EXPLORATIONS IN ALASKA 269 



season is the first in which several classes of work are carried on 

 simultaneously and systematically on the 98th meridian. 



A Coast Pilot party has been organized for the purpose of 

 keeping the present publication up to date by additions and cor- 

 rections. The information sought will be in the following lines : 



I. General description of the coast line. 



II. Detailed directions for avoiding dangers and obstructions. 



III. General sailing directions. 



IV. Geographical positions of lighthouses and beacons. 



V. Practical information in regard to fog signals, tides, variations of the 



compass, etc. 

 VI. Views of the coast and principal harbors. 



Additional work has been planned by the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, but the parties have neither been assigned nor selected. 

 A line of precise levels is proposed from the Great Lakes south- 

 ward, crossing and checking our work on the 39th parallel, and 

 continuing to Tennessee, there touching the lines from the sea- 

 board b} r the Geological Survey, thence onward to the work of 

 the U. S. Engineers in Mississippi, and finally connecting with 

 our own levels brought north from the Gulf. Such a line would 

 form a connecting link between the determinations of the three 

 great government organizations. 



E. D. Preston. 



EXPLORATIONS IN ALASKA 



During the past winter the members of the exploring parties 

 that visited Alaska last year have carefully canvassed geographic 

 knowledge of that country with special reference to determining 

 in what localities exploration might be most advantageously 

 carried on this summer. The large unexplored area lying south 

 of the Yukon and west of the Alaskan mountain range, about 

 the headwaters of the Kuskokwim and including the towering 

 peaks of Mt McKinley and its neighbors, is a district of special 

 interest toward which future exploration may probably be 

 directed. But careful study has shown that, because of its inac- 

 cessibility except by river, no adequate returns could be ex- 

 pected from an expedition to that region this year. The expe- 

 rience of last season, when the exploring party could advance 

 against the current of the stream but from one to three miles a 

 day, and hence consumed all the time in getting there, has 

 proved that the streams must be ascended while they are still 



