AN ADDRESS

ON THK

PROPRIETY OF CONTINUING THE

Mt fe0l0gkal Sbrkj 0f (Wf0ntia

DELIVERED BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE

^T jiACE^AMENTO, THURSDAY ^VENING.

January 3Oth, 1868:

(To fcofjirf) arc n

TO THE LEGIStATi;:, 1867-8: ALSO

M \NAGE THE VOSK.MITE VALLKY AND THE
HIG TREE GROVE, FOK TH 7~S.

BY 1. I). WHITNKV,

T O W X K A N T> B A C C.) N .

AN ADDRESS

ON THE

PROPRIETY OF CONTINUING THE

§0l0gicaISnrkg rf (K afi&rraa

DELIVERED BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE

AT SACRAMENTO, THURSDAY EVENING,

January 30th, 1868:

STo fejfjt'cf) are apper.&fti :

TWO LETTERS TO THE GOVERNOR RELATIVE TO THE PROGRESS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

COMMUNICATED TO THE LEGISLATURES OF 1865-6 AND 1867-8 J ALSO, THE REPORT

OF THE COMMISSIONERS TO MANAGE THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE

MARIPOSA BIG TREE GROVE, FOR THE YEARS 1867-8:

BY J. D. WHITNEY,

ST/

OF THE

UNIVERST

SAN FRANCISCO:
TOWNE AND BACON.

1868.

/

ADDRESS.

Gentlemen of the Senate and Assembly :

For the fourth time I am summoned to appear before the honora
ble Legislature of the State of California to give an account of my
stewardship ; and, embarrassed as I am between the desire of say
ing something which shall both interest and amuse, and that of
crowding as much of instructive matter as possible into the allotted
hour, I feel the necessity of asking your attention to what I have to
say as a matter of business, even if I should not succeed in invest
ing a somewhat dry subject with the graces of elocutionary display.
There are 125,600 good reasons (almighty good ones to those who
worship the almighty dollar) why I should be heard, since those fig
ures represent the amount which the State has already expended on
the Geological Survey, and if the money has been misspent, it is your
duty to see that no more goes the same way. In inviting the
State Geologist, therefore, to speak for himself, you have taken the
shortest and most direct method of getting at the exact truth in this
matter ; and that the truth should be got at, before decisive action is
had, seems to me no more than is reasonable to ask. I believe
that, without exception, whenever there has been any opposition to
our work, it has come from those who have taken no pains to inform
themselves as to its real nature, from those who have never set foot
in our office to examine what was going on there, and who have thus
been actuated by blind prejudice rather than by any real desire to
economize ; for, not to put too fine a point upon it, the whole ques
tion of the continuance of the survey is simply a question of econo
my ; it is just this — does it pay, or does it not pay ? There is, I
imagine, hardly a man in the State who would venture to oppose the
continuance of the survey on any other ground than that of economy.

178767

Not a whisper of opposition has ever been raised against the work,
which has quietly and effectively been going on for the last twenty
years on our coast, at an annual cost ten times greater than that
of the Geological Survey, but at the expense of the United States,
and the object of which is to give to this State, and all who need it,
a map of the line along which old Ocean thunders against our rocky
shores. No ; the money does not come directly out of our pockets,
let the great work go on ; we see its value and approve its progress.
But the Geological Survey — that is quite another thing : getting
information gratis, and paying for the same, are two essentially dif
ferent institutions.

A bill has been, or is to be, introduced, I am told, abolishing
the State Geologist and consigning him to the tomb of the
Capulets. This seems to me decidedly a work of supererogation,
since that unfortunate officer is, to speak metaphorically, already in
the last gasp of dissolution. If the Act is to be of any value it
must be passed in a hurry, or you will be hanging a man who has
just died of starvation. The train can be stopped just as well, and
with less damage to the property of the State which is on board, by
putting no more wood under the boiler and shutting off steam grad
ually, as by putting a rail on the track and thus throwing the engine
off and smashing things generally.

At the time of commencing the survey, I had the honor of deliv
ering my inaugural address before the Legislature, and in this I gave,
in a highly condensed form, a history of the development of the
mineral resources of the United States with special reference to what
had been accomplished in this behalf by the different State Geologi
cal Surveys. Having glanced at the condition of the mining interests
of this country, as compared with those of other parts of the world,
I stated what the Act by which this survey was authorized called for,
and laid out the work on which we were about to enter as well as
could be done by one bringing with him a large amount of experi
ence gathered in other regions, although but little acquainted, from
personal observation, with the new field on which he was about to
enter.

The next year, having the honor of addressing the Legislature
without being especially called on by that body to select any particular
subject, I endeavored to give some idea of the nature of geological
inquiries, in their broadest and most generally attractive direction,
and to awaken an interest in our work by setting forth some of the
most interesting results at which geologists have arrived during the

few years just past, and in various parts of the world, making my
lecture a sort of spelling book and dictionary of our future reports ;
but not letting go my hold on my audience until, as in duty bound,
I had said a few words in regard to the advantages to be derived
from a thorough prosecution of the work on which we had then fully
entered.

Once more the State Geologist appeared in this place and ad
dressed the Legislature, by request, on the question of the establish
ment of a State University in California, giving some of the results
acquired by many years' experience as a pupil, resident graduate or
professor in several institutions of learning of the highest rank, on
both sides of the Atlantic, including Yale and Harvard Colleges, the
School of Mines in Paris and the Universities of Giessen and Berlin.
On both these last occasions I endeavored to set forth in as clear
a light as possible the relations of the survey to the cause of higher
education in this State and on the Pacific Coast in general — a sub
ject which is by no means exhausted, and on which I will ask per
mission, before closing, to add a few more last words, in view of the
fact that the question of a State University is again before you for
discussion, and in the hope that my ideas may be found not unworthy
of being heeded.

On this solemn occasion, when the fate of the survey seems about
to be decided, and I, perhaps, may be preaching its funeral sermon,
if I were to search for a text on which to base my discourse, I do not
know that I could find one better than that containing a malediction
on the man who looks back after putting his hand to the plow ; for
this text exactly expresses the sentiment which has actuated me in
pushing this great work along against every obstacle — want of sym
pathy among the people, want of sufficient appropriations from the
Legislature, want of sufficient knowledge on the part of many to
understand the real extent and probable value of our results, but no
want of misapprehension and misstatement of our motives and actions,
or of abuse in the newspapers for not doing what we have done, and
for doing that which we have not done. A constitutional antipathy on
the part of its chief to looking back after having laid his hand on the
plow is the one effective reason why this survey has not long since been
wound up and its fossil remains left in the pigeon-hole, over which,
in big black letters, the ominous word " Fizzle " stands, as represent
ing a great undertaking abandoned for want of pluck and energy to
see it through.

It has been repeatedly thrown in our teeth that we were trying to

accomplish too much ; that our plans were too extensive, and that
we were aiming at something it was beyond our power or that of
the State to accomplish. Let us see : the Legislature ordered " An
accurate and complete geological survey of this State, with proper
maps and diagrams thereof, together with a full and scientific de
scription of its rocks, fossils, soils and minerals, and of its botanical
and zoological productions." I quote the exact language of the Act.
Suppose, now, it had read thus : " The State Geologist shall make a
hasty and inaccurate survey of the State, and furnish unreliable and
worthless maps of the same, together with a popular and amusing
account of his travels, and private reports to mining speculators, on
the principle of the bigger the fee the more favorable the report."
Does any one suppose that a scientific man, with a reputation and
a conscience, could have been found to lend his name to such a
I ridiculous proposition ? And the scientific man who should make
himself responsible for the statement that anything but a hasfy and
inaccurate, and consequently worthless, survey could be made without
much time, labor and money, would be either a knave or a fool, or
both.

The State Geologist is not responsible for the plan of the survey ;
all he has sought to do was to carry out the arduous task set before
him by the Legislature to the best of his ability, giving the best years
of his life and his undivided energies to the work, with no other ob
ject in view than that of so executing it that it would be of permanent
value to the State, and consequently a credit to himself.

What, then, is the object of the Geological Survey, and for what
purpose has it been instituted? This question I will endeavor to
answer, and I will then show, as far as possible, within the limitations
imposed on me by time and place, how much progress has been
made in it ; and finally, will give some reasons why, as I think, the
work should be continued to completion, and that on the scale and
with the plan on which it was started, and on which it has thus far
been carried on.

The object of the Geological Survey may be succinctly stated in
these words : " It is to give to the world, and especially to our own
citizens, an encyclopaedic statement of the natural resources and
capabilities of the . State." Its scope may, perhaps, be better com
prehended if we consider what a private individual would do if he
were to come into possession, by legacy or otherwise, of a vast estate
of unexplored and unsurveyed territory, in regard to the value of
which there were no certain data in existence. If unable to examine

his newly acquired property himself, he would hire others to explore,
survey and map it, to investigate its capabilities for settlement and
its resources for sustaining a population, so that he might be able to
cut it up and bring it into the market, or otherwise to make it avail
able. This is just exactly what we are doing for the State ; we map
its surface, examine and describe its natural productions, whether
animal, vegetable or mineral, and do, in a large way, as a unit, for
the State and all the inhabitants in it, just what each individual would
wish to have done, if he had intelligence enough to know what was
for his own interest and the means to accomplish it, for his share of
the great estate which belongs to the people and is to be made
available for their benefit, individually and collectively.

