John C. Frémont's Inflatable Boat

Reference: John C. Frémont, Report Of The Exploring Expedition To The Rocky Mountains ... [1842-1844], The Senate Of The United States, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. (1845).

On page 11 of Frémont’s report, he writes:
“We reached the ford of the Kansas late in the afternoon of the 14th …  In the mean time, the carts had been unloaded and dismantled, and an India-rubber boat, which I had brought with me for the survey of the Platte river, placed in the water.”

Frémont provides a...