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Show 20 TEAVELB AND ADVENTUEES IN THE FAE WEST. CHAPTER II. Preparations for the Journey-Daguerreotype Outfit-Scientific Knowledge required -Departure from New York-Alden's Preserved Food-Esteem of Col. Fremont's former Companions for him-Arrival at St. Louis-Steamboat F. X. Aubrey-Com-pagnons de Voyage-Arrival at Kansas. THE preparations for my journey occupied about ten days, during which time I purchased all the necessary materials for making a panorama of the country, by daguerreotype process, over which we had to pass. To make daguerreotypes in the open air, in a temperature varying from freezing point to thirty degrees below zero, requires different manipulation from the processes by which pictures are made in a warm room. My professional friends were all of the opinion that the elements would be against my success. Buffing and coating plates, and mercurializing them, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, standing at times up to one's middle in snow, with no covering above save the arched vault of heaven, seemed to our city friends one of the impossibilities- knowing as they did that iodine will not give out its fumes except at a temperature of 70° to 80° Fahrenheit. I shall not appear egotistical if I say that I encountered many difficulties, but I was well prepared to meet them by having previously acquired a scientific and practical knowledge of the chemicals I used, as well as of the theory of light: a firm determination to sue- |