The object of the Geological Survey being, as has been stated, to
furnish an encyclopaedia of the resources of the State, the mode in
which this object was to be best accomplished, taking into view on
the one hand the needs, and on the other the resources available,
gradually shaped itself in the mind of the individual to whom the
work was intrusted.

As thus developed, the survey is divided into three principal de
partments, each again with its subordinate divisions.

The three main divisions are : Geography, Geology, and Natural
History. The first includes a topographical survey, the publication
of maps, and also an account of the physical geography of the State.
The second department includes general geology, economical geol
ogy, and palaeontology. The third, botany and zoology. Thus, there
are seven subdivisions of our work, each requiring one or more vol
umes for its complete illustration.

I will now proceed to state, as briefly as is consistent with intelli
gibility, what has been done under each of these heads, aiming to give
some general idea of what we aspire to accomplish, and setting forth
what remains to be done as the supplement of what has been done.
At the foundation of our work lies the topographical survey, for
without a map of the State we should be as much at a loss to de
scribe its resources, as a painter would be in working without a can
vas on which to embody his conceptions. It is not necessary, and
would not be even before the most illiterate audience, to enlarge on
the necessity and importance of geographical maps to every country ;
as well . might I undertake to demonstrate the desirability of put
ting up the frame of a house before putting on the clapboards and
shingles. The exact stage of civilization of every country or State
can at once, be inferred from the character of its maps.

8

But a complete and accurate survey and map is necessarily a work
of much time and labor. To give an idea of what has been ex
pended in this way in other parts of the world, I will state a few
facts gathered from the United States Coast Survey Report for 1858.

The total area of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire
land is about 120,000 square miles, or 40,000 less than that of Cali
fornia. The entire cost of the topographical surveys of that coun
try had been, up to 1854, $12,000,000. And to complete the work,
$20,000,000 more was required ; 3,500 persons were engaged on the
survey at one time. This is exclusive of what was being spent at
the same time on the geological and hydrographical surveys.

The survey of France — an empire about one-fifth larger than our
State — was commenced in 1818, on an estimate of thirty years for
the time required to complete it and an expense of $20,000,000 ;
2,500 men, besides laborers, have been employed in the work.

Massachusetts, with an area only one-twentieth that of California,
spent more on her geographical map than our whole survey has cost,
and that more than thirty years ago.

It may be said, however, what is the use of parading these figures,
which seem to demonstrate that the possession of a good map is
something that we cannot aspire to ? To this, I reply, in the first
place, that we are doing this work on a very limited scale, as regards
expenditure, and that we shall accomplish a great deal with a com
paratively small amount of money ; next, that if it is not done by the
State it will be attempted to be done by individuals, and the result
will be that no good map will ever be -obtained ; while, in reality, a
much greater expenditure of money will be made. Private parties
will be continually getting out new maps, each one of which will be
a little more of an approximation to the truth, but at the best ex
tremely defective ; while the public will be continually buying these
maps as they appear, rejecting the old ones already on hand, in the
vain hope that each new one will be sufficient for their needs — a
system which will be equivalent to laying the people of the State
under a perpetual tax for the benefit of a few map makers, who work
without ever having any prospect of attaining satisfactory results.
Those who have not examined into the matter have little idea how
large sums are spent in this way in the State. I consider myself safe
in stating, that an amount greater than the entire cost of the survey
has been paid out, during the time our work has been going on, for
the imperfect maps which have been issued. And this state of
things will go on indefinitely, unless put a stop to by the State by

continuing our work to completion ; because it is for the interest of
the parties engaged in this business to have an excuse for issuing
new maps as often as possible, just as milliners and dealers in dry
goods arrange their business so that the fashions may change every
three months at least, ostensibly for the benefit of the ladies, but
really for their own, and to the great detriment of the unfortunate
husbands.

It may be said, also, that the United States surveys will give us,
eventually, a correct map of the State, and that it is therefore un
necessary for us to do it : this is not the case, for a most careful ex
amination of the United States work shows clearly that it can never,
in a mountainous country like California, be coaxed into anything
like a permanently valuable map. The town and section lines are
run in the valleys, it is true, and were this State a vast plain, these
lines would give us a general idea of the country, as they have in
the great Mississippi Valley ; but, in a region like our State, of which
less than one-fifth of the surface is plain or valley, they are of no ac
count at all, especially as topography is no part of the idea of the
Government in having the lines run, while the work itself (most of it,
at least) is so carelessly and even fraudulently done that it is impos
sible to make it fit together. In making accurate surveys of regions
where the town and section lines have been run by the Government,
we have found sometimes that a line supposed to be a mile in
length, and measured as such in the United States linear survey, was
in reality a mile and three-quarters long, so that the net-work of
Government lines, when laid down on the paper as they actually are,
and not as they profess to be, look somewhat as a gridiron struck by
lightning might be supposed to. This need not always be the fault
of the surveyor, as the system itself is one that is not in the slightest
degree applicable to the survey of mountainous countries. In the
southern part of this State millions of dollars have been paid for
surveys which were in reality never executed, as we find, when we go
over the ground, that there is not the least resemblance between the
topography as laid down on the official maps and that which our
work shows it to be.

Our plan of operations and publication has been carefully adjusted
to meet the wants and the means of the State. We propose to pub
lish maps on different scales, all accurate as far as they go, but, of
course, with a varying amount of detail, to suit the condition of dif
ferent sections, basing the amount of detail on the density of the
population of the section mapped. For the whole State we take a

10

s<5ale of ten or twelve miles to the inch, which will give us a map
about five feet square, and as large a one as can conveniently be
used for a wall map for schools and for the people at large. For the
central portion of the State we take a scale of six miles to the inch,
which gives' us four times the area* of the other. This central map
embraces, only one-third the area of the State, but it includes over
ninety per cent, of the population. This map is well .under way, the
field-work being about four-fifths and the drawing one-half done. It
can be completed entirely in the next two years, with a reasonable
appropriation, and when done will be the largest inland piece of
mapTWork yet undertaken in the country, as it will give the details of
the topography of 80,000 square miles of territory — an area nearly
twice that of Ohio. The same scale is adopted for the Coast Ranges
south of Monterey as far as Los Angeles, and this ma'p is about two-
thirds completed.

For the most thickly settled parts of the State we have adopted a
much larger scale, of two miles to an inch namely, giving an area of
nine times that of the last mentioned map for the same territory.
Of the work done on this scale you have before you a sample, which
will render it unnecessary for me to go into any details in regard to
it, and which will enable every man to judge for himself of the value
of the survey maps. The one in question is the Map of the Vicinity
of the Bay of San Francisco, of which a large supply is now on the
way from New York, in different styles of mounting.

Of the belt of mining counties along the Sierra Nevada, three
maps on this scale are in preparation : one, that of Plumas and
Sierra, is done as to the field-work, and the drawing of it will be
completed during the winter, so that it can be engraved next summer
if our work goes on. The central counties, from Nevada to Cala-
veras, are also well under way, and the southern begun ; the rate of
progress will depend, of course, on the amount of funds provided by
this Legislature for the continuance of our work.

According to my calculations the whole of the map-work can be
completed in four years, if pushed with vigor, and I consider that,
taking all things into consideration, it may be considered now as
nearly half done. The question, therefore, before you is, not whether
a topographical survey of the State shall be made ; but whether, one
having been commenced on the authority of one and continued on
that of four successive Legislatures until nearly half done, it shall be
abandoned just as its results are beginning to be laid before the
people.

1 1

It 'is intended that all the maps published by the Survey shall be
sold singly, mounted according to the fancy of the purchaser, or in
plain sheets, and that they shall all, at the close of the work, be
collected and bound into a volume forming one of the series of our
Report. I do not hesitate to say that they will form a series of which
the State may be proud, and which will be considered by persons ac
quainted with such matters as fully repaying the entire cost of the
survey. With the aid of our maps, each county can, by the help of
the County Surveyor, and at "a comparatively trifling expense, have a
special county map of its own, on which such items may be inserted
as are peculiarly desirable for county purposes, and which can be
taken from the official records with the sanction of the Supervisors.
The geographical discoveries of the Survey in this State have been
of great interest, having brought to light m.uch that was new and
curious in regard to the peaks, passes, mountains, and valleys of the
Coast Ranges and the Sierra. We have opened a new region to the
traveller and the tourist, as large as Switzerland, of which the mount
ain peaks surpass those of the Alps in elevation, and which in
grandeur of scenery is without a parallel on the continent. If this
region had ever been explored or visited by any one before us, no
record exists of such exploration, nor had ever one word been writ
ten or published in regard to it, until the Geological Survey made its
existence known. And let not the importance of such discover
ies sbe under-estimated. Few persons who have not turned their
thoughts in that direction, with some knowledge of what is going on
in other parts of the world, have any proper idea of the real value
to the State, in a pecuniary point of view, of its natural scenery.
Superficial observers may not recognize the fact that the picturesque
is an element in the resources of the State as much, if not in as
great a degree, as its agricultural and mineral capacity. The time
will come when the money brought into this State by pleasure
travellers will be, if not as important an element in our prosperity
as it is in Switzerland, at least no mean addition to our resources.
By opening up our grand scenery, describing and mapping our
most picturesque regions, and spreading a knowledge of them
through the world, the survey has done the State a great pecun
iary service, which will be recognized in the future if it is not
now.

