F. GEOGRAPHY. 261 



YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION. 



Among the more prominent expeditions in the summer of 

 1873 was that fitted out by the War Department to protect 

 the surveying and working parties engaged in locating the 

 line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, from the Missouri River 

 westward to the Yellowstone and beyond. This escort was 

 composed often companies of cavalry, in command of Colonel 

 Custer, Seventh Cavalry ; a battalion of four companies of 

 the Seventeenth Infantry, under command of Major Crofton; 

 a battalion of five companies of the Twenty-second Infantry, 

 under command of Captain J. C. Dickey ; and a battalion of 

 the Eighth and Ninth Infantry, under command of Lieutenant 

 Colonel Bradley, of the Ninth Infantry. All were under 

 command of Colonel D. S. Stanley, of the Twenty-second In- 

 fantry, with the following stafi" namely, H.H.Ketchum, Ad- 

 jutant Twenty -second Infantry, acting assistant adjutant- 

 general ; E. H. Ray, Second Lieutenant Eighth Infantry, chief 

 commissary of the expedition ; Captain Edward Baker, As- 

 sistant Quartermaster United States Army, chief quartermas- 

 ter; Assistant Surgeon J. P. Kimball, chief medical officer; 

 Lieutenant James H. Jones, acting aid-de-camp. The total 

 force of the expedition was about 1900 men, with 250 

 wagons. 



In view of the unexplored nature of the region to be trav- 

 ersed, the Secretary of War, with his customary liberality, 

 authorized the appointment by the Engineer Bureau of a 

 certain number of scientific gentlemen to make the proper 

 explorations in the department of natural history during the 

 march ; and for this purpose Mr. J.A.Allen was commission- 

 ed as zoologist and naturalist in chief; Mr. C. Bennett as as- 

 sistant naturalist, Dr. L. R.Nettre as geologist and mineralo- 

 gist, Mr. Edward Konopicky as artist, and Mr. Py well as pho- 

 tographer ; the reporter of the New York Tribune, Mr. S. J. 

 Barrows, serving as volunteer botanist. 



The expedition left Fort Rice by land, while a steamer was 

 sent bv wav of the Missouri and the Yellowstone to the mouth 

 of Powder River, as a relief. 



The surveying party of the Railroad was composed of 

 General Thomas L. Rosser, chief engineer; A. O. Eckelson, 

 first assistant : Montgomery Meigs, chief of the transit party ; 



