Identification of the Great Peaks of the Southern Sierra 249 



Southward from the slate peaks is a wilderness of mountains 

 about the headwaters of the San Joaquin River. The only two Main 

 Crest peaks which are given names on Hoffmann's map are Mount 

 Abbot and Mount Humphreys. These were named by Professor 

 Brewer for Andrew Atkinson Humphreys and Henry Larcom Abbot, 

 whose classic report on the hydraulics of the Mississippi River was 

 published in 1861.* It was under General Humphreys, as Chief of 

 Engineers of the War Department, that Clarence King wrote his 

 great report on the Surveys of the 40th Parallel. 



The exact location of Mount Abbot is not clearly represented on 

 the original map, but, correcting this for a slight error in position 

 as given by the known co-ordinates of Mount Lyell and Mount 

 Brewer, its location appears to be N. Lat. 37° 23. '0, W. Lon. 118° 

 47. '6, which is practically identical with the peak so represented 

 (the highest in the vicinity) on the Mount Goddard Quadrangle of 

 the U. S. Geological Survey. Captain George M. Wheeler locates 

 Mount Abbot as N. Lat. 37* 22' 24. "8, W. Lon. 118° 47' 58. "0.+ 

 There can be no question, then, as to the correct position of the 

 mountain. The Brewer party did not approach Mount Abbot at all, 

 and it was not even attempted till 1908, when the first ascent was 

 made by J. S. Hutchinson, Duncan McDuffie, and J. N. Le Conte.i 

 The elevation of this mountain is given by the U. S. Geological 

 Survey as 13,736 feet. 



There has been a great deal of misunderstanding concerning the 

 first ascent of Mount Humphreys. This magnificent peak, the su- 

 preme summit of the San Joaquin Sierra, was named by the recon- 

 naissance party of the California Geological Survey in 1864. How- 

 ever, no mention of any sort is made in their written reports, and the 

 only guide to its location is the Hoffmann map, where it appears 

 clearly located on the Main Crest, with no other named point any- 

 where between Mount Abbot and Mount Goddard. Taking the posi- 

 tion of the peak as shown on the old map, and correcting this latter 

 for a slight error in co-ordinates, the position comes out N. Lat. 37° 

 16' 6", W. Lon. 118° 39' 6". Hoffmann evidently fixed the position 

 by triangulation from the San Joaquin-Kings River Divide twelve 



*Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River. 1861. J. B. Lippincott & Co., Phila- 

 delphia. 



tU. S. Geographical Surveys West of the lOOth Meridian. Table of Geographic Posi- 

 tions, etc. 1885. Page 15. 



$"The High Mountain Route between Yosemite and Kings River Canon." By J. N. 

 LeConte. Sierra Club BuLLEnN, vol. VII, No. i, Jan. 1909, page 13. 



