STORY OF LEWIS AND CLARK'S JOURNALS. 47 were unopened by the custodians after their return, for it was not until the summer of 1903 that the society author- ities were made aware, by one who was examining them in detail, of the astonishing treatment to which they had been subjected by Coues. The next chapter in the story opened in the spring of 1901, when the society's historical committee determined in view of the forthcoming Louisiana Purchase Cen- tennial at last to carry out Mr. Jefferson's suggestion, and secure the publication of the Lewis and Clark jour- nals direct from the original manuscripts in their custody. They succeeded in interesting in this project the firm of Dodd, Mead & Co., of New York, who in turn engaged the present writer as editor of the work. In the course of the consequent investigation into the sources there came to view in the society's library a few other Lewis and Clark items, besides the codices handled and labeled by Coues. These were chiefly statistical tables regarding the Western Indians, a meteorological record, and a list of the explorers' specimens sent from Fort Mandan to the society 30 matters of considerable, although not commanding, importance. In Coues's report on the codices, as published in the Society's Proceedings, 31 occurs this note : " One of Clark's journals is now in the possession of his son, Mr. Jefferson K. Clark, of St. Louis. I am not informed of the date covered by this volume, nor of the nature of its contents." Upon assuming charge of the proposed publication, the writer at once approached the widow of Mr. Clark the latter had died in New York soon after the appearance of the Coues edition and requested an opportunity of ex- amining this notebook, under the supposition that it was
- Many of these are still preserved by the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia.
3 i Page 22 of publication previously cited.
