GEOGRAPHICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



481 



and which may be properly withheld from the press 

 and the public, in order that it may not reach the 

 enemy. The committee, therefore, recommend the 

 adoption of the following resolution by the House : 



Ived, That the Government should not interfere 

 with the free transmission of intelligence by telegraph, 

 when the same will not aid the enemy in his military 

 or naval operations, or give him information concern- 

 ing such operations on the part of the Government, ex- 

 cept when it may become necessary for the Govern- 

 ment, under the authority of Congress, to assume ex- 

 xlusive control of the telegraph for its own legitimate 

 purposes, or to assert the right of priority in the trans- 

 mission of its own despatches. 



FRELINGHUYSEN, THEODORE, LL.D., an 

 American statesman, and scholar, born at Mill- 

 ston, Somerset co., N. J., March 28, 1787, died at 

 New Brunswick, April 12, 1862. He graduated 

 at Princeton College in 1804, studied law, and 

 was admitted to the bar in 1808, where he soon 

 gained a high reputation as a lawyer. In the 

 war of 1812, he took part as a captain of a com- 

 pany of volunteers. In 1817, he was chosen 

 attorney-general of the State by a legislature 

 opposed to him in politics, and in 1826 was 

 transferred to the United States Senate. Dur- 

 ing his period of service there, whatever acts 

 came before Congress, having for their object 

 the amelioration of the condition of the poor 

 and oppressed, or of elevating their moral or re- 

 ligious character, received his hearty support. 

 He was one of the earliest officers of the Amer- 

 ican Colonization Society, advocated bills for 

 the improvement of the condition of the Indian 

 tribes, the suppression of Sabbath mails, and 



supported Mr. Clay upon the question of tho 

 tariff, and the compromise act of 1832. In 

 1835, he left the Senate, and was succeeded by 

 a democratic Senator. In 1838, he was chosen 

 Chancellor of the University of New York. In 

 1844, he was the nominee of the whig party 

 for vice-president when Henry Clay was the 

 candidate for the presidency. In 1850, he re- 

 signed the chancellorship of the University, and 

 became president of Rutger's College, New 

 Brunswick, N. J., which position he occupied 

 until his death. He filled many places of honor 

 and of trust in civil life, and in the walks of 

 learning, and adorned them in no ordinary de- 

 gree with the graces of the man and the Christian. 

 FRONT ROYAL, the capital of Warren 

 county, Virginia, is one mile east of the Shen- 

 andoah river, and 140 miles north of northwest 

 of Richmond. The town is situated in a valley 

 between the river and the Blue Ridge Moun- 

 tains the gap in which receives its name 

 from the town. The railroad from Alexandria 

 to Strasburg passes through this gap and the 

 village. A plank road of 20 miles in length 

 connects the latter with "Winchester. Numer- 

 ous flouring mills use the water power of the 

 river. It was here that the advance of Gen. 

 Jackson's force met a most spirited resistance 

 from the 1st Maryland volunteers, under Col. 

 Kenly, on the 23d of May. which defeated his 

 design to cut off the retreat of Gen. Banks. It 

 was subsequently, during the year, the scene 

 of important military movements. 



GEOGRAPHICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGI- 

 CAL EXPLORATIONS. An epoch of civil 

 war is not usually a time for extensive geo- 

 graphical explorations or discoveries ; yet the 

 past year has not been wholly fruitless in dis- 

 covery in the United States or the North Amer- 

 ican Continent. Early in the year Congress 

 published the elaborate report of Captains 

 Humphreys and Abbott, who had been ap- 

 pointed in 1857 to survey the Mississippi river 

 and its tributaries, and whose labors were 

 brought to a close in 1861. This report is full 

 of interest and importance, not only to hydro- 

 graphical science, but to the military and naval 

 operations of which that great water-course is 

 now the seat. The great western tributaries of 

 the Father of Waters, the Missouri, Red, and 

 Arkansas rivers, were explored to their sources, 

 their breadth, depth, and the character of the 

 soils of the regions through which they pass 

 accurately noted, and their usual periods of 

 flood and ebb investigated; The military 

 operations, which have been conducted in so 

 many of the States of the Union, have been 

 fruitful in reconnoissances and surveys, many of 

 which will contribute to render the topography 

 VOL. IL 31 



of those States much better understood in the 

 future than it has been in the past. 



The explorations for new mines of the pre- 

 cious metals have been unusually successful 

 during the year. In California several new 

 silver mines, and one extensive deposit of cin- 

 nabar (the ore of quicksilver) have been dis- 

 covered, and copper deposits of great extent 

 brought to light; in Nevada, the discovery of 

 new silver lodes has been of almost weekly oc- 

 currence. In Colorado, the veins of gold-bear- 

 ing quartz, and of pyrites rich in gold, have 

 been found in almost all parts of the mountain 

 ranges of that territory. The mines in Arizono 

 on the Colorado river, long known to yield 

 gold and silver in considerable quantities, have 

 been opened and found richer than was pre- 

 viously supposed. The Salmon river, and John 

 Day and Powder river gold mines in Oregon 

 and Washington Territory (now included in the 

 new Territory of Idaho), though discovered the 

 year before, received their principal develop- 

 ment in 1862 : and a new mining region of ex- 

 traordinary promise was discovered in the 

 summer of 1862, on Grasshopper river, an afflu- 

 ent of the Yellow Stone, in lat. 43?, long. 109 



