Captain D.B. Douglass, of West
Point Academy, was appointed topographer, and joined me at Buffalo. We
proceeded up Lake Erie in company, and were received in a most cordial
manner by General Cass and the citizens generally of that yet remote and
gay military post.
Arrangements were not completed for immediate embarkation. We were to
travel in the novel Indian bark canoe. Many little adaptations were
necessary, and while these things were being done we spent a couple of
weeks very agreeably, in partaking of the hospitalities of the place. My
correspondence now began to accumulate, and I took this occasion of a
little pause to attend to it. The publication of my work on the mines
had had the effect to awaken attention to the varied resources of the
Mississippi Valley, and the subject of geographical and geological
explorations. It also brought me a class of correspondents who are
simply anxious for practical information, and always set about getting
it in the most direct way, whether they are personal or introduced
acquaintances or not.
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