regard to which there had been up to that time but little definite* 

 information obtained. 



It was my intention to have the expedition extend its work as far as 

 the eastern border of Nevada, embracing the area between the thirty- 

 seventh and thirty-ninth parallels; but winter set in very early, so that 

 it became necessary to leave the field during the latter part of October. 



3. Mr. Hoffman, assisted by Mr. H. Craven as topographer, Mr. W. 

 Harris as photographer, and two men, left San Francisco about the 

 middle of August, and were occupied for about six weeks in completing- 

 the work commenced during the previous year by Messrs. King and 

 Gardner, about the head of the Merced and on the upper portion of the 

 Tuolumne. 



They explored the interesting valley called by the Indians Heteh- 

 Hetchy, an almost exact counterpart in its general features and in some- 

 of its details, of the Yosemite Yalley. A number of photographs were 

 taken, of which the negatives are in our possession, to be used in illus 

 trating our future volumes in case it should be desirable. This party 

 also made a minute survey of the bottom of the Yosemite Valley for the 

 Commissioners, to be paid for from the fund to be appropriated for their 

 use. This work was found to be necessary for the purposes of the Com 

 mission in carrying out the objects of the grant made by Congress to 

 the State of California. 



4. Mr. K. D'Heureuse continued his topographical work in Kern,, 

 Tulare, and Inyo Counties, with two assistants, commencing May twenty- 

 eighth, and ending September nineteenth. This survey has been plotted 

 on a scale of two miles to an inch, and embraces an area of about one 

 hundred miles north and south, by fifty in the opposite direction. It 

 takes in all the settled part of Kern County, about half of Tulare, and 

 the western edge of Inyo, embracing the whole of the Sierra Nevada 

 from Walker's Pass to the parallel passing along the lower end of Owen's- 

 Lake. Mr. D'Heureuse also collected a large amount of geological in 

 formation in regard to the region traversed by himself. He discovered 

 an extensive grove of the Big Trees, of the existence of which we have 

 no previous account. 



5. Mr. Wackenrendcr has also been engaged during the whole season, 

 with the exception of two weeks, in continuing his surveys in the cen 

 tral portion of the Sierra Nevada. During this time he has made several 

 trips along the Sierra, between Alpine and Plumas Counties, completing 

 the high pajjt of Alpine, Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado, and Sierra 

 Counties. There is about three months more work to be done to enable 

 us to plot the whole of the Sierra Nevada on the largest scale required, 

 from Walker's Pass to Lassen's Peak, a distance of about four hundred 

 miles in a direct line. The area of the region thus surveyed by our par 

 ties during the past four years, including only what may be called the 

 " High Sierra," is about twenty thousand square miles, or fifty miles in 

 width on an average, by four hundred miles long, as stated above. The 

 counties in which the work is deficient are Tuolumne, Nevada, and 

 Placer, but we could plot the whole of the higher portion of these with, 

 tolerable accuracy, on the six miles to an inch scale, in case of necessity. 



During the past two years the State Geologist has been actively and 

 exclusively engaged in the State attending to the necessary work of the 

 survey in all its departments, with the exception of two short periods of 

 absence, one of four weeks in Oregon and Washington Territory, and 

 one of two weeks in Nevada. These excursions were made for the pur 

 pose of settling important geographical and geological questions inti- 



