REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 35 



The total working-force taking the field without escorts, for the first 

 time, was S6, including officers, assistants, and employes. The utmost 

 harmony existed among all the parties, which largely conduced to cor- 

 respondingly enhanced results. In regard to these surveys under the 

 War Department, the following paragraph appears in the Annual Re- 

 port of the Chief of Engineers to Congress : " By experience and im- 

 provements in methods and instruments, the value of the results is 

 annually enhanced, and the cost of the work amply repaid." 



It Cannot fail to be gratifying to all who are interested in this class of 

 investigations to be convinced that the proper basis for further syste- 

 matic endeavor has been reached. 



Survey under Professor Hayden. 



This survey during the season of 1874 continued the work of 1873 west 

 ward of the 107th meridian of longitude in Colorado Territory. The en- 

 tire area explored lies on the west slope of the main range of the Rocky 

 Mountains, forming the eastern part of the drainage of the great Colorado 

 River. The topographical and geological work included a carefully-sur- 

 veyed area of about eighteen thousand square miles, much of it com- 

 prising some of the most rugged and mountainous scenery on the con- 

 tinent. The southern portion includes an area of nearly three thousand 

 square miles, the greater part of which is at an elevation of 12,000 feet 

 and upward. The first division of the party, under Mr. A. R. Marvin, 

 operating in Northwestern Colorado, established 86 stations ; the second 

 division, under Mr. Gannett, which explored the rugged area betweeu 

 the Gunnison and Grand Rivers, also established 86 stations; while the 

 third division, surveying the remarkably high country in the southwest, 

 determined 65 stations, most of them being on peaks ranging from 13,000 

 feet and upward, the highest being 14,500 feet. 



A fourth division, under Mr. G. R. Bechler, performed the important 

 duty of measuring the roads, trails, passes, and carefully working up 

 the contiguous topography, besides meandering a distance of about nine 

 hundred miles. Mr. Bechler established 36 important stations, thus 

 rendering more accurate and complete the general work of the survey. 



A fifth party, under Mr. W. H. Jackson, the photographer, passed over 

 the greater portion of Western Colorado, obtaining about four hundred 

 negatives of the most characteristic scenery. These views have proved 

 of great value in the topographical and geological studies ; but the most 

 interesting result was a series of views of the wonderful ruins in the 

 canons of the Mancos and Montezuma Rivers. The party found here 

 remains of a rude civilization in the form of buildings, made of hewn 

 stone laid in mortar. Among the ruins were various kinds of stone 

 implements and glazed pottery, on some of which were figures of the 

 sun. On the plains and mesas these ruins occupy considerable areas, 

 indicating t he former existence of a numerous population. In the canons 

 the stone dwellings are built high up in the caverns or crevices in the 



