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34 "^ History of the Pacific Northwest

Steptoe to thank him for his proposed attempt to procure for Jefferson some of the "Big Bones "from the Ohio. In this letter he takes occasion to suggest: " Any information of your own on the subject of the big bones or their history or on anything else in the western country will come acceptably to me. . . . Descriptions of animals, vegetables, minerals, or other curious things, notes on the Indians' information of the country between the Mississippi and waters of the South Sea, etc., etc. will strike your mind as worthy being communicated." ^

Letter to George Rogers Clark. It was a full year later, December 4, 1783, that Jefferson wrote the now well known letter to George Rogers Clark suggesting an exploration from the Mississippi to forestall a prospective British exploration to California and asking the resourceful Kentucky soldier how he would like to lead such a party. ^

1 1 follow the Congress edition in the above. Ford has it, III, p. 63: "Notes on the Indians, information of the country between the Mississippi and waters of the South Sea," making a comma out of an apostrophe, unless the Congress edition has reversed that process.

2 "I find," he says, writing from Annapolis, where Congress was then sitting, "they have subscribed a very large sum of money in England for exploring the country from the Mississippi to California; they pretend it is only to promote knowledge. I am afraid they have thoughts of colonizing in that quarter. Some of us have been talking here in a feeble way of making the attempt to search that country. But I doubt if we have enough of that kind of spirit to raise the money. How would you like to lead such a party, though I am afraid the prospect is not worth asking the question." Am. Hist. Rev. Ill, 675.