8 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



diagrams, and tables necessary to an elucidation and comprehension of the various 

 topics growing out of the explorations. 



To my assistants, Lieuts. J. L. Kirby Smith and H. S. Putnam, of the Corps of 

 Topographical Engineers; Mr. Henry Engelmann, geologist, meteorologist, and botan- 

 ical collector; Mr. Charles S. McCarthy, taxidermist; Messrs. Edward Iagiello and 

 William Lee, chronometer-keepers and meteorological assistants; and Mr. H. V. A. 

 Von Beckh, artist, I hereby tender my thankful acknowledgments for faithful and 

 efficient services rendered. The work performed by each will appear generally in the 

 sequel, to which I refer for proof of the useful character and merit of their respective 

 labors. 



Lieutenants Smith and Putnam having, under my instructions, had an opportunity 

 to practice for more than a month with the sextant, astronomical transit, unifilar mag- 

 netometer, and dip-circle, at Fort Leavenworth, before the Utah forces destined for 

 Utah in the spring of 1858 took up the line of march for that Territory, and practicing 

 with these instruments again on the march to Utah, they became so dexterous in their 

 use as to make it unnecessary for me to have anything more than a general supervision 

 over their observations subsequently across the Great Basin. To Lieutenant Smith, 

 therefore, were intrusted the daily observations with the sextant for latitude and longi- 

 tude, and to Lieutenant Putnam the occasional observations with the transit of moon and 

 moon-culminating stars for longitude, and with the magnetometer and inclinometer, or 

 dip-circle, for the intensity, declination, and dip of the magnetic needle. 



In the "lunars" for longitude both would assist me, three sextants being used, 

 they taking the altitude and I the angular distance, and all at the same instant of time. 

 The other duties performed by these gentlemen will appear noted in the mention made 

 in the journal of the organization at Camp Floyd of the expedition. 



The very valuable contributions to my report by Mr. Henry Engelmann, in 

 respect to the geology and meteorology, and by Mr. F. B. Meek, of the paleontology 

 of the country, from Fort Leavenworth to the Sierra Nevada, and especially of that 

 hitherto terra incognita in these respects, the Great Basin of Utah, I feel assured, will 

 be readily acknowledged by all who take an interest in such subjects. 



To Mr. Von Beckh I am indebted for the original sketches of scenery, and to 

 Mr. John J. Young, of this city, for the very handsome manner in which they have 

 been elaborated and perfected in the office for my report. I earned out with me a 

 photographic apparatus, carefully supplied with the necessary chemicals by Mr. E. 

 Anthony, of New York, and a couple of gentlemen accompanied me as photographers; 

 but although they took a large number of views, some of which have been the origi- 

 nals from which a few accompanying my journals have been derived, yet, as a general 

 thing, the project proved a failure. Indeed, I am informed that in several of the Gov- 

 ernment expeditions a photographic apparatus has been an accompaniment, and that 

 in every instance, and even with operators of undoubted skill, the enterprise has been 

 attended with failure. The cause lies in some degree in the difficulty, in the field, at 

 short notice, of having the preparations perfect enough to insure good pictures, but 

 chiefly in the fact that the camera is not adapted to distant scenery. For objects very 

 close at hand, which of course correspondingly contracts the field of vision, and for 



