APPENDIX E. 



REPORT ON THE BAROMETKK AE AM) MKTEi "HJOLoOM AE Ol'.sr.WV.YTloxs AMmiN THE COMPI TATIoX 

 OP THE ALTITll'i'.s THEEEEK* >.\I. IJV lIEXKY ENt.EEMAXX, OE< >LOi; 1ST AXD METEOROLOGIST OF 

 THE EXPEDITION. 



Washington, D. C, J)rim f bn- 5, I860. 

 Sir: I herewith submit to you my report on the barometrical and meteorological 



and Utah Territories, 1858 and 18f><); and on the computation of the altitudes from 

 the same, upon which the profiles are based, of the routes traveled by parties under 

 your command between Fort Bridger, Utah, and the Sierra Nevada. 



The observations cover a large area, and besides their value for the computation 

 of altitudes, of which only those points west of Fort Bridger have been calculated, 

 they afford an insight into the climatical conditions of the most elevated central portion 

 of the North American continent. By their large number I have been enabled to 

 deduce most striking results in regard to the fluctuations of the temperature and of 

 the moisture of the atmosphere in the so-called Great Basin of Utah, which has an 

 extremely continental climate, the like of which is only known to exist in the center 

 of the vast continent of Asia, and also of several points in the plains, east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, the climate of which, although not quite as arid as that of the Basin, still 

 differs very materially from that of the intermediate valley of the Mississippi River and 

 of the Eastern States, and presents insurmountable obstacles to the successful occupa- 

 tion of by far the largest portion of that region by any other than a nomadic popula- 

 tion, the main interest of which cannot be agriculture. From the records of the obser- 

 vations given in full, much more interesting facts may be derived by their comparison 

 with contemporaneous observations at other points, but my time has been too much 

 limited to follow up the subject farther than I have done. 



I avail mvself of this opportunity to acknowledge the valuable assistance rendered 

 me during the prosecution of the surveys, by Capt. J. W. Phelps, Fourth Artillery, U. 

 S. A., (now resigned,) at Camp Floyd,* and by Messrs. Edward /agiello and William 

 Lee, who assisted me along the route. For the communication of some of the mete- 

 orological records, which I have made use of in the computations, I am indebted to 

 the Medical I )epartment , ,f the Army. I am also under obligation to Prof. A. D. Bache, 

 Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, for some observations at San Fran- 

 cisco, Cal., and for liberal access to the library of the Smithsonian Institution, and 



