the Geological Surveying Corps, reference will first be made to this 

 branch of the subject 



By Section 5 of the Act of the Legislature accepting the grant of 

 Congress, the State Geologist was authorized to make further explora 

 tions on the grants and in the adjacent region of the Sierra Nevada, 

 for the purpose of preparing a full description of the country, with 

 maps and illustrations, to be published and sold as other works issued 

 by the Geological Survey are, namely, for the benefit of the Common 

 School Fund of the State. 



As early in^&6g as the season would permit, a party was organized 

 by the State Geologist for the purpose of making a detailed geograph 

 ical and geological survey of the region of the high Sierra adjacent 

 to the Yosemite Valley. This party consisted of C. King, J. T. Gard 

 ner, H. N. Bolander, and C. R. Brinley, with two men employed to 

 pack and cook. They commenced work early in June, and continued 

 in the field until the latter end of October, being accompanied by the 

 State Geologist during a portion of the time. Owing to unavoidable 

 causes, this party was obliged to return from the field before the work 

 was completed. But enough had been done to enable Mr. Gardner 

 to commence and partly finish a map, and the following plan of pub 

 lication was determined on by the State Geologist. 



The work will consist of text, maps, and photographic and other 

 illustrations, and two editions will be issued one without photo 

 graphs, the other with them. One will be called the "Yosemite 

 Guide Book," the other the " Yosemite Gift Book." The Guide Book 

 will contain the text of the Gift Book and the same maps, but the 

 photographic illustrations will be omitted. The text will be such as 

 will be suitable for a complete and thorough guide, or hand-book, to 

 the Valley and its surroundings, including the high Sierra, and, in 

 general, the region between Mariposa and Big Oak Flat on the west, 

 and the head of the San Joaquin and Mono Lake on the east. The 

 map of the region thus designated is drawn on a scale of two miles 

 to one inch, and is thirty inches by twenty in size. It contains all 

 the minute details of the topography of one of the most elevated and 

 roughest portions of the State, and is the first accurate map of any 

 high mountain region ever prepared in the United States. 



The surveys for the completion of this map were continued during 

 the months of August and September of the present year, by a party 

 of the Geological Survey, in charge of C. F. Hoffmann, and the work 

 is now complete, and the map ready for the engravers. The photo 

 graphic illustrations, twenty-four in number, made by C. E. Watkins, 



