6 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



RESEARCHES AND EXPLORATIONS. 



The usual activities were continued during the past year in advanc- 

 ing one of the fundamental objects of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 the increase of knowledge. In this work various explorations and 

 researches were inaugurated or participated in by the Institution and 

 its branches, covering practically all divisions of astronomical, an- 

 thropological, biological, and geological science. The extent of these 

 explorations and researches during the history of the Institution 

 covers a wide range, although a great deal more of most important 

 work could have been accomplished had adequate funds been avail- 

 able. Friends of the Institution have generously aided this work, 

 particularly during the last few years, through the contribution of 

 funds for specific purposes, but much yet remains undone, and op- 

 portunities for undertaking important lines of investigation are 

 constantly being lost through lack of means to carry them into 

 execution. 



Several proposed expeditions to various parts of the world have 

 been temporarily delayed by the war in Europe. 



I will here mention only briefly some of the recent activities of the 

 Institution in these directions, and for details of other researches and 

 explorations may refer to the appendices containing the reports of 

 those directly in charge of the several branches of the Institution 

 and also to the accounts given in the customary pamphlet review of 

 this work published each year in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous 

 Collections. 



GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES. 



In continuation of geological work carried on by me for several 

 years past in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, I was engaged during 

 the summer and early fall of 1916 in field investigations on the Con- 

 tinental Divide forming the boundary between Alberta and British 

 Columbia, south of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The very heavy 

 snowfall of the previous winter, together with frequent snow and 

 rain squalls during the summer, had made the conditions unusually 

 favorable for taking photographs, the air being exceptionally pure 

 and clear during the field season, conditions, however, very unfavor- 

 able for geological investigations. A large number of photographs 

 were secured, including a number of panoramic views made on con- 

 tinuous films 8 feet in length. 



The sections examined and measured extend from the Mount 

 Assiniboine region southwest of Banff, Alberta, northwest to the 

 Kicking Horse Pass, where the Canadian Pacific Railway has bored 

 a double loop through the mountains on the north and south sides of 

 the pass. 