The results obtained in the department of Physical Geography,
such as the elevations of towns, mining camps, valleys, mountains
and passes, the distribution and character of animal life, forest and

12

plant vegetation, climatological data, circumstances bearing on agri
cultural capacity, and many other points of this kind, are all of great
value, not only scientifically, but practically. The records preserved
in the office of the survey are constantly being consulted by those
who are seeking information in regard to all kinds of public im
provements on this coast ; and if one-half those who have thus been
benefited by our work could appear before you and give their testi
mony, I have little doubt but that it would furnish an overwhelming
mass of evidence in our favor.

In the geological department of the survey, with its subdivisions
of general geology, economical geology, and palaeontology, good
progress has been made, and the way prepared to make a much
more rapid advancement in the future, if we have the necessary pe
cuniary assistance. It seems almost an absurdity, at this late day,
to be arguing in favor of a geological examination of a great and
little known mining country like that of California. The fact
that such surveys have been made in* all civilized foreign countries,
and in nearly every one of the United States, in many of which
this kind of investigations had not one-tenth part of the interest
which they have here, is sufficient prima facie evidence in favor of
their value. The fact, also, that five successive Legislatures have,
after due investigation, given their verdict on the importance of this
survey, seems to me to offer a very fair guarantee that it was under
taken with sufficient reason, and the only question which ought
legitimately to come up, at the present time, would be : Is the work
being carried on in a satisfactory manner ?

As, however, each Legislature has the power of upsetting that
which has been done or begun by its predecessors ; and as, there
fore, the original question of the propriety of such a work as ours
must be started anew and discussed at each session, regardless of all
previous indorsements, public or private, I will take the liberty of
stating once more what the special aim of the geological part of the
survey is, before undertaking to give an account of the progress
made in that department of our work.

The strictly geological portions of the survey may be divided into
two sections. The first includes the general geology and palaeon
tology ; the second, the economical, or applied, geology. Under the
first division we include all that relates to the general geological
structure of the State, while the second embraces the practical ap
plication of the information thus obtained to the wants and uses of
the people in the arts, manufactures and commerce. Under the

head of general geology, we have to investigate the nature of the
different rock formations which are spread out in the valleys or piled
up in the immense mountain masses which traverse the State. We
endeavor to ascertain of what materials they are composed ; how
originally formed or deposited ; what changes they have undergone
since their deposition, and by what agencies these changes have been
brought about. We search for and describe the fossil remains which
the stratified rocks contain, and thus are enabled to compare them
with the formations of other countries and to fix their relation, geo
logical age and position. We then trace over the surface of the
State and lay down upon the map the range and extent or the geo
logical distribution of the different systems and groups of rocks,
and exhibit their stratigraphical relations, or position with regard to
each other, by means of sections, showing the configuration of the
surface and the character of the rocks beneath it, along certain lines
measured and examined for the purpose. By these preliminary op
erations we are prepared with the necessary basis on which to proceed
with the next great division of our work, namely, the economical
geology. Without this scientific part of the survey, the practical
would have no permanent value, for it would be nothing but an in
coherent mass of material such as our newspapers are filled with,
not put into form or reduced to system, so as to be generally appli
cable and easily comprehended. After and while tracing out the
various geological formations and getting their sequence thoroughly
established, we endeavor to discover and classify the metallic and
mineral treasures which they contain, to ascertain their position and
mode of occurrence, or, in other words, to gather all the facts neces
sary to enable us to determine their present and prospective value,
and to show how and under what conditions they may be best made
available for the industrial purposes of life. In doing this we fur
nish a basis for detailed explorations for further deposits of metallic
and mineral treasures, by limiting the field for research for numerous
prospectors always engaged in the search for useful ores, so that
every man will be working where his labor will tell, and not throwing
it away in undertakings which a comprehensive view of the mode of
occurrence and geological position of our economically valuable ma
terials will show to be a mere waste of money, time and energy. I
do not hesitate to say that millions have been wasted in this State,
for want of just that information which we shall be prepared to sup
ply, and which, indeed, we have already supplied to a considerable
extent to those asking for it. Every year sees an addition to the

'4

number of persons availing themselves of information, which we
are always ready to give, on matters connected with the geological
mode of occurrence and the probable value of deposits of all kinds
of metal and mineral ; and I know that, in some cases, our advice has
been followed with manifest advantage, and that, as time goes on
and demonstrates the reliability of our work, and the substantiality
of the basis on which our opinions are founded, the survey will be
more and more efficient as a break on the. wheel of reckless mining
expenditures. If this survey could have been begun at an early pe
riod in the development of the State, and have firmly established
itself in the confidence of the people at the time of the last great
mining excitement on this coast, of what incalculable value might it
not have been ! I am aware that there are persons so little acquainted
with the principles of political economy and the laws which govern
the progress of nations, as to think that money expended in the
State is a benefit to it, whether any results of permanent value be
attained or not by such expenditure. Benjamin Franklin had a clearer
idea of the truth when he put into the mouth of Poor Richard his
famous saying : " A penny saved is a penny earned." It is only in
communities where the pence are saved that the great results of a
permanent and high civilization are obtained. To insure permanent
working and economical development of what is discovered, by giv
ing every one the means of knowing beforehand how his discoveries
may be turned to the best account, how he can best open his mine,
how treat his ores, what form to give his products and where and
in what quantity they can be disposed of — these are some of the
more important points to be gained by the development of that de
partment of our work which is included under the designation of
Economical Geology. The services which we shall be able to render,
in this line, will become every day more important, as our basis of
experience is enlarged and as it becomes more clearly understood
that our opinions are disinterested, and that we have no other objects
in view than the welfare of the State and the development of its
mineral resources. In- our volumes devoted to Economical Geology
we shall throw all possible light on these subjects, and it will not be
our fault if the man about to embark in any undertaking connected
with ores or mineral substances shall not find in our book something
which shall materially aid him in his undertaking, or at least prevent
a foolish waste of money on the impracticable. It is, in every respect,
desirable also that the resources of the State should be made known
to the world, under official guarantee of correctness,. so that not only

15

our own capitalists, but those of other countries, should have opened
to them a field for investment, in regard to which . they may under
stand that they have some substantial basis of facts and reliable
data for generalization, and not feel that they are entering blindfolded
into a hap-hazard game of speculation, as is too often the case when
putting their money into mines in regions known only from the de
scriptions of those personally and pecuniarily interested.

In the geological department proper of the survey, one volume
has already been published, which, under the title of " A Report of
Progress and Synopsis of the Field-work from 1861 to 1864, inclu
sive," gives the results of a general reconnaissance of the State, both
geological and geographical. In this volume the main features of
our physical geography and geology will be found delineated, exclu
sively from the results of our own observations, and with them is
incorporated a considerable amount of general information with
regard to our mineral resources, incidentally brought in, as also
notices of our natural scenery, botany, distribution of forests, etc.,
all of which subjects will eventually be more elaborately treated in
special volumes ; so that this might be considered rather in the light
of a temporary report than as a part of a final series. To close the
general geology another volume will be required, and is in process
of preparation. This will give a systematic and thorough review of
the geological structure of the State, and will be fully illustrated by
geological maps and sections, which were necessarily wanting in the
first volume, and which will be a text-book for the student in this
department, and a reliable guide to those who, from whatever motive,
shall desire to make themselves acquainted with the course of events
which has given its present configuration and internal structure to
that part of the continent which we inhabit.

In Palaeontology, we have published one volume, and another is
well on the way, a considerable part of the plates being already
engraved and the 'text stereotyped. A third volume will be neces
sary to enable us to describe the remarkable animals which lived on
this coast just before the present epoch, including the elephant, mas
todon, camel, tapir, horse (of several species now extinct), buffalo,
rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and others of remarkable and little-known
genera ; also, the forest vegetation of that epoch, of which the
remains now lie buried in our deep gravel deposits, and which dif
fered entirely from that which we now see occupying the flanks of
the Sierra ; also, the microscopic organisms of which a large portion
of our rocks are almost entirely made up, and which can be shown

i6

to have a very important bearing in an economical point of view, as
constituting the origin and source of the bituminous matter, asphal-
tum and petroleum, so widely distributed over the State.

In the department of Economical Geology, less progress has been
made than would be desirable, partly on account of the necessity of
its being preceded by the other departments, in order that it may
have a safe basis on which to stand ; but more because the appropri
ations have been insufficient. It stands to reason that the necessary
assistance to thoroughly work up this department cannot be had with
out paying for it. Men qualified to do this work can obtain large
salaries as heads of mines and mills ; and, if asked to give their ser
vices to the State for half or quarter of what they can obtain else
where, are very apt to see it in another light than that of exclusive
devotion to science regardless of personal considerations. And if
I should take young men and educate them until they became com
petent for the work, I very much fear that the result would recall to
mind the modern reading of an old text : " Train up a child and
away he goes."

