STORY OF LEWIS AND CLARK'S JOURNALS. 37 no doubt he well earned the fee of $500 partly taken out in trade with which he was rewarded by the pub- lishers. Press revision and proof reading are no light tasks ; although we might wish that, while he was at it, he had also given us an index. The size of the edition was apparently 2,000 copies. 17 Of these it would seem that 583 were either lost in some manner "supposed to be destroyed in binder's or print- er's hands" or were defective from lacking plates. This would leave for sale only 1,417 perfect copies, which ex- plains why the book is now rare. The net profits on the enterprise were computed at $154.10, of which neither Clark nor Biddle appears to have received a penny. The copper plates of the engraved maps became the property of the latter, and are now owned by his son, Hon. Craig Biddle, of Philadelphia. To Clark was left the copyright. As for the heirs of Lewis, we find them 18 as late as 1816-17 making application to Clark for their share of the .earn- ings, "persuaded that profit arising from that work has been received," and being informed by the kind-hearted governor of the dismal result of the enterprise. Over two and a half years after the publication a letter from Clark to Jefferson (October 10, 1816,) 19 reveals the fact that the explorer had himself "not been so fortunate as to procure a single volume as yet" thus showing that Bradford, in the midst of his financial troubles, had not carried out his agreement with Biddle, mentioned above, to transmit a copy of the work to the man chiefly con- cerned in its appearance. The service of Biddle in editing the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition was a far more difficult liter- ary undertaking than is commonly supposed. The entire " In this I follow Coues. ls Coues, I, pp. xciii, xciv. is Original MS. in possession of American Philosophical Society.
