The party under the direction of Professor Renwick left Portland in detachments on the 26th and 27th of August.  The place of general rendezvous was fixed at Woodstock, or, failing that, at the Grand Falls of the St. John.  The commissary of the party proceeded as speedily as possible to Oldtown, in order to procure boats and engage men.  Professor Renwick passed by land through Brunswick, Gardiner, and Augusta.  At the former place barometer No. 1 was compared with that of Professor Cleaveland, at Gardiner with that of Hallowel Gardiner, esq.; and arrangements were made with them to keep registers, to be used as corresponding observations with those of the expedition.  At Augusta some additional articles of equipment were obtained from the authorities of the State, but the barometer which it had been hoped might have been procured was found to be unfit for service.  At Houlton two tents and a number of knapsacks, with some gunpowder, were furnished by the politeness of General Bustis from the Government stores.

The boats and all the stores reached Woodstock on the 3d September, and all the party were collected except one engineer, who had been left behind at Bangor in the hopes of obtaining another barometer.  A bateau was therefore left to bring him on.  The remainder of the boats were loaded, and the party embarked on the St. John on the morning of the 4th of September.  This, the main body, reached the Grand Falls at noon on the 8th of September.  The remaining bateau, with the engineer, arrived the next evening, having ascended the rapids of the St. John in a time short beyond precedent.  On its arrival it was found that the barometer, on whose receipt reliance had been placed, had not been completed in time, and although, as was learnt afterwards, it had been committed as soon as finished by the maker to the care of Major Graham, the other commissioners felt compelled to set out before he had joined them.  The want of this barometer, in which defects observed in the others had been remedied, was of no little detriment.

A delay of eighteen days had occurred in Portland in consequence of the refusal of Messrs. Cleavelaud and Jarvis to accept their appointments, and it was known from the experience of the commissioners sent out in 1838 by the State of Maine that it would require at least three weeks to reach the line claimed by the United States from Bangor.  It was therefore imperative to push forward, unless the risk of having the whole of the operations of this party paralyzed by the setting in of winter was to be encountered.  It was also ascertained at the Grand Falls that the streams which were to be ascended were always shallow and rapid, and that at the moment they were extremely low, so that the boats would not carry more stores than would be consumed within the time required to reach the region assigned to Professor Renwick as his share of the duty and return.  It became, therefore, necessary, as it had been before feared it must, to