7^6 The Smithsonian Institution 



the parties stationed at Point Barrow and Lady Franklin 

 Bay were in no small degree the result of the cooperation 

 of the Institution. By such means a large portion of the 

 Arctic regions of North America was explored, and extensive 

 collections, especially of biologic and ethnologic subjects, 

 were made. 



In 1846 the greater part of the United States west of the 

 one-hundredth meridian was unknown. The most western 

 State was then Illinois, the region west of the Mississippi 

 being an unsettled region where Indians and buffaloes 

 roamed. Texas had just been admitted to the Union, but 

 California and the greater part of the country west of the 

 Rocky Mountains belonged to Mexico, and were ceded to the 

 United States in 1848. The explorations of Lewis and 

 Clarke, Pike, Long, Bonneville, and Fremont had laid down 

 the general course of the main streams, and the general dis- 

 tribution of the mountain systems, but little or nothing was 

 known of the details of the topography, and nothing what- 

 ever of the resources of the country. The only means of 

 reaching California was by sailing vessels around Cape 

 Horn. The Mormons were then located on the Mississippi 

 River, and several years passed before they took up their 

 dangerous march across the desert to Salt Lake. 



Between 1849 and 1854 the United States government 

 .sent out a number of expeditions for the purpose of discov- 

 ering practicable routes for railroads across this great desert 

 region. These expeditions were conducted by the War 

 Department, but they were aided in many ways by the 

 Smithsonian Institution. They were accompanied by geolo- 

 gists, botanists and ethnologists, who received their instruc- 

 tions from the Institution ; and the magnificent series of 

 Pacific Railroad reports are in no small degree the work of 

 the Institution. After these expeditions followed many 



