GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS WEST OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN, IN CALIFORNIA, NEVADA, UTAH, ARIZONA, COLORADO, NEW MEXICO, WYOMING, AND MONTANA,

BY

GEORGE M. WHEELER,

FIRST LIEUTENANT OF ENGINEERS, U. S. 4.;

BEING

APPENDIX FF

OF THE

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS FOR 1874.

[EXTRACT FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS TO

THE SECRETARY OF WAR.]

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS,

Washington, D. C., October 20, 1874.

GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS WEST OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN IN CALIFORNIA, NEVADA, UTAH, ARIZONA, COLORADO, NEW MEXICO, WYOMING, AND MONTANA.

Officer in charge, First Lieut. George M. Wheeler, Corps of Engineers, having under his orders First Lieuts. R. L. Hoxie, W. L. Marshall, S. E. Tillman, and P. M. Price, Corps of Engineers, Second Lieut. A. H. Russell, Third United States Cavalry, and, during portion of the field-season, Lieuts. H. R. Brinkerhoff and L. H. Walker, Fifteenth United States Infantry, as escort officers, Acting Assistant Surgeons J.T. Rothrock, H. C. Yarrow, and C. G. Newberry, United States Army, who, in addition to their professional duties, were engaged in botanical, ornithological, and natural-history labors."

Active field-operations were in progress at the commencement of the fiscal year, the three main divisions of the expedition having departed from their rendezvous at Salt Lake City, Utah, Denver, Colorado, and Santa Fé, New Mexico, moving south into Arizona, connecting with work of former years, covering during the season an area of about 75,000 square miles, and disbanding at the close of the field-season in November and December.

Following the disbanding a sufficient number of the members to prepare the matured results returned to Washington, where they were engaged during the winter months, and where a small force of draughtsmen and computers are continuously engaged in elaborating the material gathered in the field.

In addition to topographical work proper the survey combines the establishment of numerous points astronomically; (an important feature in relation to many public and private interests ;) observations in meteorology and hypsometry; investigations in geology, mineralogy, and natural history; and the gathering of many other facts upon subjects bearing upon the industries and resources of the regions traversed. A mass of useful information and results is thus constantly being accumulated and made available to the Government and the public.

By experience and improvements in methods and instruments, the value of the results is annually enhanced and the cost of the work amply repaid.

Final results in the astronomical and other brauches of the work have appeared, and additional will be ready for the press and engravers before the close of the present year.

The expedition for the present field-season is well organized and equipped, and the officer in charge is sanguine of most satisfactory results. The field of operations lies in southern and south western Colorado, northern and northwestern New Mexico, and northwestern Ari

zona. Several primary astronomical stations will be determined in addition to astronomical observations in the field, and the astronomical observatory at Ogden, Utah, will be well advanced toward completion. Lieutenant Wheeler submits estimates

For continuing the exploration..

For engraving and printing the plates and atlas-sheets accompanying the reports of the geographical explorations and surveys west of the 100th meridian.....

His annual report and estimates are appended. (See Appendix FF 1 and FF 2.)

$95,000

25,000

Lieutenant Wheeler has also submitted a report of Prof. E. D. Cope, paleontologist, from his camp, on Galinas Creek, in the Rio Grande basin, including a description of new species of vertebrate fossils, and of an extensive series of deposits of the Eocene age, indicating the existence, in earlier geological time, of an extensive lake of fresh water in that part of New Mexico.

The collections made and to be made by this special party are likely to prove of unusual interest.

(See Appendix FF 3.)

*

REPORT.

APPENDIX FF.

ANNUAL REPORT OF LIEUTENANT GEORGE M. WHEELER, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1874.

GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS WEST OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN, IN CALIFORNIA, NEVADA, UTAH, ARIZONA, COLORADO, NEW MEXICO, WYOMING, AND MONTANA.

Season's operations.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE, GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS WEST OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN, Washington, D. C., June 30, 1874.

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following annual report upon geographical explorations and surveys west of the one hundredth meridian, in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Montana for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874.

Toward the close of the last fiscal year, the expedition of 1873 had taken the field in three separate divisions from Salt Lake City, Utah, Denver, Col., and Santa Fé, N. Mex.

The Salt Lake division, under Lieut. R. L. Hoxie, Corps of Engineers, crossed the Colorado River near the mouth of Paria Creek, emerging upon the mesa to the southward, in the vicinity of El Vado de los Padres; from thence making its way to the southward, joined the southern or main division, operating in the territory in New Mexico and Arizona but little known, lying between the thirty-fifth and the thirty-second parallel after it bad completed the duties assigned to it in atlas rectangles 50 and 59.