[11] Lieutenant Swift's trigonometrical measurement of the elevation of Pike's Peak was quite accurate. If to his calculation of 8,507½ feet above the plain the correct elevation of the latter be added, the sum is within a few feet of the now accepted height; but, as in Pike's measurement, the result was invalidated by an erroneous estimate of the height of the plain (3,000 feet instead of about 5,700). The latitude and longitude as calculated for this camp afford another instance showing the error in the observations made by the expedition. The correct figures for Colorado Springs are 38° 49' 41.67" north latitude, and 104° 49' 15.10" longitude west of Greenwich.--ED.
[12] Giovanni Ignazio Molina was born in Chili, of Italian parents, in 1740. When the Jesuits were expelled from that country (1767) he joined their order and went to Italy, where he became a priest and teacher. His _Compendio di Storia geografica naturale e civile del Chili_ (Bologna, 1776) was translated into the principal European languages, and an American edition was published under the title _Geographical, Natural, and Civil History of Chili_ (Middletown, Connecticut, 2 vols., 1808).
Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot was a French zoölogist and author of voluminous works on ornithology. Among his writings was _Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique septentrionale, depuis Saint-Dominigue jusqu' à la baie d'Hudson_ (Paris, 1807 and annually thereafter).--ED.
[13] Pike wrote in his journal: "Nov. 24th [1806]. Early in the morning we cut down 14 logs, and put up a breast work, five feet high on three sides and the other thrown on the river" (see Coues, _Pike's Expeditions_, p. 452). The structure stood on the south side of the Arkansas, a little above where the mouth of Fountain River was at that time; but the exact spot cannot be identified, as the course of the river has since changed considerably. Long's party looked for it, however, in an entirely wrong place. Their course southwest from the camp on Fountain River brought them to the Arkansas several miles above its mouth (near Turkey Creek); besides which, they were on the wrong side for Pike's old redoubt.--ED.
[14] The point here reached by Bell's party is the site of Cañon City, Fremont County, at the lower end of the Grand Cañon of the Arkansas, better known as the Royal Gorge, through which now passes the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The railroad engineers triumphed over the obstacles which to our party seemed to render the cañon almost impassable, by lowering tools, materials, provisions, mules, and men into the chasm by ropes attached to the overhanging cliffs. In one place it was found necessary, for want of a road-bed in the narrow gorge, to suspend the track by bridgework anchored to the mountain side.