those interested in early conditions in the Mississippi Valley.
Michaux's published works are, Histoire des Chênes de l'Amérique—which appeared in 1801, and is supposed to have been recast or corrected by other scientists—and Flora Boreali-Americana, written in Latin by Richard from the plants which Michaux had collected in America, and issued a year after the latter's death.[1]
The few years that intervened between the journeys of the elder and younger Michaux show the rapidity with which the West was changing. Conditions of travel had meantime been improved, and the development of resources was proceeding with bounds. The opening of the Mississippi had caused an immense growth in both the extent and means of Western commerce; the son describes ship-building upon the waters along which the father had passed in Indian canoes. The increase in the number, size, and appearance of the towns, and the additional comforts in the homes of the people, were indicative of a great and growing prosperity.
The younger traveller describes the inhabitants with more particularity than his father. His observations upon the characteristics of the people, their occupations and recreations and their political bias, are those of an intelligent and sympathetic narrator, with a predisposition in favor of the Western settlers. His remarks in chapter xii on the restlessness of the pioneers, their eagerness to push onward to a newer country, their impatience with the growing trammels of civilization, show habits of close observation. His optimism with regard to the future of the country, in thinking that within twenty years the Ohio Valley would be "the most popu-
- ↑ The references in Sargent's notes marked "Michx.," refer to this Flora.
