258 Geological Survey of California, 
ossils. 
The second volume of the Paleontology of California will be devoted 
to the Tertiary formation, and to such additions to what had already been 
done in the lower formations as may have been accumulated during the 
exploring the region of the high Sierra Nevada, south of the Mono Pass 
and the region examined Jast year: a portion of the State which 1s al- 
most entirely unexplored, and of which we know only that it contams 
some of the loftiest and most extensive mountain-groups of the Sierra. 
Some of the principal results of the Survey, up to the present time, 
may be thus briefly summed up: 
1. Topography.—For a sketch of what had been done in this depart- 
ment up to the beginning of the season for field-work in 1863, see this 
Journal, vol. xxxvi, p.119. During that season a reconnoissance was made 
in the High Sierra, from the region adjacent to the Mono trail (whieh 
trail leads from Big Oak Flat or Coulterville, along the edge of the Yo 
semite valley, to Aurora, a little south of the 38th parallel of latitude) 
to the northern line of the State. Nearly all the high points of the Sierra 
Nevada, on this line of reconnoissance, were ascended and measured bar- 
ometrically. The highest portion of the Sierra Nevada is that near the 
head-waters of the Tuolumne river, west and southwest of Mono 1s 
The culminating peak of the Sierra, the hi 
one of the numerous unnamed peaks of the Sierra, was cal : 
Mount Dana, in honor of Professor J.D. Dana. The next point in height 
to this—the centre of a magnificent group of snow-covered pea 
named Mount Lyell: it is about 15 miles, a little west of south, from 
Mt. Dana, and about 100 feet lower than that elevation. The svenery 
of this portion of the Sierra is truly Alpine, and can hardly be surpassed 
in grandeur. 
