INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. lxxxvii 



the fidelity with which the Alaska Commercial Company may 

 have kept its obligations to the United States and to the 

 people of the territories. Mr. Henry W. Elliott, already fa- 

 vorably known from his previous explorations in the same 

 region, and Lieutenant Maynard, were selected, and left on 

 the revenue vessel under charge of Commander J. G. Baker. 

 They visited Sitka, the islands of St. Paul, St. George, St. 

 Lawrence, St. Matthews, etc., and returned to Washington 

 with the materials for their report. It is expected that an- 

 other year will be occupied in completing this research, and 

 in collecting facts for the final statement of the results of 

 their labors. 



Of the regular government expeditions, the most extensive 

 in its preparation and organization was that of Lieutenant 

 George M. Wheeler, which embraced nine different parties, 

 each thoroughly organized and provided with transportation, 

 and the means of both physical and natural history work. 

 A large area of country was thoroughly explored and map- 

 ped out, while the biological collections were of very great 

 value. One of Lieutenant Wheeler's parties, consisting of 

 Dr. Yarrow, Professor Cope, and their associates, succeeded 

 in discovering and exploring immense deposits of vertebrate 

 fossils, said to include over one hundred species, a number 

 of them new to science. The zoologist of the expedition, 

 Mr. H. W. Henshaw, secured a large series of birds, reptiles, 

 insects, etc., among them at least five kinds of birds hitherto 

 unknown within the limits of the United States. The bot- 

 anist, Dr. Roth rock, also gathered a large number of plants, 

 some of them previously undescribed. 



Professor Hayden's parties were also actively engaged, 

 the results, however, being rather in the line of topography, 

 general geology, and terrestrial physics, than in natural his- 

 tory proper. 



Professor Powell has also continued his work on the Col- 

 orado River with his usual success, returning to Washington 

 with valuable material. The labors of Lieutenant Wheeler 

 were prosecuted under the War Department, those of Dr. 

 Hayden and of Major Powell under the Interior Department, 

 forming the two divisions so far organized of the proposed 

 geological survey of the territories. 



A more detailed statement of the operations of these three 



