CHAPTER I 



The district assigned to the middle division for the field season of 

 1874 was bounded as follows: Commencing at the intersection of the 

 Grand Eiver with the meridian of 109° 30', the north line follows the 

 Grand up to the mouth of the Eagle Eiver; thence the Eagle Eiver to 

 its intersection with the parallel of 39° 15' ; thence west, along -this 

 parallel, to the meridian of 107° ; south on this meridian to the parallel 

 of 38° 20' ; west on this parallel to the meridian of 109° 30', and north on 

 this meridian to its intersection with the Grand Eiver. The total area 

 of this district is seven thousand five hundred square miles. Of this 

 area the party in my charge has worked all of the country lying be- 

 tween the Grand and Gunnison Eivers, the strip lying between the 

 parallel of 39° 15' and the Eagle Eiver, and a small area south of the 

 Gunnison Eiver, between the one hundred and seventn and one hun- 

 dred and eighth meridians. 



PREVIOUS EXPLORATIONS IN THE DISTRICT UNDER CONSIDERATION. 



With the exception of a little work done along the borders, this 

 country was as little known as any part of the Western Territories. No 

 map, representing even the most general features, was in existence. 



In 1845, Fremont, at that time a lieutenant in the Corps of Topo- 

 graphical Engineers, skirted the northern border for a short distance. 

 He came up the Arkansas Eiver, crossed the main divide at Tennessee 

 Eass, and traveled down Eagle Eiver as far as the mouth of/ creek. 

 Here he crossed the river and took the trail over to White Eiver, which 

 stream he followed down some distauce, then crossed the country to the 

 Green Eiver, thence to Salt Lake City. He was in the country in 

 which I worked during last season, only while on the Eagle Eiver for 

 a distance of about thirty miles. 



In the autumn of 1853, Captain Gunnison, with a large force of 

 soldiers and civilian employes, including topographers and a geologist, 

 and a large wagon-train, came into this country by way of San Luis 

 Valley, Cochetopa. Pass, and Cochetopa Creek. From the mouth of 

 Cochetopa Creek his course was down the Gunnison as far as the mouth 

 of White Earth Creek, sixteen miles, within which distance he was 

 obliged to cross the river several times. At the mouth of White Earth 

 Creek he was obliged to leave the Gunnison and cross the rolling, 

 broken country south of it, in a southwesterly direction, to Lake Fork, 

 which he crossed with considerable difficulty several miles above its 

 mouth. He then continued down its west bank nearly to the Gunnison, 

 where he wound around the side of the mesa to the valley of Mountain 

 Creek. He traveled up the valley of this creek, in a direction nearly 



415 



