250 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



United States Coast Survey, rest the primary triangulations 

 conducted by Mr. J. T. Gardner, geographer of the Survey, 

 who, with the assistance of Mr. A. D. Wilson, has ah-eady car- 

 ried through from the Pacific coast a system of primary trian- 

 gles 800 miles long. The triangulation of Colorado connects 

 at four points with this transcontinental belt, but rests on 

 bases of its own. The first is near Denver, measured with 

 great accuracy on the Kansas Pacific Railroad track. It is 

 six miles long. Signals 30 feet high were erected on the 

 plains, by which the triangulation was expanded to the mount- 

 ains, 20 miles distant. The work was extended 120 miles 

 west, 100 miles north, and 120 miles south, to base No. 2, 

 situated in San Luis valley, 140 miles northwest of Denver. 

 This triangulation is checked by the Fort Steele base of the 

 fortieth parallel survey. These triangles vary from 40 to 80 

 miles on a side, and are arranged in parallelograms on the 

 plan of the United States Coast Survey. 



The organization of the field work began at Denver early 

 in May ; and as soon as the weather would permit, three par- 

 ties were thoroughly equipped and dispatched to their re- 

 spective fields of labor. Each party consisted of two topog- 

 raphers, a geologist, two packers, and a cook ; with one or 

 two additional assistants. The three divisions were called, 

 the Middle Park Division, the South Park Division, and the 

 San Luis Division, and each party had assigned to it an area 

 of about VOOO square miles. 



Mr. Jackson, the official photographer of the Survey, oper- 

 ated with an independent party, and secured nearly three 

 hundred negatives of scenery, one hundred of them forming 

 various panoramic views from the summits of the highest 

 peaks. He generally made from four to six pictures, 11 x li, 

 to sweep the horizon. All the most important peaks of the 

 Wasatch Range, Elk Mountain, and the Colorado Range op- 

 posite Denver are represented ; one panoramic view includes 

 the entire front range from Long's Peak to Pike's Peak, a dis- 

 tance of over one hundred miles. His views from the sum- 

 mit of Mount Lincoln extend over a radius of fifty miles, in- 

 cluding a great number of peaks rising above 14,000 feet. 



Numerous smaller parties have been operating in various 

 parts of the West under the auspices of the Survey, with great 

 success. Professor Cope explored a new bone -bed in Col- 



