838 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1871. 



plorations of the past two years in our own 

 country have been fruitful in results, not only 

 interesting, but profitable, in opening new 

 sources of wealth and new scenes of wonder 

 and delight. Dr. Hermann Credner, a distin- 

 guished German geographer and geologist of 

 Leipsic, made, in 1870, a geognostic and geo- 

 graphic survey of the Appalachian, or, as he 

 terms it, the Alleghany mountain system, from 

 its beginning in Nova Scotia, to its termina- 

 tion in Alabama and Mississippi, and, with that 

 thoroughness which marks the work of the 

 German physicists generally, has given a care- 

 fully-prepared geologic map of the w'hole range, 

 and the valleys and plateaus included between 

 its various chains. He has also given profile 

 maps of different transverse sections of it. 

 This range, of which portions (in Massachu- 

 setts, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, 

 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and parts of Mary- 

 land, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and 

 Ohio) had been separately explored, has never 

 previously been surveyed as a whole, except 

 in the somewhat hasty and imperfect maps of 

 M. Jules Marcou, and Dr. Credner's admirable 

 geological map and cross-sections, with his ac- 

 companying descriptive text, are a valuable 

 contribution to our geognostic knowledge of 

 our own country. They were published in 

 the second number of the seventeenth volume 

 of Petermann's " Mittheilungen" (February, 

 1871), and ought to be translated into English. 



A large cave near Hannibal, Missouri, al- 

 though long partially known, has excited con- 

 siderable attention the past year from its more 

 extensive and thorough exploration. Its ex- 

 tent is probably considerably greater than that 

 of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky ; many of 

 its chambers extend under the Mississippi Riv- 

 er, and some of them to a considerable distance 

 east of the river, in Illinois. At some points 

 it is four stories deep; that is, there is that 

 number of distinct galleries, one over the 

 other ; at others these galleries are all merged 

 in one lofty hall. , The cave is quite dry, and 

 has no stalactites or stalagmites. The temper- 

 ature is 60 Fahr., winter and summer. 



Dakota, hitherto the least prosperous of our 

 Territories, owing to the presence in it of a 

 large body of warlike Sioux, and the absence 

 heretofore of any great mining attractions, is 

 now compelling the attention of immigrants 

 by its mild and healthful climate, the facilities 

 offered by the Northern Pacific Railroad, so 

 rapidly approaching completion, and within 

 the past year by the reported discovery of 

 gold in large quantities in the Black Hills, on 

 and near the 43d parallel of latitude, and be- 

 tween the 103d and 105th meridians of longi- 

 tude west from Greenwich. This region was, 

 until some time in 1871, in the undisputed 

 possession of Spotted Tail's band of Sioux, 

 a tribe which had not engaged in war with the 

 United States, and the Government refused to 

 allow any expeditions to go thither, lest an In- 

 dian war should be the consequence. But, in 



1871, Spotted Tail and his band were induced 

 to remove to the Upper Platte Valley, and the 

 pioneer miners have been pushing into the 

 region of the Black Hills in considerable num- 

 bers since. 



But the greatest interest of the year has 

 centred in the Territory of Montana, around 

 the head-waters of the Yellowstone, the Jef- 

 ferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers, and the 

 Lewis and Henry forks of the Snake River. 

 This region of wonders, lying between the 

 44th and 45th parallels of latitude, and between 

 the meridians of 32 80' and 35 west from 

 Washington, has been very fully explored the 

 past year, and the narrative of Governor Lang- 

 ford and his party, given in detail in the AN- 

 NUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for the year 1870, more 

 than confirmed. Governor Langford pub- 

 lished, in Berliner's Monthly for May and 

 June, 1871, a full description, with numerous 

 illustrations, of what he and his party had dis- 

 covered. Hon. Truman C. Evarts, the lost 

 member of the party, gave in the November 

 number of the same periodical a thrilling ac- 

 count of his thirty-seven days of peril ; while 

 Mr. F. V. Hayden, the accomplished geologist 

 of the United States Land-Office, published in 

 the number for February, 1872, with numer- 

 ous illustrations, a brief account of the discov- 

 eries of his party there in the summer of 1871. 

 The great cafion of the Yellowstone with its 

 succession of falls, 450 feet, 150 feet, and 125 

 feet in height, the hot springs, 1,500 to 2,000 in 

 number, in an area of five miles square, with 

 their numerous bathing-pools of every variety 

 of temperature, elegantly formed by the deposit 

 of the calcareous tufa, ranging from six to ten 

 feet in diameter, and from two to four feet in 

 depth ; the mountain-slope, snow-white from 

 ages of calcareous deposit, but tinged at inter- 

 vals with the most exquisite colors, from the 

 iron, chrome, and sulphur, dissolved in the 

 springs; the grotesque forms of the caps of 

 calcareous matter, which closed springs and 

 geysers once active, but now silent; the evi- 

 dences of violent volcanic action, and of long 

 ages of erosion in the canons, ravines, "Devil's 

 Dens," and "Devil's Slides" of the Yellow- 

 stone Valley #11 contributed to make the re- 

 gion one inspiring feelings of awe and almost 

 terror from its testimony to the terrific powers 

 of Nature. The transition from these scenes 

 to the calm and impressive beauty of the Yel- 

 lowstone Lake, and the exquisite landscapes 

 which surrounded it, was almost like emerg- 

 ing into a new world. The full official report 

 of Dr. Hayden and his associates will be 

 awaited with great interest. We alluded, in 

 the ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1870, to an expe- 

 dition under charge of Prof. Marsh, of Yale 

 College, which had visited the plains for pur- 

 poses of exploration. That expedition was 

 not of sufficient size or sufficiently well 

 equipped to make any great discoveries, but in 

 the summer of 1871 a much larger and better- 

 equipped party left New Haven on the last 



