14 
INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE WAR DEPARTMENT. 
the field ; to employ such hands, teamsters, &c., as are necessary; to purchase the instruments 
named in your requisition, also camp equipage, wagons, mules, harness, &c., should the quar¬ 
termaster’s department not he able to furnish the means of transportation to you upon the 
conditions specified in the order to that department. The commanding general of the Pacific 
division will he directed to assign an escort of infantry to accompany the expedition from Los 
Angeles, California, to Fort Fillmore, Kew Mexico, to instruct the commanding officer of the 
escort to furnish you such aid and assistance as will tend to facilitate your operations, and to 
designate an officer of the army to perform the duties of quartermaster and commissary to the 
expedition. 
The quartermaster’s department will he directed to furnish you with mules, wagons, and 
equipments, and such other public property as may he needed for the use of the expedition, 
which will be returned to that department upon the completion of the field duties, payment 
being made for such mules as may have been lost, or as may then he found unfit for use, and of 
other public property lost or seriously damaged. 
The commissary department will furnish you with such provisions and stores as you may 
need for the use of the expedition, to he paid for out of the appropriation for the survey, at cost, 
at the place of delivery. 
The ordnance department will furnish arms, &c., and the medical department medicines, 
&c., for the parties, upon your requisition. 
The sum of $39,000 is set apart from the appropriation for the expenses of the survey 
entrusted to you. 
With your assistants, you will proceed without delay to San Francisco, and organize your 
party there or at Benicia, as may he most convenient. 
The best route by which to connect the waters of the Bay of San Francisco with the valley 
of the Rio Salinas will probably be by the Rio Pajaro to its mouth, and thence along the coast 
to the mouth of the Salinas. Ascending the valley of the Salinas to San Miguel or Santa 
Margarita, near the head-waters of the Salinas, you will then make a thorough examination of 
the valleys of the various affluents of that stream, and survey such as promise to afford practi¬ 
cable grades to the plain of Los Angeles, through the mountain masses of the Coast Range which 
come down to the shore at Point Concepcion. 
The examinations and surveys must he sufficiently extensive and thorough to exhaust the 
subject. 
Should this connection prove impracticable, you will ascertain the practicability of passing 
from the valley of the Salinas, near its source, to the coast, and along the coast to the plain of 
Los Angeles. 
The department desires to be informed, at the earliest possible day, of the result of these 
examinations and surveys. 
This duty being completed, and the connection made with the lines of survey of Lieutenant 
Whipple or Lieutenant Williamson, you will proceed to the Mojave river, near Soda lake, and 
ascertain whether a continuous valley from this lake to the Colorado exists, and affords a prac¬ 
ticable route for a railroad. You will also, if practicable, explore the line recommended for 
examination by Lieutenant Whipple from Soda lake to the Colorado by the Chem-e-hue-vas 
plain or valley. 
