ALASKA AS IT WAS AND IS. 
139 
work done or attempted in the earlier exploration, has been, 
so far as it was geographical, regarded very naturally as in¬ 
cidental to the usual work of that bureau, and so far as it 
has been of other sorts has not been connected in the public 
mind with any organization in particular. The fact that 
the Revenue Marine, the Army and Navy, the Signal Serv¬ 
ice, and several unofficial organizations or individuals have 
carried out praiseworthy explorations with most excellent 
results has led to the further obscuration of the earlier work 
as a connected whole. I believe no one of those engaged in 
it has yet attempted to enumerate the results, either general 
or scientific, directly or indirectly consequent upon the expe¬ 
dition. The present summary may therefore serve a useful 
purpose. 
The most important result which indirectly came about 
from the explorations by our parties was the acquisition of 
Alaska by the United {States. While the transfer might have 
been proposed and the question discussed if there never had 
been any Telegraph expedition, yet I believe, in view of the 
opposition which existed in Congress and the cheap ridicule 
of part of the daily press, that if it had not been for the in¬ 
terest excited by the expedition and the information which 
its members were able to furnish to the friends of the pur¬ 
chase the proposition would have failed to win approval. 
But, leaving such questions apart and considering merely 
the scientific results, the expedition made weighty additions 
to geographical knowledge. To it we owe the first mapping 
of the Yukon from actual exploration, adding to the list of 
American rivers one of the largest known. Old maps of 
North America made the Rocky mountains extend in nearly 
a straight line northward to the Polar sea. Our explora¬ 
tions showed that the mountains curved to the westward, 
leaving a gap to the northward through which the Canadian 
fauna reached to the shores of the Pacific and Bering sea. 
The general faunal distribution of life at this end of the con¬ 
tinent in its broader sense was settled then and there. A 
general knowledge of the country, till then practically un- 
20—Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 13. 
