312 GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 18T3. 



the prosecution of its surveys, which had been 

 planned according to his previous report. 



Another expedition, nmlur the immediate 

 direction of the Smithsonian Institution, though 

 we believe with some aid from Government, is 

 that of Colonel or Prof. Powell, of tho valley 

 'of tho Colorado River. This has been in prog- 

 ress for about three years, and 1'ruf. 1'owell's 

 past discoveries have been duly chronicled in 

 the previous volumes of the ANJJUAL CTCLO- 

 I'.EIIIA. During tho year 1873 his topographi- 

 cal surveys had been continued from the point- 

 whore they closed tho previous year on both 

 sides of the river, so as to include all the conn- 

 try drained by the Rio Virgin. Knnab, Tapete, 

 Paria, 10se:il:i:iti, ami Dirty Devil Rivers, and 

 tho head- waters of the Sevier, and an exten- 

 sive district of country east of the Colorado 

 River, and south ofthn Grand Cafion. 



The Northern boundary Survey, along the 

 forty-ninth parallel between tho United States 

 and British America, was actively prosecuted 

 during the year 1873, under Mr. Archibald 

 t'iimpbi'll ; and Dr. Elliott Coues, tho natural- 

 ist of the expedition, brought homo at the 

 close of the year largo collections of the fauna 

 of that region, including several thousand in- 

 sects, and the skins of over a thousand mam- 

 mals and birds, besides a large number of al- 

 coholic preparations of fishes and reptiles, 

 many nests and eggs of birds, a valuable her- 

 barium, and numerous miscellaneous objects. 

 Tho survey is continued tho present year, and 

 the reports of Dr. Canes and other scientific 

 members of the commission will undoubtedly 

 us in possession of new facts relative to 

 the geography "' 'hat region. 



Mr. \V. II. Dill, under tho. direction of tho 

 UnitoJ States Coast Survey, has been engaged 

 since 1871 in exploring the Aleutian Islands 

 and the adjacent region, and in 1873 performed 

 a large amount of very valuable work in that 

 remote part of our territory. Ilia labors em- 

 braced determinations of the hydrography, 

 the m:i-t -line, tho magnetic variation, and 

 other physical phenomena, together with such 

 observations in natural history and ethnology 

 as the more important interests of the survey 

 would warrant. The latitude and longitude of 

 all tho important harbors were determined 

 with great accuracy, and errors, in some cases, 

 of twelve miles on the charts, were corrected. 

 What i> known as the plateau of Retiring Sea, 

 which is shallow, and includes, in an archipel- 

 ago, most of these islands, was found to termi- 

 nate suddenly at the northwest end of Una- 

 loshka Island, whore, tho bottom drops nt 

 once from sixty to over ciirht hundred fath- 

 om*, anil within less than twenty miles from 

 the shore is eleven hundred fathoms deep. In 

 the western part of Retiring Sea there seems 

 to be a deep-sea valley. There is no well-de- 

 fined or constant current in tho east or mid- 

 ill. portions of lichring Sen. The island of 

 a was the only one which offered the re- 

 quired facilities for landing the telegraph cable. 



A new and good anchorage was found on the 

 island of Adakh. The volcanic islands. I 

 ciolly Bogoslotf, the Davidotl' islands, and the 

 Four Craters, were carefully examined, and 

 extensive corrections were found necessary on 

 the existing charts. A reef, laid down, as 

 stretching from Bogosloff to I'mimk, was 

 found to have no existence, eight hundred 

 fathoms of water being found along its sup- 

 posed line. Tho fauna and flora were*:;' 

 taiued to be almost purely arctic, having u very 

 slight admixture of Asiatic forms, and on somo 

 of the islands no traces of them were found. 

 A considerable collection of prehistoric crania, 

 implements of bone and stone, and wood- 

 carvings, was secured from the caves on the 

 islands. Tho winter of 1872-'73 was one of 

 the coldest recorded in that region, and tho 

 field-ice in the Retiring Sea entirely surround- 

 ed tho fur-seal islands as late as the 2uth of 

 May, yet the thermometer in Unalashka did 

 not fall below 10 Fahr. during the winter. 



General Ord sent out an expedition in Juno, 

 1873, to explore tho hood-waters of several 

 rivers having their source in tho northwest 

 corner of Wyoming Territory, or in the iso- 

 lated tract adjacent, which, though hundreds 

 of miles away from Dakota Territory, yet bo- 

 longs to it. To this party, a geologist and 

 a botanist and meteorologist were attached. 

 This expedition explored the sources of all tho 

 affluents of the Yellowstone, and of the Jef- 

 ferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers, the 

 sources of the Missouri, as well as of Henry's 

 Fork, an affluent of the Green and Colorado, 

 and the tributaries of the Snake and Columbia 

 Rivers, all taking their rise in or near the tract 

 which forms the National Yellowstone Park. 

 They found at tho highest point of thcs-o 

 mountain-passes a stream to which they gave 

 the appropriate name of Two-Ocean Water. 

 This stream flows down into a little valley, 

 where it splits into two rivulets, one of which 

 flowing westward falls into a tributary of tho 

 Snake and Columbia Rivers, and thus finds its 

 way into the Pacific, and the other, through tho 

 Yellowstone and Missouri, discharges its wa- 

 ters into the Gulf of Mexico. They also dis- 

 covered that tho Madison River, one of the 

 throe forks which form the head- waters of tho 

 Missouri, is not, as was supposed, an outlet of 

 Madison Lake (as that lake drains into tho 

 tributaries of the Snake Kiver, and so goes to 

 the Pacific), but takes its rise in some small 

 mountain -stream. To this expedition also arc 

 we indebted for tho discovery of a shorter and 

 much more practicable route to the Yellow- 

 stone Park, by way of Wind-River Valley. 

 A third Western Exploring Expedition was 

 organized for tho summer of 1878, by Prof. 

 Marsh, of Yale College, and a corps of stu- 

 dents. The two previous expeditions had been 

 fruitful in scientific results, and in greatly add- 

 ing to the natural history, geological and 

 paleontologies! collodions of the. college, but 

 that of 1873 for surpassed those of previous 



