NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



with the best method of overcoming the natural difficulties to 

 be met with in carrying on scientific exploration in the west, and 

 thus so strengthened the inborn self-reliance of his nature that, 

 as in the case of reaching the summit of Mt. Whitney, failure 

 seemed only to spur him on to further effort. 



oSTot long after his return to the east, therefore, he determined 

 upon attempting to carry out the project that had been gradually 

 shaping itself in his mind ever since he first crossed the conti- 

 nent, that, namely, of inducing Congress to authorize the making 

 of a geological and topographical surve}' across the entire Cor- 

 dilleran system at its widest point, and thus connecting the 

 geology of the east with that of the west. Before leaving Cali- 

 fornia he had submitted his plan to Professor Whitney, but 

 the latter, while thoroughly appreciating its great scientific im- 

 portance, had refused him an3" written indorsement for the reason 

 that he believed the natural obstacles in its way to be insur- 

 mountable. 



King, however, confident of the feasibility of his plan, felt 

 that then, if ever, was the time to favorably influence the minds 

 of our statesmen, when their best endeavors were directed to 

 strengthening the liens that bound the various parts of our great 

 county together. There had been considerable apprehension 

 during the dark days of the Civil War lest California, physically 

 isolated as she was at that time, should separate from the other 

 States and set up an independent government. The sttbsidizing 

 of the transcontinental railroad was the first step toward over- 

 coming tills isolation and binding her more closely to the east; 

 but still another step was necessary ; the resources of the inter- 

 mediate region should be ascertained and a foundation laid for 

 the development of the mineral wealth locked up in its mountains 

 and desert plains, the importance of which few beside himself 

 were able at that time to appreciate. In no other way could this 

 be more thoroughly accomplished than by such a scientific ex- 

 ploration as he proposed. Suiisequent events have abundantly 

 proved the correctness of this view, for nowhere in the history of 

 the world has there been recorded such an amazingly rapid and 

 permanent development of -a comparatively unknown region as 

 has been effected in the thirty years that have elapsed since the 

 opening of the transcontinental railroad, 



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