I had now completed, by land and water, a circuit of the Union, having traveled some 6000 miles.  My arrival was opportune.  No traveler of modern times had thrown himself upon the success of his scientific observations, and I was hailed, by the scientific public, as the first one who had ever brought a collection of the mineral productions of the Mississippi Valley.  My collection, which was large and splendid, was the means of introducing me to men of science at New York and elsewhere.  Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell and Dr. D. Hosack, who were then in the zenith of their fame, cordially received me.  The natural sciences were then chiefly in the hands of physicians, and there was scarcely a man of note in these departments of inquiry who was not soon numbered among my acquaintances.  Dr. John Torrey was then a young man, who had just published his first botanical work.  Dr. A.W.  Ives warmly interested himself in my behalf, and I had literary friends on every side.  Among these Gov.  De Witt Clinton was prominent.

I had fixed my lodgings where the Hudson River, and the noble bay of New York and its islands, were in full view from my window.  Here I opened my collection, and invited men of science to view it, I put to press my observations on the mines and physical geography of the West.  I also wrote a letter on its resources, which was published by the Corresponding Association of Internal Improvements, The Lyceum of Natural History, and the Historical Society, each admitted me to membership.  My work was published about the 25th of November.  As soon as it was announced, I took copies of it, and proceeded to Washington, where I was favorably received.  I lost no time in calling on Mr. Monroe, and the Secretaries of War and of the Treasury.  Mr. Monroe took up his commonplace-book, and made memorandums of my statements respecting the mines.  Mr. Calhoun received me cordially, and said that the jurisdiction of the mines was not in his department.  But he had received a memoir from General Cass, Governor of Michigan, proposing to explore the sources of the Mississippi, through the Lakes, and suggesting that a naturalist, conversant with mineralogy, should accompany him, to inquire into the supposed value of the Lake Superior copper mines.  He tendered me the place, and stated the compensation.  The latter was small, but the situation appeared to me to be one which was not to be overlooked.  I accepted it.  It seemed to be the bottom step in a ladder which I ought to climb.  Small events, it has been said, lead a man, and decide his course in life; and whether this step was important in mine, may be better judged of, perhaps, when these notes shall have been read.