The first volume in this department is, however, well under way
and can soon be put to press ; it will contain the non-metalliferous
minerals occurring in the State, that is to say, all materials used as
fuel, for illuminating, or for building purposes, including coal, asphal-
tum, petroleum, lime, cement, plaster, marble, granite, and the whole
long list of substances of mineral origin used in the arts, and not in
the metallic form. A most careful examination has been made of
all localities where bituminous materials of any kind occur in con
siderable quantity ; specimens have been collected and subjected to
chemical analysis ; new processes have been contrived for making
them available, and the results, when fully reported, cannot fail to
interest all who are turning their attention in the direction of avail
able fuel and illuminating materials. The coal interests of this
coast are also of great importance ; they require and have received a
large share of attention.

We come next to the Natural History department of the survey.
This is divided into botany and zoology, as before stated, having for
its object a complete description of all the forms of animal and veg
etable life occurring naturally within our borders.

The department of Botany was under the direction of Professor
Brewer, now of Yale College, while he was in this State, and is now,
so far as the working up of the flowering plants and publication of
the results obtained is concerned. Ever since the commencement of

the Survey, a vigorous collection of materials has been going on, first
under the direction of Professor Brewer, and now of Mr. Bolander.
This collecting, carried on in all quarters of the State, has furnished a
vast mass of materials, including a great number of entirely new gen
era and species, and these have been distributed to the most eminent
botanists in the country to be worked up — an operation which has
been going on steadily for the last three or four years — the work
being so far advanced towards completion that it is thought that the
volume of flowering plants may be put to press towards the close of
the present year ; but that, at all events, it can be finished and printed
in time for delivery to the next Legislature.

In Zoology there are four volumes under way, and in different
stages of preparation, the text of all being well advanced, and nothing
required to enable them to be put to press excepting the completion
of the illustrations, the drawing and engraving of which has been
going on for more than three years.

Having now given a rapid sketch of the general progress of our
work, and shown something of the results accomplished in each de
partment, and of what more is proposed to be done, provided we are
furnished with the means, I will proceed to discuss a few points con
nected with the existence and completion of the Survey, a little more
in detail than I have been able to do in the preceding systematic re
view.

Assuming that the plan of the Survey is a good one, and judi
ciously contrived, the question arises — how is it being carried out ?
Forming a plan is one thing, and executing it another. To this
question I can only reply that our work, as far as accomplished, has
been submitted to those who would unanimously, among scientific
men, be regarded as best qualified to judge of such matters, and has
met with their warm and decided approval. I have assumed that if
the survey was done in such a manner as, to win the applause of the
highest authority in science, in this country, that I might consider it
as being well done. And when I say highest authorities, I mean
such men as Professor Bache, the late eminent Superintendent of the
Coast Survey, Dana of Yale College, Agassiz and Gray, of Harvard,
Henry and Baird of the Smithsonian, Lea and Leidy of Philadelphia,
Guyot of Princeton, etc. From all of these, letters are on file at our.
office, expressing sentiments of the warmest interest and the most
entire satisfaction in regard to our work, and which are at the service
of any member of the Legislature to read and examine. I will take
the liberty of reading part of one myself. It is from one of the
3

i8

heads of the Smithsonian Institution, and addressed to the State
Geologist, under date of October 18, 1865 :

" Volume I of the Geological Report of California is a work of
which the State may well be proud, as, while of almost unrivaled
typographical execution, its contents are of the first order of scientific
merit. It needs but the full completion of your plans in regard to the
entire series to give to the Pacific slope of the United States an
encyclopaedia of information respecting its natural and physical his
tory far more perfect and complete than is possessed by any other
State in the Union, New York even not excepted. You may safely
assure the Governor and Legislature of California — if such indorse
ment is necessary — that there are no dissentient views among the
men of science here as regards their interest in the Survey in its
various branches, and their satisfaction with the character of its
plans and execution, as far as it has gone."

To this it might, however, be answered by the opponents of the
Survey that a jury of scientific men is not the proper kind of a one to
sit in judgment on this work. If that be the case, then I am not the
proper kind of a person to carry on the Survey ; and to adopt such
a principle, or suggest any other tribunal than a scientific one,
would be at once to destroy all that gives character and respectability
to our work. We assume that those men who have devoted their
whole lives to investigations of this kind, and attained the highest
positions and universal recognition as representative men in science,
are best qualified to judge in regard to the value of work done in
their respective departments, and that if the authority of their opin-
ions'is not appreciated by the people at large, it is because the people
have not arrived at a sufficiently high stage of educational develop
ment to understand what is for their own interests. But I do not
mean to be understood as saying that non-professional men have not
given us their hearty support in many cases, and that the Survey is
only appreciated by the few. On the contrary, we have received the
most satisfactory assurances of sympathy and regard for our work,
and of its practical value, from many who would not claim to be con
sidered as other than practical men themselves. The only difficulty,
as before hinted, has been to induce the opponents of the Survey to
give our work a candid examination, or *ny examination at all. They
have conceived a blind prejudice, based on some little matters which
have no relation to the real merits or plan of the survey, and have
acted accordingly, entirely regardless of the fact that, if successful in
their opposition, they would be incurring an amount of odium which

19

every year's advance of the State toward a higher plane of civilization
would not fail to increase.

The question of the establishment of a State University is again
before the Legislature of California, and this time in a more tangible
form than ever before. Indeed it is understood that a site has been
selected, and there seems to be a general calling from all quarters
for some positive action which shall set the wheels in motion. In view
of these facts, I deem it more than ever justifiable in me to call atten
tion to the fact that the Geological Survey is a necessary preliminary
to the establishment of a University which can claim to be anything
more than a name.

It is not from the standpoint of a Professor, or from any supposed
right to be heard, based on an intimate acquaintance with the organ
ization and management of several of our higher institutions of learn
ing, including both those connected with the various State Govern
ments, and those independent of them — those counting the years of
their existence by hundreds, and the amount of their endowment by
millions, and those whose career has but just begun, and who are pro
portionately short of funds — it is not, I say, on any such grounds as
these that I approach the subject; but simply as one called before
you to defend the Geological Survey, and who desires, as one of the
important points in this defense, to urge upon you the educational re
lations of our proposed work, not only as connected with the proposed
University, but with all our schools and institutions of learning. For
I take it that there is no institution of so low a grade that the leading
facts of the geography of the State should not be taught in it, and
that we should not have to rise very high in order to come to those
in which instruction should be given in the elements, at least, of
natural history. But it is to the proposed University that I especially
refer, as our work is more intimately connected with that than with
institutions of a lower grade.

In a University established under the conditions which surround
us on the Pacific coast, it is not difficult to see that the practical will
have very much the upper hand over the theoretical and abstruse ;
that modern languages will outweigh the ancient, and that the nat
ural and physical sciences will be more cultivated than psychology
and metaphysics. There will be little call for Latin and less for
Greek ; but nature will be interrogated, and everything that aids in
familiarizing the student with her teachings will be in demand. The
scientific branches in which instruction will be most craved by the
student, will certainly be physical geography, geology, mineralogy,

2O

botany and zoology ; these at least will be departments which as
much if not more than any other it will be necessary to have filled,
if the proposed institution is to have any rank at all, or to be in any
respect up to the standard of other colleges, universities or schools
of science. Make the institution as practical as you please, lower
its grade to the last conceivable degree, still the great fact cannot
be got over that something has to be taught there ; that there must
be some course of study, and that whether you simplify or complicate
the programme, the already mentioned branches will be. the last to
be omitted from it.

Now I state what I know to be a fact, when' I assert that no
one of the branches in question can be taught in any other than the
most superficial way until the results of our Survey are in the hands
of the teachers. This statement I will illustrate by reference to our
botanical work, as this may probably be better understood by the
people generally than any of the other' departments mentioned. It
will probably be admitted by all that it would be absolutely neces
sary for the teacher of botany, in order to impart to the student any
thing more than the merest rudiments of the science, to know the
names and position in the system of the plants which grow in his
vicinity, and which he would collect and use for illustration of his
teachings, and which his pupils would bring to him for that purpose.
This knowledge, however, is an impossibility at present ; there is no
botanist in the State who can name the plants he collects, nor is
there any one person elsewhere who can do it for him.

