"Without some system or order in the investigation of nature's works and nature's laws, the mind is puzzled and confounded, wandering, like Noah's dove, over the face of the deep, without finding a resting-place. What a pity that human knowledge and human powers are so limited!"
Indian Symbolic Figures.--Professor Douglass (March 17th) writes, making some inquiries about certain symbolic figures on the Sioux bark letter, found above Sank River.
Expedition to the Yellow Stone.--I fancy those western expeditions intend to beat us all hollow, in tough yarn, as the sailors have it; for it seems the Indian affair has got into the form of a newspaper controversy already: vide Aurora and National Gazette.
Mineralogy of Georgia.--J. T. Johnston, Esq., of New York, writes (March 23d) that he has made an arrangement for procuring minerals for me from this part of the Union.
Scientific Subjects.--Mr. McNabb writes (March 27th): "I deeply regret that so little attention is bestowed by our legislatures (State and National) on objects of such importance as those which engage your thoughts, while so much time, breath, and treasure are wasted on frivolous subjects and party objects. How long must the patriot and philanthropist sigh for the termination of such driveling and delusion!"
After a labor at my table of about fourteen weeks, the manuscript was all delivered to my printers; and I returned to New York, and took up my abode in my old quarters at 71 Courtland. The work was brought out on the 20th of May, making an octavo volume of 419 pages, with six plates, a map, and engraved title-page. Marks of the haste with which it was run through the press were manifest, and not a few typographical errors. Nobody was more sensible of this than myself, and of the value that more time and attention would have imparted. But the public received it with avidity, and the whole edition was disposed of in a short time. Approbatory notices appeared in the principal papers and journals. The New York Columbian says:--
"The author has before given the public a valuable work upon the Lead Mines of Missouri, and, if we mistake not, a book of instructions upon the manufacture of glass. He is advantageously known as a man of science and literary research, and well qualified to turn to beneficial account the mass of information he must have collected in his tour through that interesting part of the country, which has attracted universal attention, though our knowledge of it has hitherto been extremely limited. We think there is no fear that the just expectations of the public will be disappointed; but that the book will be found to furnish all the valuable and interesting information that the subject and acquirements of the writer promised, conveyed in a chaste and easy style appropriate for the journalist--occasionally enlivened by animating descriptions of scenery. The author has not suffered his imagination to run wild from a foolish vanity to win applause as a fine writer, when the great object should be to give the reader a view of what he describes, as far as language will permit, in the same light in which he beheld it himself. He aims to give you a just and true account of what he has seen and heard, and his book will be referred to as a record of facts by the learned and scientific at home and abroad. It is a production honorable to the country, and, if we mistake not, will advance her reputation in the opinion of the fastidious reviewers of Scotland and England, in spite of their deep-rooted prejudices."
Mr. Walsh, of the National Gazette, deems it a valuable addition to this class of literature.
"Public attention," he remarks, "was much excited last year by the prospectus of the expedition, of which Mr. Schoolcraft formed a part as mineralogist, and whose journey he has now described. He remarks, in his introduction, with truth, that but little detailed information was before possessed of the extreme north-western region of the Union--of the great chain of lakes--and of the sources of the Mississippi River, which continued to be a subject of dispute between geographical writers. In the autumn of 1819 Governor Cass, of Michigan Territory, projected an expedition for exploring what was so imperfectly known, and yet so worthy of being industriously surveyed.
"The Secretary of War--to whom Mr. Schoolcraft's book is appropriately dedicated, with a just testimony to the liberal and enlightened character of his official administration--not only admitted the plan of Governor Cass, but furnished him with the means of carrying it into full effect by providing an escort of soldiers and directing the commandants of the frontier garrisons to furnish every aid, of whatever description, which the party might require. To the Governor, as chief of the expedition, he associated several gentlemen qualified to accomplish its objects; which were--a more correct knowledge of the names, numbers, customs, history, mode of subsistence, and dispositions of the Indian tribes--the collection of materials for an accurate map of the country--the investigation of the subject of the north-western copper and lead mines, and gypsum quarries; and the acquisition, from the Indians, of such tracts as might be necessary to secure the benefit of them to the United States.