Farnham's Travels in the Great Western Prairies, etc., May 21-October 16, 1839, part 1. Farnham Thomas Jefferson

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.

62

Anahuac was a native Mexican word originally applied to the low coastal lands, but gradually transferred to the great central plateau of Mexico, with its mountainous ranges. Farnham considers the Rocky Mountain range south of South Pass an integral part of this Mexican system, as it was in his time under the Mexican government.

The Grand Saline branch of the Arkansas is probably intended for the Negracka, now called Salt Fork. See our volume xvi, p. 243, note 114. – Ed.

63

This estimate of population would seem to be fair. Compare Gregg's tables in our volume xx, pp. 317-341, notes 204-215, compiled from the report of the Indian commissioner in 1844. – Ed.

64

Ponca (Punca) Creek, which in 1837 formed the northern boundary of what was known as "Indian Territory." See our volume xxii, p. 291, note 253. – Ed.

65

This is a gratuitous remark. The conduct of the British Government will compare most favourably with that of the United States. The English have not thought of hunting Indians with blood-hounds. – English Ed.

66

See on this subject Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, in our volume xx, p. 300, note 191. – Ed.