The facts are simply these : During the last seventy years, more
than one hundred and twenty professional botanists and collectors
have visited parts of the regions west of the Rocky Mountains, and
more than seventy of them have traveled in California. Their col
lections have gone into the various herbaria of this country and of
Europe, and the printed data relating to them are scattered through
an immense number of volumes ; so that if any one were to begin
and make a complete collection of them, it would require years of
labor and thousands of dollars expenditure, and, even with the most
strenuous exertions, it would be impossible to make the list complete.
But if this could be done, and this library could be transferred to
the Pacific coast and placed in their possession, our botanists would
still be unable to give correct names to their specimens. And for
these reasons : not unfrequently several collectors have obtained the
same species in different localities and seasons and in varying forms ;
specimens thus collected have been referred to different botanists for

21

description, the amount of material being often meager and insuffi
cient, and the results have been published at places widely remote
from each other. Thus, what was in reality one and the same spe
cies, has often several names attached to it ; but to discover this fact
and clear up all the difficulties, so that all the synonyms should be
properly arranged under the real name, or the one having priority,
according to the universally recognized rules of scientific nomencla
ture, requires not only the extensive collections of the Survey, made
under the most favorable circumstances, in all kinds of localities,
and under all conditions of growth, but also an actual inspection
and diligent study of the original specimens collected by all bot
anists prior to our work. These are, luckily, mostly accessible in
the grand herbarium at Cambridge, which Professor Gray, the lead
ing botanist of the country, has for the past forty years teen gather
ing together. Without the aid of this gentleman it would be impos
sible for any one to get through with the immense undertaking of
bringing order into the chaos of California botany. And not only
has he kindly lent us the use of his herbarium and library, and
given his personal attention to the description of the great number
of new plants collected by our parties, but the same may be said of ev
ery other eminent botanist in this country: Engelmann, Torrey, Eaton,
Tuckerman, Lesquereux and Thurber, as well as several of the most
distinguished authorities in Europe, have lent us a hand in unravel
ing the twisted skein, and one gentleman is about to leave his home
in a western city and visit Europe for the purpose of comparing
specimens of the California pines and oaks with the authentically
named ones existing in the herbaria in England and on the Conti
nent. I should add, lest anybody's sensibilities be alarmed by the
excessive expenditure, that he receives no salary, and travels at his
own expense.

We shall thus have a work, in the botanical department, in which
each plant, in every important group of families, will be authenti
cally named by the highest authority in that section of the science — a
book which every student can use with perfect confidence in its
reliability, and which will be the indispensable guide of every teacher
of the science. And we could not have had it in any other way than
this : it required a combined effort of all the botanists in the coun
try, sanctioned by the State, to do this work ; and with all the facili
ties the survey affords, this task is an arduous one.

The same thing may be said (mutatis mutandis] with regard to the
other scientific branches mentioned. I will not tire you by going

22

through them all, but will merely add that great pains have been taken
with the illustrations of the natural history volumes to make them
such as will, while possessing a high scientific value, be most useful
to students. And at the same time economy has been studied, so
that I am fully justified in assuring you that, while our series will be
more complete than those of any other State, they will also have
cost much less.

In fact, this idea has been constantly in my mind, while engaged
in the Survey, that our work was the necessary preliminary of the
University and the cultivation of science on this coast in general, and
I have endeavored so to shape our plans that when our task has been
completed the way shall be smoothed for others to carry on- that which
we have begun ; for so inexhaustible on this is nature in her ways and
works, that we cannot look forward to any time when the student can
fold his hands for want of something to do, in the way of enlarging
the boundaries of either natural or physical science.

I need not enlarge on the importance of our full and authentically
named collections, in the various departments, to the State Univer
sity. They will form the foundation of a museum invaluable for the
purposes of instruction, and such a one as could not have been
brought together without a thorough and systematic plan of oper
ations. The collections are amply sufficient to justify their being
divided, and I trust that when they pass out of our hands they may
be made as available as possible, both for scientific and popular in
struction. This can be best accomplished by giving one series to
the University, and the other to the Academy of Sciences, in San
Francisco, in which latter place a museum will be accessible to a
much larger number of persons than it would be anywhere else, and
where our materials would be added to a large and rapidly increas
ing collection, in charge of the only scientific association on the
coast, and which, in time and with the growth of a liberal and scien
tific spirit in this State, will have the means to display them in a
suitable manner and to preserve them from destruction.

Finally, I conceive that the Survey ought to be carried on because
it has been begun — not only because it has been indorsed by several
successive Legislatures, and by eminent scientific authority at home
and abroad, but that the State may not be making an exhibition of
herself, in the eyes of the world, as a specimen of fickleness and un
reliability. Having published far and wide that we were going to
have a thorough geological survey, and having been liberally patted
on the back for our energy and far-sightedness, I can conceive of

23

nothing more humiliating than backing down, without reason, when
the work is already more than half completed, and the most practi
cally valuable portion of the results is just beginning to see the light.

I am aware that there are some who would pull the survey up
by the roots in order that the University may be planted in the
same hole, with the idea that there would be economy in that oper
ation, or else with some hidden notion that does not appear on the
surface. There might have been some reason in this plan of making
the Survey by the University, or a University out of the Survey, for
the two things amount to about the same, had it been put in oper
ation at the commencement of our work. Indeed, something like
this was suggested by the State Geologist, three years ago, in an
official report. It is now too late : as organized, the Survey requires
the entire thoughts and time of every man connected with it, and
there has never been a new College or University established in the
country where the Professors had not their hands full in attending to
their legitimate official duties, and few is the number of them who
are fitted by education or practice to engage in a work such as we
are carrying on, without special preliminary training. To stop the
Survey in order to encourage the University would be like pulling
the foundation of a building to pieces in order to get material for
the walls and roof.

By what I have said here to-night, I am aware that I have laid my
self open to the charge of blowing my own trumpet ; but in what I
have said I am very sure that I have not exceeded the truth, and
that I have not given an opinion not backed by many years of ex
perience. I cannot refrain from adding, however,- that I have carried
on this Survey in spite of many obstacles and great temptations to
engage in other less laborious and responsible, but more lucrative,
work. Enough has been accomplished to show to the world what it
would be were my plans to be carried out, and thus to take from my
shoulders the responsibility of the failure if the Legislature chooses
to bring the work to an end. If the Survey can be continued on the
same basis on which it has thus far been prosecuted, free from all politi
cal contaminations, and with the same ideal of thoroughness, and with
a sufficient liberal appropriation to insure a rapid carrying on of the
work, I shall rejoice to go on with it and complete it, as I fully be
lieve that it will reflect the highest credit on the State, and all offi
cially connected with it, as well as the Legislatures by which it has
been upheld. Let the work stop, without any fault or laches of mine,
and I shall feel that it is not of me that it can be said that, " having
put his hand to the plow, he looked back."

RELATIVE TO THE PROGRESS OF THE

STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,

THE YEARS 1864-65.

LETTER.

SAN FRANCISCO, January 1, 1866.

To His Excellency, F. F. Low,

Governor of California :

SIR : — The Legislature, during the session of eighteen hundred and
sixty-three and eighteen hundred and sixty-four, re-established the office
of State Geologist, then about to expire by constitutional limitation, by
passing the following Act :

"AN ACT

TO CREATE THE OFFICE OF STATE GEOLOGIST, AND TO DEFINE THE DUTIES

THEREOF.

11 The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assem
bly, do enact as follows :

11 SECTION 1. J. D. Whitney is hereby appointed State Geologist. He
shall be commissioned by the Governor, and it shall be his duty, with
the aid of such assistants as he may appoint, to complete the geological
survey of the State, and prepare a report of said survey for publication,
and superintend the publication of the same. Such report shall be in
the form of a geological, botanical, and zoological history of the State;
and the number of copies of each volume to be printed, and the style,
form, maps, diagrams, or illustrations to be contained therein, or to be
printed separately, shall be determined by the State Geologist; and said
report, when published, shall be sold upon such terms as the Governor
and Secretary of State may decide upon, and the proceeds of such sales
shall be paid into the Common School Fund of the State.

u SEC. 2. It is hereby made the duty of the State Geologist and his
assistants to devote the time not necessarily required in the preparation
and superintendence for publication of the reports provided for in sec
tion one of this Act, to a thorough and scientific examination of the
gold, silver, and copper producing districts of this State, and to such
scientific and practical experiments as will be of value in- the discovery
of mines and the working and reduction of ores.

" SEC. 3. The following sums of money are hereby appropriated, out
of any money in the State Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for
the prosecution of the geological survey of the State, and for the six
teenth and seventeenth fiscal years : For salary of the State Geologist,
nine thousand dollars, to be drawn monthly on the last day of each month ;
for salary of two assistants, six thousand six hundred dollars, to be drawn
in the same manner as the salary of the State Geologist; for publication
of two volumes of report, six thousand dollars; for office rent, and
expenses of survey in mining districts, and experiments on ores, and all
incidental expenses of work, ten thousand dollars, to be drawn one half
each fiscal year.

" SEC. 4. This Act shall take effect immediately."

The above Act was approved by the Governor, April fourth, eighteen
hundred and sixty-four.

Previous to the passage of this Act the following sums had been
appropriated for the continuance of the survey :

At the time of the passage of the original Act.

By the Legislature of 1860-61

By the Legislature of 1861-62

By the Legislature of 1862-63

Making in all

$20,000
15,000
15,000
20,000

$70,000

Besides this, three thousand dollars was appropriated by the Legisla
ture of eighteen hundred and sixty-one and sixty-two for printing one
volume of the report.

