(in nine sheets), from surveys by Lieut. Col. W. F. Raynolds and Col. J. H. Simpson, has been photolithographed and an edition printed. A map of the Mississippi River, from the Falls of Saint Anthony to the mouth of the Illinois (in twenty-six sheets), compiled from surveys of Maj. G. K. Warren and Col. J. N. Macomb, Corps of Engineers, by Maj. F. U. Farquhar, Corps of Engineers, is now in the hands of the photolithographer, in order that an edition may be printed. Thirty-seven detail drawings of Des Moines Rapids locks and canal, of the Mississippi River, have been engraved on stone and an edition printed. Lake-survey charts Nos. 1, 2, and 3 of the Mississippi River near Cairo, and charts Nos. 4, 5, 6, and 7 near Memphis, have been photolithographed. Lake-survey charts of Lake Ontario, Lake Ontario coast charts Nos. 1 and 2, Lake Michigan coast charts Nos. 8 and 9 have been photolithographed, and an edition printed in advance of the engraved edition. These charts are now in the hands of the engraver; Lake Michigan coast chart No. 4 is also in the hands of the engraver, a photolithographic edition having been printed in advance. The following lake-survey charts have been engraved on copper, viz: Chart of Detroit River. Lake Michigan coast chart No. 1. Lake Michigan coast chart No. 6. Lake Michigan coast chart No. 7. GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE FORTIETH PARALLEL. Mr. Clarence King, United States civil engineer, in charge. During the year the operations of this survey have been entirely confined to the office, consisting in superintendence of publication of the atlas and text. Leave of absence was granted Mr. King from July 1, 1877, till October 31, 1877, and during that interval, there being no employés attached to his office, the operations of the work were suspended. Active work was resumed November 1 and continued to date. Throughout that time the force of the office has consisted of himself and one general assistant. The entire interval has been devoted to the revision of the manuscript of volume I, "Systematic Geology," of the series of reports, and the printing of the same. Composition has proceeded at the office of the Public Printer up to page 676. The manuscript is all done, and will carry the text up to about 760 pages. It is estimated that the volume and index will be all stereotyped by August 10 or 15, and printed and bound by the end of September. During the year the illustrations of volume VII, Vertebrate Palæontology, have been completed and paid for. Professor Marsh has made good progress with the manuscript of volume VII, and expected to have it completed by early winter. During the year volumes IV, Palæontology and Ornithology, and II, Descriptive Geology, have been finished by the Public Printer and distributed. The General Topographical and Geological Atlas has also been distributed in part. For the completion of the whole work there only remain the few additional pages of printing on volume I and the text of volume VII. (See Appendix M M.) GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS OF THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES WEST OF THE ONE-HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN. Officer in charge, First Lieut. George M. Wheeler, Corps of Engineers, having under his orders First Lieuts. Eric Bergland, Samuel E. Tillman, and Thomas W. Symons, and Second Lieuts. Eugene Griffin and Willard Young, Corps of Engineers; First Lieut. Rogers Birnie, jr., Ordnance Department; First Lieut. Charles C. Morrison, Sixth Cavalry; Second Lieuts. Benjamin H. Randolph and Henry H. Ludlow, Third Artillery; and Second Lieut. M. M. Macomb, Fourth Artillery. During the year the following gentlemen have been engaged in the investigation of special subjects: Dr. F. Kampf, astronomer, triangulation observer, and computer; John A. Church, mining engineer; A. R. Conkling, geological assistant; H. W. Henshaw, ornithologist. Dr. F. Kampf died at his residence in Washington after a short illness, resulting from a concussive blow upon the forehead, accidentally received while on duty in the field. Dr. J. T. Rothrock, professor of botany at the University of Pennsyl vania, has devoted considerable time to the final preparation of the manuscript for volume VI, and now, with the assistance of the colaborers in this branch, is engaged in reading proof. Prof. F. W. Putnam, curator of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass., has, at intervals taken from his other professional labors, advanced nearly to completion his part of the manuscript of volume VII of the quarto reports, and has superintended the preparation and production of the illustrative cuts. Prof. John J. Stevenson, late of the Pennsylvania State geological survey, and member of the expedition of 1873, resumes his labors upon Western geology, and will pay especial attention during the coming season to the outcrops of the Coal Measures at the east base of the Rocky Mountain ranges of Colorado and New Mexico. The funds appropriated for this survey by the act approved March 3, 1877, having been made immediately available, the members of the expedition of this year were enabled to take the field early in May, during which month the entire working field force of the survey, consisting of three sections, known as the Colorado, Utah, and California, composed of ten parties, was effectively organized and engaged in the, prosecution of its labors. The several parties were distributed in those portions of California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas embraced by atlas sheets 23 B, 32 C, 32 D, 38 B, 38 D, 41 A, 41 B, 47 B, 48 D, 52 D, 56 B, 61 