TRAIL OF THE ASTORIANS 239

ization in the West, especially when we realize that now reg- ular trains carry passengers from St. Louis to Astoria in forty- two hours. The charge has been made that Washington Irving was ro- mancing when he wrote Astoria, yet from his detailed descrip- tions of natural features, it has now become possible to approx- imately identify the entire route, which lay through a formerly unknown wilderness, and in many places to almost be able to trace the footsteps of the overland expedition to Astoria. I