250 Report on Mxploration. in Alaska. 



The expedition should leave Seattle in the latter part of May, 

 aiming to reach Icy bay by the first of June, and field work 

 should close by the end- of September. 



Your committee consider further exploration in Alaska by 

 the Society this year as practicable, and recommend that the 

 proposed expedition be authorized, and that Mr. Russell be at 

 once invited to organize and conduct it, under the auspices of 

 the Society. 



Very respectfully, 



G. K. Gilbert, 

 Everett Hayden, 

 WiLLARD D. Johnson, 

 Committee on Exploration. 



NOTES. 



La Carte de France, dite de VEtat Major, par M. J. Collet. Paris, 

 1887. 8vo, pp. 92, ivith 4 plates.— This pamphlet describes the 



^•reat '" Staff Map " of France, recently completed, giving its his- 

 tory, the methods employed in the field and office work, the 

 contents of the map, and the means of representing the various 



■ features therein described. The scale of the map is 1:80,000. 

 Relief is represented by hachures, for drawing which approxi- 

 mate contour lines have been located, but these are not otherwise 

 used. A great variety of cultural features are shown, many of 

 which are ephemeral, and which contribute to the overloading 

 of the map with details. Moreover, as the time Avhich has 

 ordinarily elapsed between the survey and the issuance of the 

 work in printed form is ten or twelve years, most of this culture 

 has become not only of no value but misleading by the time it is 

 published. 



The account of the organization and methods by which the 

 map has been produced is of special interest. The primary 

 triangulation upon which it is based is one of the most elaborate 

 and accurate ever executed in any country. No expense has 

 been spared in this direction. Within this triangulation is a 

 secondary triangulation, also very elaborate, from the stations of 

 which numerous additional points are cut in, or located by un- 

 closed triangles. All this work is of the highest order of excel- 

 lence, being infinitely more accurate than the map requires. 



