_Facing page_ CAPTAIN JOSEPH LA BARGE (when young), 1 A NEW “CUT-OFF” IN THE RIVER, 77 MAP OF THE MISSOURI RIVER CHANNEL, 79 SNAGS IN THE MISSOURI RIVER, 80 THE INDIAN BULLBOAT, 97 MISSOURI RIVER KEELBOAT, 102 THE FIRST “YELLOWSTONE,” 137 ALEXANDER CULBERTSON, 228 FORT BENTON LEVEE, 238 PREFACE. In the summer of 1896 the author of this work, while engaged in collecting data for a history of the American Fur Trade of the Far West, met the venerable Missouri River pilot, Captain Joseph La Barge, at his home in St. Louis. In the course of several interviews he became deeply impressed with the range and accuracy of the old gentleman’s knowledge of early Western history, and asked him if he had ever taken any steps to preserve the record of his adventurous career. He replied that he had often been urged to do so, but that lack of familiarity with that kind of work had hitherto caused him to shrink from it, and he presumed he should die without ever undertaking it. Believing that his memoirs were well worth preserving, as a part of the history of the West, the author proposed to prepare them for publication if he would consent to dictate them. After some hesitation he concluded to try it, and the work was forthwith begun. Full notes were taken in the rough, and a clean copy was then submitted to Captain La Barge for revision. He went through the whole with painstaking care, and the record was left as complete as a memory of extraordinary power could make it. The intention was, at the time, to put the notes into shape for publication at once; but the Spanish-American war interfered with the author’s part of the work, and before it could be resumed Captain La Barge died.