&i;Reprint&o;
Chronicles a journey of discovery by the first trained naturalist to cross the American continent. As a member of Nathaniel Wyeth's 1834 expedition to the Oregon country, John Kirk Townsend journeyed west through a "rich and unexplored region" that offered scientists an "almost inexhaustible field of study." Townsend's account of his travels is an engaging, personal record of the first transcontinental trek along the route that would soon become the Oregon Trail.