, but had also a COM
prehensive foresight of the Importance of
that territory to the United States. AS he
intmates to Gen. Clark, he believed that
large herd of mammoths and other wild
creatures were wandering wild in the Mis-
sppi valley. He was very credulous for a
man of his learning and experience, and at
the same time was sheptical. He had
very poor opinion of geology. OF all the
sciences he took the least interest in IL,
because, in his judgment 1t had "a limited
usefulness" He could not see any prac-
teal importance in knowing whether the
earth was 5000 or 6,000000 years old, and
the different formations were of no conse-
quence so long as they were not composed
of coal, iron or other useful minerals.
THE skin-deep scratches which we can
make or find on the surface of the EARTH
he said, do not repay our time with as
certain and useful deductions as the pursuit
of some other branches"
He wrote a great deal on paleontology,
however, before it was recognized as sci
ence He was curious about petrifca tons
came under his observation advanced theo-
ries perhaps accidental, that have since
been fully SubStantiated. He contended
that many animals then unknown TO 20
ology were wandering wild in the LOUISE
ana territory, upon the prairieS and In the
mountains, and to the end of life he hoped
that the explorers would bring into cap
tivity some of the gigantic creatures whose
bones he had examined with such interest,
In order that he might have an opportunity
of seeing then alive.
"Such is the economy OF nature, ne
wrote, that no instance can be produced
of her having permitted any race or her
animals to become extinct
In Advance of His Age.
Manv of the theories which Jefferson ac-
cented and advanced have since been re-
jected by modern science, but IN seVerai
lines of inquiry he was ahead OF MS age IN
reading and investigation, and was quite ia
advance of contemporary scholars on inns
side of the Atlantic because of his opportu-
mites of study in France. He attempted
at one time to dispute Newton theory VI
the rainbow and among other thliSs ac
cepted the story that the Creek lhuians "a
Georgia were the descendants OF Dido
Carthagfnians, and that Their ancestors mao
been sailors of Hannos lost fleet. lie pc
lieyed and frequently recited a story lolu
hin, by a fur trader that on the upper Mis-
souri, river near the mouth or the felloW-
stone there was a mountain of pure SAT-
eighty miles long and forty miles WIDE
Ledyard's Proposed expedition.
Three years after writing the above letter
to George Rogers Clark, while he was min
lister to Paris, an American adventurer from
Connecticut named Ledyard came to the le-
CATION, poor and disappointed, and pos
sassed of a mania for exploration. He had
sailed with Cook, and exposed the barbarity
of that navigator; had seen on the western
coast of North America the richest of all
fur-bearfug regions. From his youth Jeffer-
son had wondered what might lie between
Monticello and the Pacific ocean. 1t was an
inherited curiosity, for all Virginians had
felt Ii from the time when Captain John
Smith sailed up the Chicka hominy in search
of a passage to the south seas Jefferson
proposed to Ledyard to make his way
through Russia to Kamchatka, thence by
some chance vessel to what we now call
Orespn, and then to explore the unknown
Wilderness to the western settlements OF
III United States. Through Baron Grimm
N obtained a passport and permission for
dedyard to cross Siberia. but 1t wa9>After-