A, 77 D, and 84 B. (See Progress map accompanying Appendix NN.) The field season, as usual, was extended as late as the early and extreme cold of the mountain regions visited would permit. The parties, during the latter days of November and early part of December, disbanded at Carson, Nev., Ogden, Utah, Fort Garland, Colo., and Fort Union, N. Mex. The drainage basins occupied were portions of the northwestern arm of the "great interior basin," and those of the Pecos, Rio Grande, Arkansas, Gunnison and its tributaries, Bear and Snake rivers, and creeks entering the latter from the south, together with areas bordering on several streams of various magnitudes debouching from the Sierra Nevadas upon the great inland valleys of Central California. During the month of March, a special topographical and hydrographical survey of the Great Salt Lake basin was begun. This contemplates, in addition to the detailed topographical survey of the entire basin that has Great Salt Lake as its reservoir, an accurate meander of the shores of the lake and its islands, with the soundings needed to determine its present volume, observations upon the evaporation at the surface, with periodic rise and fall, the measurement at different seasons of the inflow and rainfall, and other meteorological observations at stations located upon the incoming streams. The Jordan, Weber, and Bear rivers, the principal sources of supply, were measured. Nearly two-thirds of the meander has been completed, and a number of soundings made. The continuation, at a trifling expense, of this work, will be prosecuted, as circumstances permit, from the Ogden office of the survey. While the expeditionary parties are engaged in the field, a small annual office force is employed in completing the necessary computations and the delineation of the final atlas sheets. A temporary field office was established at Ogden, Utah, during the past winter, and will hereafter be occupied by such of the assistants as may be available. Such field astronomical latitude stations only as have been found requisite for checking the measured lines of survey through mountain passes, cañon defiles, and along routes from which main and secondary triangulation points are not visible, have been determined. The project submitted for the season of 1878 contemplated the establishment of at least five longitude and latitude determinations at main stations, selected at positions favorable for checking the extended belts of triangulation. During the season of 1877 five bases were measured, at the following points: (1) Ogden, Utah; (2) between Terrace, Utah, and Lucin, Utah, on the Central Pacific Railroad; (3) near Austin, Nev.; (4) near Bozeman, Mont.; (5) near Verdi, Nev., on the Central Pacific Railroad. In each case connection was made with the initial astronomical stations in the vicinity and with the vertices of triangles of the main belts adjacent. During the same season 145 sextant latitude stations were occupied, 56 triangles about bases measured, and observations made at 106 main and 264 secondary triangulation stations, 2,474 three-point and cross-sight stations, and 12,366 minor points occupied. Magnetic variations were determined at 424 points and 10,801 miles measured. The necessary observations were made at 10,438 cistern and aneroid barometer stations for differences of altitude. The locations of 60 mineral and thermal springs have been defined, and 19 mining camps visited. A number of lots and specimens of minerals, fossils, mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, shells, &c., have been collected. In the office, 106 astronomical positions have been computed, 87 stations adjusted by method of least squares, 1,149 triangles, 2,298 distances, 295 longitudes and latitudes, and 352 azimuths computed, and 1,356 cistern barometer and 7,798 aneroid altitudes have been computed. There have been 14 sheets and parts of sheets plotted on a scale of 1 inch to 2 miles, and 6 special sheets drawn to various scales. The number of final or completed atlas sheets drawn and submitted with the report for the year is nine; 1,542 reports and 12,768 maps have been distributed. The increasing call for reports and maps from various sections of the country, and notably from those interested in the settlement of these western regions, is an indication that the results of the survey to a certain extent meet a popular want. After the passage of the appropriation for this survey on the 20th of June, the regular parties, nine in number, of which two admit of operating as double parties, consisting of forty-six observers, took the field early in July in three divisions, known as the Colorado, Utah, and California sections. Three main astronomical parties also proceeded to their respective posts for the purpose of establishing the longitude, latitude, and altitude. of stations at Walla Walla, Washington Ter.; Dalles, Oreg.; Fresno, Cal.; Fort Bliss, Tex.; and Fort Bayard, N. Mex. These parties, twelve in all, are distributed in the following political divisions: Two in California; one in parts of Nevada, California, and Oregon; three in parts of Nevada and California; one in Utah; one in Oregon and California; two in Colorado and New Mexico; two in New Mexico and Texas; and in areas embraced by atlas sheets Nos. 12, 20, 29, 38, 47, 56, 48, 73, 80, 41, 70, 78, 84, and 90. (See Progress map of 1878.) The Washington office continues its labors as usual. The expedition of 1878, larger than any other in number of observers, takes the field well equipped, and the season, when prolonged as intended until December, will admit of still further accumulation of topographical data