[52] Farnham is quoting from the Biddle (1814) edition of the journals of Lewis and Clark. Consult R. G. Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (New York, 1903-05), ii, pp. 159-339.—Ed.
[53] For the sources of North Platte see James's Long's Expedition, our volume xv, pp. 234-236, with accompanying note.—Ed.
[54] Long's expedition of 1819-20 followed the South Platte nearly to its source. See our volume xv, pp. 241-305, especially p. 292, note 141. James's Peak was the name bestowed by Long upon what is now known as Pike's Peak, because Dr. Edwin James was the first to make the ascent. Frémont restored the name of Pike in 1843. See our volume xvi, pp. 11-36, especially note 15.—Ed.
[55] For the first wagons on the Oregon Trail see De Smet's Letters, in our volume xxvii, p. 243, note 116. The Whitman party in 1836 succeeded in conveying wagons as far as Fort Boise, on Lewis River. There is no record that wagons had gone through to Walla Walla at the time of Farnham's journey.—Ed.
[56] This is a good brief description of the Oregon Trail as far as Fort Hall. See our volume xxi, Wyeth's Oregon, pp. 52, 53, and notes 32-34; also Townsend's Narrative, pp. 187-211, notes 36, 43, 44, 45, 51.—Ed.
[57] This description regarding the California route shows the indefiniteness of the knowledge then current. No one is known to have passed this way save Jedediah S. Smith (1827) and Joseph Walker, sent by Captain Bonneville (1833). When Bidwell and Bartleson went out in 1841, they found no one who could give them detailed information of the route from Fort Hall to California, and they stumbled through the wilderness in great confusion. See John Bidwell, "First Emigrant Train to California," in Century Magazine, xix (new series), pp. 106-129. Mary River is that now known as the Humboldt, which rises a hundred miles west of Great Salt Lake and after a course of nearly three hundred miles west and south-west flows into Humboldt Lake or Sink. This river was originally named Ogden for Peter Skeen Ogden, a Hudson Bay factor, whose Indian wife was known as Mary. The name Humboldt was assigned by Lieutenant Frémont (1845), who does not appear to have connected it with Mary River, which he sought the preceding year. This explorer also proved (1844) that the San Joaquin and other affluents of San Francisco Bay do not "form a natural and easy passage" through the California or Sierra Nevada Mountains.—Ed.
[58] By the "Great Gap" Farnham intends South Pass, for which see Wyeth's Oregon in our volume xxi, p. 58, note 37.—Ed.
[59] For this obstruction, and the clearing of it, see our volume xvii, p. 70, note 64.—Ed.
[60] For this river see Pattie's Personal Narrative in our volume xviii, p. 75, note 45.—Ed.
[61] For a brief biography of Zebulon M. Pike, see our volume viii, p. 280, note 122. The journals of his expedition have been edited by Elliott Coues, Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike (New York, 1895).—Ed.