TILE TRAIL OF LEWIS AND CLARK. By 0. D. Wheeler.
0, Vols. (Putnam. 50s.)-When in 1803 the U.S.A. aired by the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon about ne-third of its present area for a figure which worked out to (nettling like three-halfpence an acre, it struck President efferson that it would be well to find out something about Le new acquisition.. Two officers, Captains Lewis and lark, were accordingly given the job and some £500 to do it n• Their two-years' journey in 1804-6 is one of the greatest diyidual feats of exploration of the United States, and is book (the author of which has a first hand knowledge of erY locality mentioned in it) admiringly follows the Names' route from St. Louis to the Columbia River mouth the Pacific with the closest particularity, even to showing Pliatograpli of the skull of one of the members of the Iledhoo.
Mr. Wheeler's method is to give extracts from
e somewhat illiterate narratives of the explorers, patching hal out with interpolations and very necessary explanations Is °Nro, the result of all of which is an admirable conspectus of the adventurous journey. Indeed. Mr. Wheeler's is a great work (it weighs over 6 lbs.) and the journey he describes was a very great feat. Naturally, the two volumes contain more intereste'for the American than for a British public, but any reader must respectfully admire the immense pains the author has taken with his task. The illustrations and maps arc extraordinarily good.
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