My return will not be so soon as I expected. I fear not sooner than about June or July 1806 [It was in fact late in September of that year.] Every exertion will be made to accomplish this enterprise in a shorter period. Please to present me most respectfully to my sister Lucy [wife of Major Croghan] and the family, and accept the assurance of my sincere affection, &c.

Wm Clark

[P. S.] I send my sister Croghan some seed of several kinds of grapes.

It is admitted that to John Colter must be ascribed the first intimation of the existence of the volcanic region at the head waters of the Yellowstone and Madison rivers. Hence every particular regarding Colter's adventures in the Far West becomes of such interest that it ought to be garnered in. With this view Mr. Koch, in his paper on the "Discovery of the Yellowstone National Park," has inserted an account, two pages long, of Colter's capture by Indians and his miraculous escape. This narrative was borrowed by Mr. Koch from an article by W. F. Sanders, in the first volume of "Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana" (Helena, 1776, p. 101). But where did Mr. Sanders find the story? He himself does not state, merely saying, that he "gives it as it has long been told, both in print and otherwise."

Had the original account of Colter's Indian experience been known either to Mr. Koch or Mr. Sanders, I think it would have been mentioned, and I am very glad that I am able to supply their omission, and to bring on the stand a contemporary witness.

Colter's story, as told by himself, is printed in "Travels in the Interior of America in the years 1809, 1810, and 1811, by John Bradbury" (Liverpool, 1817, p. 19 et seq.). Bradbury, a botanist, who pushed up the Missouri well-nigh to the Yellowstone, had an interview with John Colter on the 18th March, 1811. The meeting was on the Missouri, at the mouth of Bœuf Creek, four days' cance voyage up the river from Saint Louis. Colter, Bradbury says, was then living within a mile. of Bœuf Creek, had come down the Missouri 3,000 miles in thirty days in a small canoe, arriving in Saint Louis, May, 1810, and had been seen there and then by Bradbury. Bradbury obtained an account of many adventures from Colter, but says that he relates only one. It is probable that he committed others to writing, perhaps to the English press, which transatlantic research may bring to light. Some of these may prove to be the earliest reports concerning the geyserite region. John Potts, who was killed at the time Colter was made prisoner, had served with him under Lewis and Clark, but was not discharged until the party had reached Saint Louis. It does not appear how or when he ascended the Missouri or joined Colter again. Bradbury describes Colter as very eager to go up with him into. the heart of the continent in 1811, and as only prevented by having just married a wife.

Some light is thrown on Colter as the Columbus of the Park, by scrutiny of

Lewis and Clark's Journal, and especially the map drawn by Clark, as well as his subsequent life.

In 1806 Lewis and Clark, returning from the Pacific, on the third morning after passing the mouth of the Yellowstone, were surprised to meet two white men-the first they had seen for years. These were Dickson and Hancock, who had come from the Illinois on a hunting excursion up the Yellowstone. These trappers accompanied the Captains down the river for three days to the Mandan villages, and meantime won the heart of Colter.

In the Journal of Lewis and Clark we read (Vol. II., p. 407), Saturday, 14 August." In the evening we were applied to by one of our men, Colter, who was desirous of joining the two trappers who had accompanied us, and who now proposed an expedition up the river, in which they were to find traps and give him a share of the profits. The offer was a very advantageous one, and as he had always performed his duty, and his services might be dispensed with, we agreed that he might go, provided none of the rest would ask or expect a similar indulgence. We supplied him, as did his comrades also, with powder and lead and a variety of articles which might be useful to him, and he left us the next day."

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If the secret of being dull did not lie in saying every thing, I would add various gleanings from the Lewis and Clark Journal showing how well Colter had done his duty for years. But I forbear.

The "dotted line " mentioned by Mr. Koch on the "Maps of Lewis and Clark's Track," is worthy of more particular description, for it is not found in many editions (as in the Dublin, 1817), and it may lead to further discoveries. That line starts from the upper waters of Pryor's Fork of the Yellowstone. Passing to the Big Horn, up it to Stinking Water, and up that stream nearly to a point marked "Boiling Spring;" it then returns via Clark's Fork to the point from which it started.

A second loop of dotted lines leaving the first at the highest branch of Clark's Fork, crosses to the Yellowstone and up it some distance, leaves it for the north point of Lake Eustis [Yellowstone Lake] runs south along its west shore, and then, leaving Lake Biddle [Jackson] on the left, it reaches a branch of the Rio del Norte [Green River of Colorado] written down as Colter's River. Thence via the

Upper Big Horn, the Salt Fork of the Stinking Water and the Boiling Spring, it returns to its starting-point. The legend Colter's Route in 1807, appears on the dotted line as it crosses from Clark's Fork to the Yellowstone. Just beyond its crossing of the Yellowstone are the words Hot Spring, Brimstone.

It is natural to ask "How came these dotted lines on the map of Lewis and Clark?" their track was nowhere near the dotted lines, and their two octavos will be searched in vain for allusions to Yellowstone phenomena.

But the original drawing of the map was made by Captain Clark, and by him. also the dotted lines and legends must have been added. When Colter arrived at Saint Louis in 1810 Clark had become governor there, and he knew Colter well. In Clark's papers then there is another possible source of further information about Colter's wanderings for three years and more after his discharge in 1806.

At the date of Colter's return to Saint Louis the only newspaper there published was the Missouri Gazette. The only copy of it now known to be in existence has been searched for me, but no syllable has been discovered concerning Colter, and only one line concerning Bradbury.

The earliest use of the word geyser to describe Park water-spouts should be sought out as indicating the time when those wonders first met the eyes of one who could tell what he had seen. Thus far, the earliest mention of the Western water-columns as geysers, appears to be in the article cited by Mr. Koch (p. 506) as published in 1842 at Nauvoo, although written possibly in 1833.

Nothing is more needed as a contribution to Western annals than a new edition of the Travels of Lewis and Clark. That work would have been prepared for the press by Capt. Lewis but for his death. It was prepared by hack writers, Paul Allen and Nicholas Biddle. Many details must have been omitted as unimportant, that in the light of subsequent events would be precious. Thanks to the care of Jefferson the original diaries in a dozen volumes are all treasured in the archives of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. Let them not wait longer. for a worthy redaction.

MADISON, Wis.

JAMES D. BUTLER

NOTES