[Illustration: J. N. Barry "Double-entry" map of Yellowstone.]
[Illustration: Samuel Lewis' "Double-entry" map. An attempt to reconcile Colter's draft of the Yellowstone country with Clark's obvious assumptions.]
[Illustration: When segregated these "concealed" elements give a logical representation of what Colter undoubtedly saw, namely the southwest arm and thumb of Yellowstone Lake.]
Remembering that Samuel Lewis was employed to reproduce a map conforming to data and specifications furnished by Clark, what more could he do to manifest his skepticism, if not displeasure, over the incorporation of fictitious geography upon this super-important map of the West? Remember, Lewis was a professional cartographer; he had seen, and had already drawn, Colter's sheet of real country. On the original draft the southwest Arm and Thumb of Lake Yellowstone undoubtedly appeared. Now he was asked to redraw it into counterfeit geography. Disturbed by the substitution of Clark's sheet of "Gulliver's geography" for Colter's journey, he disguised a lake in a mountain range, drew a gargoylian lake (Eustis), and raised the enigma of Biddle-Riddle.[363] After all, cartography is simply a scientific refinement of pictography, or storytelling. The message of Samuel Lewis, as revealed in the Yellowstone segment of the Map of 1814, might reasonably be: "This portion of the map is bogus. I do not know what the true conditions are. Colter's data appears all right; Clark's later information says it isn't. It's all a Riddle; I leave a clue." Against this background, with the fiction cut away, it may now be possible to explore the problem of Colter's route through the Yellowstone country.
Did Colter make a western loop trip beyond the Yep-pe Indian camp? Of that there can be no doubt. Clark's representation does not impugn Colter's word in respect to the reality of the journey itself but only as to where he went and what he saw. If an approximation of his route can be reproduced, the question of what he saw will automatically fall into place like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The problem, then, is to correctly reconstruct the west loop of the figure eight. This procedure has become possible by reason of the proposition that has been established in this discussion, particularly when it is remembered that Colter knew his way around and could be relied upon to make a proper orientation to the total environment. Now his course can be followed by segregating another feature from what has been referred to as "Lewis' Concealed Colter Map."