This is the famous naturalist Thomas Nuttall's only surviving complete journal of his American scientific explorations. Covering his travels in Arkansas and what is now Oklahoma, it is pivotal to an understanding of the Old Southwest in the early nineteenth century, when the United States was taking inventory of its acquisitions from the Louisiana Purchase. The account follows Nuttall's route from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, down the Ohio River to its mouth, then down the Mississippi River to the Arkansas Post, and up the Arkansas River, with a side trip to the Red River. It is filled with...

This is the famous naturalist Thomas Nuttall s only surviving complete journal of his American scientific explorations. The account follows Nuttall s route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, down the Ohio River to its mouth, then down the Mississippi River to the Arkansas Post, and up the Arkansas River with a side trip to the Red River. It is filled with valuable details on the plants, animals, and geology of the region, as well as penetrating observations of the resident Native tribes, the military establishment at Fort Smith, the arrival of the first governor of Arkansas Territory, and the...

Thomas Nuttall (1786 1859), an English-born scientist and Fellow of the Linnean Society, is well-known for his botanical and zoological discoveries in North America. By the time this book was first published in 1821, he had spent ten years travelling and recording the natural history of the continent. Nuttall's journal recounts a year-long expedition along the Arkansas River, where he collected and classified many previously unknown species of plants. The book begins with Nuttall's departure from Philadelphia and ends with his arrival in New Orleans. The intermediary chapters include an...