required for the thorough and vigorous prosecution toward completion of the survey needed for the detailed topographical map of the entire region. Prof. J. J. Stevenson, with one assistant, is to be engaged during the season along the mountain ranges between the Rio Grande and the plains, and south of the Spanish Peaks, in Colorado. He will make detailed sections of the coal croppings and worked beds. Having the detailed topographical maps of this section, already published, to facilitate his labors, it is expected that the geological formations can be laid down with great rapidity and accuracy. The special examinations of the Comstock lode are being prosecuted, consisting of the completion of the detailed contour map, the following of the works in depth and along the Sutro tunnel, further data for the longitudinal, vertical, and horizontal sections, observations upon temperatures, ventilation, and drainage of the mines, and of the geology of the surface, and collections from various tunnel and other levels. The officer in charge suggests that, were funds available, winter parties could successfully conduct their operations in the southern portion of the field and near the Mexican border, while during the summer months parties can operate north of the Pacific railroads, thus keeping an expedition permanently in the field; and this course being in the direction of a rapid completion of the work, more especially commends itself in view of the Indian campaigns of the past few years rendered necessary against the hostiles, in which the want of accurate and detailed topographical maps of the western mountain regions has been felt. And I have again the honor to suggest that the item for continuing this survey may with propriety be placed upon the Army appropriation bill. (See letter of Lieutenant Wheeler, in appendix to book of estimates for 1879 and 1880.) Volume II (Astronomy and Barometric Hypsometry) of the quarto reports authorized to be published by act of Congress has been issued from the press, and proof reading of volume VI (Botany) is now being rapidly advanced. The tables of declinations of 2,018 latitude stars are in print and available for the special astronomical work of the present season. As soon as Vol. VI goes to press the manuscripts of Vols. I and VII, the remainder of those now approved, will be placed in the hands of the Printer. With slight exceptions, the illustrations for the above volumes have been engraved and printed. Nine topographical sheets have been added to the atlas, and 19 others approach completion in the various stages of progress. The geological information requisite for delineation upon the sheets to accompany Vol. III, and for others of the regular atlas, is being gathered. The special topographical sheet, on a scale of 1 inch to 1 mile, of the vicinity of Lake Tahoe, embracing the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, and that part of the Central Pacific Railroad across the Sierras, with the Washoe mining region, of the size of 6 full atlas sheets, is finally plotted and awaits publication. The plot, on a scale of 1 inch to 500 feet, of the contour survey of the vicinity of the Comstock lode, equivalent in size, when reduced to 1 inch to 1,500 feet, of four uniform atlas sheets, needs but a small amount of data for its completion. These maps, based upon a comparatively large number of computed points, are the most detailed yet produced by the survey. Land classification maps, based upon the regular topographical sheets, are being prepared and published as fast as possible, and hereafter the notes for a more minute representation of the character of the surface of the region visited are required of the several parties in the instructions given by the officer in charge. Besides the value of these maps to the land branch of the government, they must prove of service to the emigrant settler and capitalist interested in the regions represented. The topographical maps, which are the main results of the survey, are regularly published as fast as completed, and become at once available for the purposes of the War Department and other branches of the government service, and subsequently to the public, through the usual distribution, or, in various scales, through map publishers in this and foreign countries. The area surveyed and mapped during the years 1869, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, and 1877, as reported by Lieutenant Wheeler, aggregates the amount of 332,515 square miles, distributed as follows: Initial points have been established (including the season of 1877) in Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, Montana, and Washington. Parts of the work will have been, at the close of the season, carried on in fourteen of the fifteen of the political divisions lying west of the one hundredth meridian, and from the Columbia River on the north to the Mexican border. The labors of this survey are annually carried on in accordance with projects regularly submitted by the officer in charge to the Chief of Engineers, and by him to the Secretary of War, by whom they are approved before the parties commence the duties of each season. These projects are in the direction of a systematic, thorough, and economic prosecution of a detailed survey in connected areas (according to a plan submitted by Lieutenant Wheeler and adopted in 1872), the necessary data being obtained by means of astronomical, geodetic, topographical and barometric observations. This work may be considered as supplemental to, binding together, and developing systematically over completed areas, by the use of more refined instruments and later methods, |