John Torrey: American Botanist

Abstract

TO those familiar with the vast and productive western and middle-western regions of the United States, the realization may come as something of a shock that these spacious lands were not only little developed but also very little known a century ago. A recent book* embraces that very important phase of American history—the detailed exploration and development of the West. In it we learn much of the coming and going of expeditions, of the trials of explorers and administrators, and of the discovery of all manner of new features. The West was still a country where exploration in the full geographical sense could be carried out—in contrast to the world to-day which, to be honest, we must admit contains few if any major areas remaining to be discovered or even primarily surveyed—and it was still very much a land of wild Indians and all manner of dangers both known and unforeseen. Much the same was true, in lesser degree, of the Rocky Mountains and many tracts lying nearer to the eastern and southern fringes of civilization.