EUSSO-AMERICAX TELEGRAPH PROJECT OF 1864-' 61 111 
cepted, by a unanimous vote, the transfer of his rights and in- 
terests, and on iNIarch 18 completed an organization for the 
carrying out of the project. 
An expedition to explore the proposed route, under Col, Chas. S. 
Eulkley, formerly of the United States military telegraph corps, 
was immediately organized. Col. Eulkley reached the Pacific 
coast in January, 1865. The exploration of the Eritish Colum- 
bian line was directed b}’’ Edmund Conway, that of Russian 
America h}^ Robert Kennicott and that of eastern Siberia by 
Sergius Ahasa. The United States detailed Capt. C. M. Scam- 
mon, of the Revenue Marine Service, and two other officers to 
the fleet fitted out by the company, and the Russian government 
lent the aid of the corvette Vsadnik, The first visit was paid to 
tlie Russian authorities at Sitka in March, 1865. In July par- 
ties were on the way to Siberia, Alaska, and Eering strait. Ex- 
plorations during this and the following season demonstrated 
the practicability of the route selected, and saw a small amount 
of line constructed, every endeavor being made to carry out the 
project. 
In 1867 the Atlantic cable at last proved itself a working suc- 
cess. On the other hand, the experience gained by the expedi- 
tions sent out in connection with the Russo-American project 
showed that tlie maintenance of the projected line would he so 
expensive as to make it iin possible for it to compete with the 
Atlantic cable, commercially. Consequently the company de- 
cided to withdraw from the enterprise and in the autumn of 
1867 the parties returned to California. 
The route chosen was up the valley of the Fraser river in 
Eritish Columbia and down the Yukon to the Nulato bend, 
thence across country to Port Clarence, where a caljle was to con- 
nect with the Siberian lines. The latter would leave the Chukchi 
peninsula, cross the neck of the i)cninsula of Kamchatka and 
skirt the shores of the Okhotsk sea, joining the Russian lines at 
Nikolaiev.sk. It is stated that a large part of the fourteen 
millions of (hdlars rej)resented by the stock was actually ex- 
])ended in the work ; at all events a large amount of money was 
spent, and the only returns were those public benefits implied 
by an increase of geographical and other .scientific knowledge 
and the training of a number of exi»l(M'er.s and investigators. 