At the time the Legislature of eighteen hundred and sixty-three and
sixty-four met the new Constitution of the State was in operation, and
the sessions being now biennial, instead of annual, it was necessary to
provide funds for continuing the survey for two years. Unfortunately
the State was at this time in great trouble, the drought of the two pre
vious winters having most seriously affected both the agricultural and
mining interests, and given rise to a widespread feeling of alarm. It
was therefore with difficulty that any appropriation could be secured for
the survey, and that which was obtained was far from being adequate to
the carrying on of the work on a scale commensurate with its impor
tance. Indeed, it was but just enough to keep the survey alive, in
addition to continuing the preparation of the materials already in hand
•for publication. The appropriations for the survey in the Act cited
above, added to those of previous Legislatures, make the total amount
provided for the fieldwork and salaries in all departments, from the com
mencement of the survey up to June thirtieth, eighteen hundred arid aixty-
six, ninety-five thousand six hundred dollars, or a little less than sixteen
thousand dollars a year on the average. Besides this, however, there
has been nine thousand dollars appropriated for publication, which should
not be charged to the survey, as this amount will be refunded to the
State by the sale of the volumes published, it being provided in both
Acts that our publications shall be sold and the money paid into the
Common School Fund.

The course and progress of the geological and topographical fieldwork

of the survey, up to the end of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-
three, has already been made known in the letters addressed to the
Governor from year to year. A resume of the movements of the various
parties will also be found in the preface of the first volume of the geology
of the report.

In the summer of eighteen hundred and sixty-four, a small party was
fitted out to commence the exploration of the Sierra Nevada, it being
my intentibn to work up the geology and topography of that great
chain, from the south towards the north, as accurately as our time
and means would allow. This party consisted of Messrs. Brewer and
Hoffman, accompanied by Messrs. King and Gardner, volunteer assist
ants in the geological and topographical departments. They took the field
in May, and proceeded across the plains of the San Joaquiri to Yisalia,
from which point they entered the Sierra, ascending King's River to
its source, and exploring the whole region about the headwaters of that
and Kern River. Thence they made their way across the range by a
pass over twelve thousand feet high, passed up Owen's Yalley, ascended
the west branch of Owen's River, crossing the Sierra again at an alti
tude of twelve thousand four hundred feet, and thence descending to the
head of the San Joaquin River. The exploration was continued through
the region of the headwaters of that stream and the Merced, connecting
the reconnoisance with that of eighteen hundred and sixty-three around
the sources of the Tuolumne. The whole expedition occupied about
three months, during which time the geography and geology of a dis
trict including an area of over ten thousand square miles were for the
first time explored, the whole region having previously been entirely
unknown. The results prove to be of the greatest interest, disclosing
the fact that this was the highest part of the Sierra Nevada, and that it
embraced the loftiest mountains and the grandest scenery yet discov
ered within the territory of the United States. For the details of this
reconnoisance reference may be made to Chapter X of Volume I of the
Geology, which has just been, published by the survey.

At the close of this campaign Professor Brewer relinquished his posi
tion on the survey, and left California to enter on his duties as Professor
in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College. He still remains, how
ever, charged with the direction of the botanical department of the
survey, as will be noticed further on, under the head of botany.

Messrs. King and Gardner continued their explorations northward of
the field of their labor during the summer, by making a survey and
map of the Yosemite Yalley, under authority of the Commissioners
appointed to take charge of the tracts embracing that valley and the
Big Tree Grove of Mariposa County, recently conveyed to the State of
California by the United States.

In the spring of eighteen hundred and sixty -four. Mr. King had com
menced the detailed exploration of the principal metalliferous belt of
the Sierra Nevada, by examining the geology of the Mariposa estate
and its vicinity. This work was continued by Mr. Remond in the
summer of eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and carried from the Mer
ced to the Stanislaus River, a careful geological and geographical map of
that region having been furnished by him as the result of his labors. In
addition to this he visited and examined seventy-seven gold mines,
besides many other localities of other metals, and sixty-six quartz mills,
of which twenty-three were in operation. This work, which is the con
tinuation of that done in the Sierra during the previous year, forms the
first contribution to our detailed exploration of the mining districts of

6

California ; this exploration we expect to continue as soon as it is in our
power to take the field again in the Sierra.

In the meantime, Mr. Gabb has left for the southern part of the State,
to make a thorough examination of portions of the Coast Eanges, where
the occurrence of bituminous matter in large quantity has, especially
during the last twelve months, been exciting much attention.

The above is all the geological fieldwork which it has been in our
power to undertake, with the extremely limited appropriation made by
the last Legislature, a portion of which had necessarily to be used in the
preparation of the "Geological, Botanical, and Zoological History of the
State/' provided for in the Act under which we are now at work. What
progress has been made in the preparation of our results for publication,
in conformity with the Act, will now be stated under the appropriate
heads.

I. — TOPOGRAPHY.

In addition to the maps previously described as forming a portion of
the results of our topographical work, we have commenced a new one,
which embraces the most valuable and important part of the State, and
covers the area on which, as near as can be ascertained, somewhat over
nine tenths of the population are now residing. This map extends from
the parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes to that of forty
degrees and thirty minutes, and from the one hundred and eighteenth
to the one hundred and twenty-third meridian, thus including the whole
Sierra from Owen's Lake north, to Lassen's Peak, the Coast Ranges from
Point Sur and New Idria on the south, to Clear Lake on the north. It
also includes the western portion of Nevada. The scale of this map is
six miles to the inch, and its size four and a half feet square, so that i't
can be engraved to four sheets. On this all the topographical work of
the survey has been compiled, together with such materials of an authen
tic character as could be obtained from other sources, especially from the
offices of the United States Surveyor-General, and the United States
Coast Survey. The work of Mr. Wackenrcudcr in the high Sierra,
which was continued for a short time during the summer of eighteen
hundred and sixty-four, forms an important portion of the new material
incorporated in our map of Central California. The drawing of this
map is considerably advanced, and has been executed by Mr. Hoffman,
the topographer of the survey, in the most creditable manner; if ever
completed, it will not only form a highly important contribution to the
geography of the State, but will be of great practical value. A consid
erable amount of fieldwork, however, remains to be done in the region
which it covers. The extreme northwestern portion, including the region
north of Clear Lake, has never been even approximately mapped, and
portions of the Sierra, especially the region between the Mono and the
Silver Mountain Passes, and that north of the Henness Pass, have never
been instru mentally surveyed.

The "map of the region adjacent to the Bay of San Francisco," and
that of the vicinity of Mont Diablo, are ready to be placed in the engrav
er's hands, and the last named one will be photolithographed as soon as
an establishment for doing this kind of work by the " Osborne process"
is set in operation in this country, Mr. Osborne being at present in Boston
for this purpose. Some difficulty has been met with in finding an artist
who could be trusted to do justice to the bay map; but the close of the
war and the contraction of the currency will, it is to be presumed,
relieve our engravers on copper and steel from a large portion of the

calls which have for the last four years been made upon them, and it is
probable that this map. will be put in hand immediately.

The preparation of a map of the whole State, on a scale of six miles to
the inch, was formerly contemplated ; but of later years we have con
sidered that this was an undertaking of too extensive a character to
meet with encouragement from the Legislature. Should the survey be
continued for three or four years longer, we should be able to furnish a
general map of California on a scale of ten or twelve miles to the inch,
which would far surpass in value and accuracy anything now existing.
Still, many years must elapse before correct maps of the almost unknown
southeastern and northwestern corners of the State will be had. It is
certain that the United States Land Office surveys of the southern part
of the State do not give any idea of its topography, and it is difficult to
understand how the town and section lines can have been run there, and
so little idea of the topography obtained; while the extremely rough
and mountainous character of Del Norte, Humboldt, and Trinity Coun
ties, now to a large extent in possession of hostile and warlike Indians,
will render it difficult to execute any detailed geological or geographical
work in that region, for a long time to come.

II. — PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

Our materials in this department are constantly accumulating; but
we have not yet began to arrange them for publication. The baro
metrical measurements of mountains have been continued, and instru
ments have been carried to greater heights than ever before were
attained within the limits of the United States. We await with much
interest the elaborate report of Colonel R. S. Williamson, of the United
States Engineers, to the Topographical Bureau, on the subject of the
laws governing the fluctuations of the barometer on the Pacific coast.
This work will be of great importance to science, and of especial value
to us, as enabling us to *use our own observations more intelligently than
would be possible unless we had the means of carrying on a series of
investigations similar to those of Colonel Williamson, and on which a
large amount of time and labor would have to be expended. The
subject of the distribution of the forest vegetation of the State will
occupy a chapter in our volume of Physical Geography, and it is hoped
that we shall be able to illustrate it with a map showing the range of
the different groups of species.

III. — GENERAL GEOLOGY AND PALAEONTOLOGY.

The volume just issued, which is entitled "Geology — Volume I; a
report of progress and synopsis of the fieldwork from 1860 to 1864,"
will be a sufficient exhibit of our progress in the investigation of the
geological structure of the State.

