Its fresh water conchology had been carefully observed by Douglass and myself, and fine collections made.

Something had been done respecting its botany, and the whole chain of events was ready to be linked together in a striking manner.
But there was no one to take the initiative.

Governor Cass, who had led the expedition, did not think of writing.

Professor Douglass, who was my senior, and who occupied the post of topographer, by no means underrated the subject, but deferred it, and, by accepting the Professorship of Mathematics at West Point, assumed a duty which made it literally impossible, though he did not see it immediately, that he should do justice to his own notes.

I simply went forward because no one of the members of the expedition offered to.