THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION: 1804-1806, The Journey That Opened the American Northwest

Within the limitations of the traditional survival adventure, Lacy does a fair enough job of following the expedition through the territories of variously hostile and curious Indian tribes, up treacherous stretches of river, over steep portages and during periods when the food supply was reduced to nothing but ""pore Elk, so much Spoiled that we eate it thro' meat necessity."" Anyone who's traveled Andrist's route To the Pacific With Lewis and Clark (KR, 1967) will miss his much more human portraits of the not always infallible leaders, his more realistic view of the contribution of Sacajawea, his fuller discussion of the exploration's goals and problems (morale was not always as high as Lacy would have us believe) and above all the more striking American Heritage maps and reproductions. However, without probing as deeply as Andrist's slightly more mature work, this small scale version does survey the vast territory covered by this audacious, adaptable band of travelers and shows how quickly their presence was to change the wilderness they charted.