It is to this department of. general geology that up to the present
time by far the greater portion of our attention has been given, since
the first thing required in a geological survey is a knowledge of the
general geological structure of the State, the age of the various forma
tions which occur in it, and their range and extent, or the position which
they occupy on the surface, and their relations to each other. Each
group of strata, thus determined by its lithological peculiarities, and by
the fossils which it contains, is then to be laid down upon the map in
the position which its outcrop occupies on the surface. The general

character of the minerals and ores which occur in each formation or
group of strata having been first determined, the details of their mode
of occurrence, their relative abundance, and the facilities which may
exist in each separate district for making them economically available,
must, after the preliminary general work has been done, be the object
of more special and detailed examinations. It is not, however, the busi
ness of a geological surveying corps to act to any considerable extent
as a prospecting party; to do this would require that we should confine
our operations to a very limited area. The labor of the whole corps for
an entire season would not suffice to throughly prospect mare than a
few hundred square miles in a very rich mineral region, and we should
often have to engage in expensive mining operations to decide what
was really of permanent' value. It is our task, rather, to limit the field
of research, and to show to others where their labor will be best
bestowed, preventing foolish expenditure of time and money in searching
for what our general geological investigations have determir.ed not to
exist in sufficient quantity in certain formations to be worth working.
Especially in the first years of our work in a State of such immense
area as California, our labors must have more the character of a geo
logical reconnoissance than of a detailed survey.

In the department of palaeontology one volume has already been pub
lished. This contains, in the first section, a description of the carbonif
erous fossils of Bass' Banch, the only locality where any well preserved
organic remains of that age have been found within the State. The
second section is devoted to the fossils of the triassic rocks, including
all which have thus far been discovered in California and on its borders.
While we have abundant evidence that a formation equivalent in geolo
gical age to the Alpine trias, or the beds of Hallstadt and St. Cassian,
occurs over a vast area, and forms an important part of the metalliferous
belt of the Pacific coast, and probably on both sides of the Sierra, and
while fossils of this age have been found at several localities within the
borders of California, our most ample supply of well preserved specimens
has come from the Humboldt mining district in Nevada. Hence we have
included in our descriptions of the triassic fossils those of that region,
although some among them have not yet been found in California.

The third section of the volume of palaeontology is devoted to the
Jurassic fossils of the Sierra Nevada; or, rather, to such as had been dis
covered at the time of its publication. These fossils are all from the
localities near Genessee Yalley, noticed in section eleven, Chapter IX of
Yolume I, of the Geology. At the end of that volume a few pages
will be found containing descriptions of the Jurassic fossils of the aurif
erous slates in Mariposa County, from the localities discovered by Mr.
King, and in close proximity to one of the great quartz veins of the
mining region proper. This paper, by Mr. Meek, and which is illus
trated by a steel plate, was published in the geological volume to pre
vent delay, as the question of the geological age of the auriferous slates
is one of great interest, and some time will necessarily elapse before the
second volume of the palaeontology will be ready for publication. In
the meantime, and during the past year, Mr. Eemond has traced the
belt of fossiliferous Jurassic rocks from the Merced River to the Stanis
laus, finding several genera and species different from those previously
obtained from this formation. These, together with such other fossils of
this age as may hereafter be discovered in the State, will be described

d published in the second volume of the palaeontology.

The fourth section of the volume in question is devoted to the creta-

9

ceous fossils, and forms considerably the larger portion of it, as the rocks
of this age occupy a very extensive area on the Pacific coast, and are
rich in fossils at many localities. A reference to the section in question
will show how large an amount of material, new to science, has been
derived from the rocks of the cretaceous series, of the existence of which
on this coast previous to the commencement of our work but little was
definitely known.

The first and third sections of the palseontological volume were pre
pared by Mr. Meek ; the second and fourth by Mr. Gabb. The plates
are thirty-two in number, partly engraved on steel, and partly on stone,
from drawings furnished by the authors of the text. The volume is
printed and bound in a very superior manner, and Js sold at three dollars
and fifty cents per volume, (in cloth,) as determined by yourself and the
Secretary of State, which is about the cost of the mechanical execution
of the edition. The text is stereotyped, and one thousand copies have
been printed, and bound in various styles. A statement of the number
of copies of each volume of the publications of the survey which have
been sold, and of the number remaining on hand, will be furnished to
the Treasurer of State at the close of each fiscal year; and, at the same
time, the money received from the sales will be paid over to that officer,
unless otherwise directed by the Legislature, to be placed by him in the
Common School Fund of the State. The stereotype plates of the volume
remain for the present in charge of the printer.

The first part of Section 1, Volume II, of the Palaeontology, is in
the hands of the printer. It contains the first portion of the descriptions
of the tertiary invertebrate fossils, by Mr. Gabb, and will soon be in
circulation. The plates to accompany this article, thirteen in number,
are drawn, and will soon be pat in hand. A considerable amount of new
material from rocks of the cretaceous age is also on hand and partly
prepared for the printer and engraver. The vertebrate fossils collected
by the survey have been referred to Doctor J. Leidy for description.
They will be worked up by him for the second volume of the Pala3on-
tology, and in the meantime a preliminary notice of them has been
received, containing descriptions of several new species of the fossil
horse, rhinoceros, and other large animals, and a catalogue of the whole
collection, which comprises remains of the mastodon, elephant, tapir,
bison, a reptile allied to the ichthyosaurus, crocodile, and other animals
of great interest. The fossil plants of the survey will be Corked up by
Doctor Newbe'rry, to whom portions of our materials in this department
have already been referred. The diatoms and other microscopic forms
have been submitted to Mr. A. M. Edwards, of New York. The fauna
and flora of the tertiary rock, with the additional matter belonging to
the lower formations, which has been and will be obtained before the
close of our work, will furnish ample material for a second volume in
the palaeontological department.

IV. — ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY, MINING, AND METALLURGY.

In the geological volume just published, a considerable amount of
information will be found in regard to the economical geology of the
State ; but all the detailed descriptions of mining regions and mining
processes have been reserved for the volume or volumes specially
devoted to these subjects. We have now arrived at a stage of the

10

survey when, the preliminary reeonnoisance of the State being well
advanced, we can take up the mining districts, work up the details of
their geology, and investigate the quantity, quality, and mode of occur
rence of their ores. We need, however, a laboratory, where the neces
sary chemical work of this and other branches of the survey can be
done, under my immediate personal supervision.

Mr. Ashburner's investigations of the quartz mines and mills of the
State were the commencement of work in this department, and, as far
as they go, they form an important contribution to an understanding of
the mining interests of California. The tabular statement, prepared by
him to exhibit the principal facts connected with the auriferous quartz
mills running in eighteen hundred and sixty-one, will always be valuable
for reference. It has been printed in the appendix to the volume of
geology, for convenient reference.

The work of investigating in detail the geology of the mining regions
of the State has been began, but will require a long time for its comple
tion, so vast is the field and so important are the interests with which
this branch of our work is connected. We can do much for the benefit
of the people in this department if properly supported by the Legisla
ture; but hasty and superficial work will be of little use. Too large a
portion of the resources of California has already been thrown away in
foolish mining enterprises, and although the career of reckless specula
tion may seem to be checked at present, yet the same scenes of wild
excitement will be repeated again and again unless reliable information
becomes widely disseminated among the people. It is fully time that a
stop should be put to a course which has already materially retarded the
progress of the State, and which, if persisted in, 'will bring utter financial
ruin upon us.

V. — BOTANY.

The botanical department of the survey has been and still continues
under the charge of Professor Brewer. From his investigations it ap
pears that about one thousand six hundred species of flowering plants,
(including the higher orders of the flowerless,) and over one hundred
species of mosses, have been found growing naturally within the limits
of the State or on its immediate borders. In the orders below the
mosses in the scale of organization the data are still too imperfect to
allow a proba/ble estimate to be made of the number of species.

The collection made by the survey contain about seventy-four per
cent of all the species known to exist in this State, and about five per
cent of them are new to science, and eleven per cent new to the State —
that is, not before found within its borders.

Professor Brewer is now engaged in preparing a report which will be
in fact a "Manual of the Botany of California," containing as full
descriptions of all the plants of the State as can be given in one volume.
Of this the general plan and arrangement will be similar to those of the
" Colonial Floras," issued under the auspices of the British Government.
Full reference and synonyms will be given of all the species peculiar to
the Pacific States, and which occur in California; and a chapter will be
added on the general distribution of the plants of the State and their
economical value. This volume will form a suitable text book to be used
in the schools of the Pacific coast in connection with " Gray's Lessons in
Botany" or some other elementary 'work of a similar character; and it
may be added that this science cannot be taught in California until such
a manual as the one proposed has been prepared, since the descriptions

11

of the plants of the State are at present scattered through hundreds of
volumes, most of which are quite inaccessible to any except the very few
who are furnished with costly and extensive botanical libraries.

In preparing this volume, a task in which considerable progress has
been made by Professor Brewer, he will have the aid of several of the
most eminent botanists of the country. Professor Gray, of Cambridge,
has kindly offered to work up the large and difficult family of the Com-
positse; he has also determined most of the species in the collection, and
has given every facility fur consulting the collections and library of the
" Gray Herbarium/' of Harvard University. Professor Torrey, of New
York, will describe certain orders of the Apetalse, of which he has made
a special study. Dr. Englemann, of St. Louis, will prepare the descrip
tion of the Cactacese, and render assistance in several other orders to
which he has particularly devoted himself. Professor Thurber, of New
York, will describe the grasses, and Professor Eaton, of New Haven, the
ferns and higher cryptogarnic plants. The carices collected during the
first two years of the survey were examined and determined by Dr.
Booth, of London, just before his death. The herbaria of Professor Tor
rey, so rich in Pacific coast specimens, and those of the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and of the Smithsonian Institution,
have also been freely opened to Professor Brewer for comparison and
consultation. The plants in the State collection will all be carefully
named, and it is hoped that the Legislature will not much longer delay
having them placed where they will be accessible for comparison to all
students of this science on the Pacific coast.

