BK<;INMN<;> < >KEOON. 105

d.-scended llir Kooskoiskie branch of Snake River, and fol- lowed the great wain- courses of tin- West, till on tin- Ttli >f November. IMI.~>. tin- hopi/rn of the 1'acitic Ocean hm-st upon tin- view between the two lines of breakers that marked the debouch of tin- 'jivat river into tin- trivat I'acific sea. 'I'lii- cuuiitry was already called "Oregon." though the name had as yet obtained very little enrreney. In Carver's Travels, published in London in 17TS. the name had first ap- peared. The origin of the name is one of the enigmas of history. Carver professed to have received it from the Indians in the country of the Upper Mississippi, where he had been pushing his explorations. The Indians, he says, told him of the River Oregon, (lowing to the Western Ocean: but how much of the tale was his own invention it is impossible i<> say. He had a geographical theory and war, seeking con- firmation of it; for the irreat breadth of the country was known from the general trend of the Pacific Northwest Coast line, and it was naturally believed that so great a country must contain a great river. Yet the Indians of the Upper Mississippi country could not have known anything about it. Carver hit upon the name "Oregon" in some way we never shall know. .Jefl'erson used the word in his instructions to Lewis and Clark, showing that it was beginning to have a voLMie before "Thanatopsis" was written; but it was Bryant's solemn poem, with its sonorous verse, which appeared in the yet! 1*17, that familiari/ed the won! "Oregon" an I soon put it on every tongue. Various accounts of tin- Lewis and ('lark expedition had appeared both in the I'nited States and Kurope before the appearance of "Thanatopsis." hut un- doubtedly it was Uryaiit's expression. "Where Kills the Ore- L'on." that did most to spread the name before the world. The men of the Lewis and Clark expcditiin were the lirst Americans who came across the continent to the On-iron coun- try and tin- I'acific Ocean. Alexander Macken/ie, twelve years earlier, had come from Canada, passing through the continent and over the mountains from IVace Kiver. which flows into Atliah;isc;i L;ikr. ;md th.-iicc discharges its waters