188 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



Potomac and won an officer's commission. After the war he again 

 joined Professor Hayden in his exploration of the Upper Missouri, 

 under the auspices of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. 



Soon after the return of peace, the Pacific Eailroad project was taken 

 up by Congress. Among the Western members of the House who be- 

 came its advocates was General John A. Logan, who took the lead in 

 combating the statement that the Territories had no coal. He main- 

 tained that coal existed in abundance, and that it could be located by a 

 proper geological survey of the region. Stevenson was his principal 

 authority for his statements, and urged upon him the necessity for such 

 surveying works. After consultation with Professor Baird, General 

 Logan, in the winter of 18G7, proposed an amendment to the sundry 

 civil bill authorizing the organization of a geological survey under the 

 direction of Professor Hayden, and by a vigorous effort secured its 

 passage. 



The legislation of 1867 was the beginning of the geological and geo- 

 graphical survey of the Territories. Stevenson was made the executive 

 officer of the new organization, and retained this position during its 

 entire existence. 



His tastes were rather toward ethnology than geology, and his win- 

 ters among the Blackfoot and Sioux Indians were occupied in part in 

 studying their customs and their dialects. 



From 1808 to 1878 he took part in all the adventures of the Hayden 

 survey; with it he explored almost all of the Territories, and had a 

 share in bringing to light the hidden marvels of Yellowstone Park, and 

 in urging its retention as a public reservation. He followed the great 

 rivers of the continent to their sources, and discovered a new path 

 across the Rocky Mountains. He ascended the Great Teton, and veri- 

 fied an Indian tradition of the presence of a stone altar upon its top. 



His frontier experience fitted him for understanding thoroughly the 

 requirements of explorers in the field. He was a good judge of char- 

 acter and showed much tact in planning and expediting the operations 

 of the mixed trains engaged in the survey work. He led working par- 

 ties of experts trained in topography, geology, and natural history over 

 the unexplored regions of Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, 

 Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Dakota.* 



When the various geological and geographical surveys were consol- 

 idated in 1879, Mr. Stevenson became associated with the operations 

 of the Bureau of Ethnology, under Major Powell, and continued his 

 investigations of the 1 udians. When Clarence King resigned the direct- 

 orship of the new geological survey and Major Powell was selected to 

 succeed him, Mr. Stevenson was appointed the executive officer of the 

 latter organization. In this new trust the had charge of outfitting and 



* His work was chiefly in the following regions: 1851-'53, Upper Missouri. 1859- 

 '60, Wyoming and Montana (thin Nebraska), with Reynolds. 1866, Bad Lands in 

 Dakota, with Hayden. 1867, Nebraska, with Hayden. L868, Wyoming, -with Hay- 