It is believed that the botanical volume maybe got ready for the press
before the close of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-seven.

vi. — ZOOLOGY.

The extensive acquaintance of Doctor Cooper with the fauna of the
Pacific coast, obtained previous to his connection with the Geological
Survey, has enabled him to prepare a large amount of material for the
press, forming the basis of at least four volumes of our report. The fol
lowing table shows what had been accomplished in the way of zoological
collecting up to April first, eighteen hundred and sixty -four, in six of the
classes :

y

w

1

to

!|

1

5

no

I

1

o

co

g

x

1

CO

j

P

Number of species known to

exist in California

110

353

66

18

183

542

Collected by the survey

34

237

33

10

74

507

New to the fauna of Califor

nia

13

11

10

1

20

211

Not before described

4

4

13

122

Found east of the Mississippi

23

161

i(?)

2(0

29

12

In some of the classes a considerably larger exhibit of species obtained
for the collection could have been made, had it not been deemed advisa
ble by Doctor Cooper not to collect the more common and easily procured
species until a suitable place had been provided for the museum of the
survey. The mounting of specimens of birds and mammals is so much
more satisfactorily done from freshly prepared skins, that the collecting
of such species as can be readily obtained in this vicinity may properly
be deferred until they can be set up at once in the place they are destined
to occupy. The number of specimens illustrating the zoology of the
Pacific coast, now in the collection of the survey, may be estimated at
between seven thousand and eight thousand.

Of three of the four volumes of the zoological reports the illustrations
have been in hand for several months, and it is hoped that they will be
so far advanced towards completion that at least two of them may go to
press during the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six.

Two volumes of the zoological series will be devoted to the birds and
mammals, and Doctor Cooper's manuscript will be carefully revised by
Professor Baird, of the Smithsonian institution, who also has charge,
under my general direction, of the execution of the illustrations. We
propose to give a figure of one species in each genus of the birds; those
which have never before been described or figured being illustrated by
large colored figures on steel or stone, and the others by wood cuts.
The different species of each genus will be distinguished from each other
by diagrams of the head, claws, wings, and other characteristic parts.
The mammals will also be fully illustrated, the object being to furnish,
in the zoological series, manuals or text books which shall not only
have a permanent scientific value, as containing in a condensed and sys
tematic form all that is known of the fauna of the State of California
and its borders, but which shall also be practically useful to those per
sons who may desire to ascertain the names and habits of the animals
they may meet with on land or in the waters of the Pacific coast.

The description of the fishes will form a separate volume, and this
will be prepared by Mr. Theodore Gill, who will be able to use, not only
the materials and notes furnished by Doctor Cooper, but also the exten
sive collection of the Smithsonian Institution, accumulated during many
years of labor by the various naturalists who have devoted themselves
to gathering specimens on the Pacific coast in this department. Each
species will be illustrated by a carefully drawn and engraved figure, the
work being done under Mr. Gills' immediate supervision.

The shells will also afford the material for another volume, Doctor
Cooper's collections being very extensive, and comprising nearly two
hundred new species. As the eminent conchologist, Mr. P. P. Car
penter, has been for a long time specially devoted to the study of the
shells of the Pacific coast, Doctor Cooper's collections have been placed
in his hands for study, and it is expected that he will prepare one of the
volumes of our zoological series, in which each species will be illus
trated by an accurate figure.

The maps and sections, with perhaps some of the more important
illustrations of the scenery of the State, should be placed together in
one volume or atlas, and this will form the proper conclusion of our
series of publications.

According to our plans for publication, as developed in the preceding
pages, it will be seen that we contemplate issuing from eleven to thirteen
volumes, which are distributed among the different departments of the
survey as follows :

13

P h y sical Geography

1

General Geology .

2

Palaeontology

2

Economical Geology, Mining, and Metallurgy

1

or 2

Botany

1

Zoology .. . .

8

or 4

Maps, sections, etc

1

Total

11

to 13

Of these, two are alreacty issued, and eight more are in a forward
state of preparation, the illustrations of three of them being nearly all
drawn, and a portion of them already engraved. The amount of time
required to complete the series of thirteen volumes will, of course,
depend upon the vigor with which the work is pushed, and that, again,
on the amount appropriated by the Legislature. With a sufficiently
liberal appropriation, it is probable that the fieldwork may be finished
before the time expires when the office 'of State Geologist will by con
stitutional limitation cease to exist — April the fourth, eighteen hundred
and sixty-eight. The completion of the printing and engraving will of
course require a longer time; but it will perhaps be reasonable to esti
mate that within four years, from the present time the full series of
volumes may be in the hands of the public.

No provision has yet been made by the Legislature for the arrange
ment and exhibition of the collections made by the survey, as was con
templated in the original Act under which our work was commenced.
These collections are already very extensive, embracing many thousand
specimens of rocks, fossils, minerals, and ores, as well as the extremely
important suites in the zoological and botanical departments. All these
•specimens are of great value, as illustrating the natural history, the
geological structure, and the mineral resources of the State. Such of
these as have not been required for use in the preparation of our report,
remain packed in boxes and stored away at the office of the survey.
Unfortunately, we were obliged, for want of room, to store a portion of
our specimens in a (so-called) fireproof warehouse in San Francisco,
and these have already been destroyed by fire, entailing a serious loss
on the survey and the State. In view of this calamity, it will not be
necessary for me to enlarge on the necessity of providing a permanent
fireproof building for our collections, as has already been repeatedly
urged by me in my annual communications to the Legislature. The
only official step thus far taken by the Legislature towards the estab
lishment of a State Museum, is the passage of the following resolution
b}^the Legislature of eighteen hundred and sixty-two and eighteen hun
dred and sixty-three.

" Resolved, by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That Professor J.
D. Whitney, State Geologist, John Swett, State Superintendent of
Public Instruction, and J. F. Houghton, Surveyor General, be and they
are hereby constituted a Board of Commissioners, to report to the
Legislature on or before the second Monday of December, one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three, upon the feasibility of establishing a
State University, embracing an Agricultural College, a ' School of Mines/

14

and a Museum — including the geological collection of this State; and
that said Board report such facts and considerations as they may deem
important in connection therewith."

In obedience to this requisition of the Legislature, an elaborate report
was submitted by the Board of Commissioners as above constituted at
the session of eighteen hundred and sixty-three and eighteen hundred
and sixty -four. In this report the whole subject of the organization of
a State University was thoroughly discussed, and the requirements of
the Constitution in this respect duly set forth. The establishment of a
State Polytechnic School, having for its object " the professional training
of young men in the exact and natural sciences, and their application to
arts, manufacture, mining, and agriculture/' was strongly recommended
to the Legislature. It was also proposed that the collections of the
geological survey should be placed in a suitable fireproof building, in
which should be ample accommodations for displaying and showing them,
as well as room for a library, laboratory, and an office for the survey,
together with lecture rooms, and other conveniences necessary for a
scientific school, for which purpose the building was to be used after the
completion of the survey. This would have been the first step towards
the establishment of a State University, provided for long since by the
Constitution, and for which funds have been furnished by the United
States.

The interest on the money received from the sales of the land given
by Congress has thus far been applied to another purpose; but it is evi
dent that the people, through the Legislature, are bound in honor to see
that the trust accepted by the State and incorporated in their own Con
stitution should be sacredly complied with.

In concluding this communication, it may be mentioned that the Act
under which the survey is at present conducted does not require the
State Geologist to present to the Legislature, through the Governor, or
in any other way, any annual report or estimate for the continuance of
the survey, as was demanded by the Act under which the survey \vas
originally organized. The State Geologist will, however, be happy to
appear before the "Committees on Mines and Mining Interests " of the
Senate and House, and to give them all possible information in regard
to the progress of the survey, and what he deems desirable for continu
ing the work both in the field and in the office.

I am, with high respect, your obedient servant,

J. D. WHITNEY,

State Geologist.

LETTER OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST

RELATIVE TO THE PROGRESS OF THE

STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

DURING THE YEARS 1866-7.

D. W. GELWICKS STATE PRINTER.

REPORT.

SAN FRANCISCO, November 25th, 1867.
To His Excellency,

FRED'K F. Low,

Governor of California :

SIR : — The geological survey of this State has been carried on during
the past two years under authority of the Legislature, approved by
yourself April fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four. Consequently,
the office of State Geologist will expire, by constitutional limitation, on
the fourth day of April next.

The geological survey has now been going on just seven years, as
operations were commenced about December first, eighteen hundred and
sixty, the State Geologist having arrived in San Francisco JNovember
fourteenth of that year. The amounts which have been appropriated
by the different Legislatures for the purpose of the survey are as follows:

At the time of the passage of the original Act

$20 000 00

By the Legislature of 1860-1

15,000 00

By the Legislature of 1861-2

15,000 00

By the Legislature of 1862-3

20,000 00

By the Legislature of 1863—4 (for two years) . . .

25 600 00

By the Legislature of 1865 6 (for two years)

30 000 00

Total

$125,600 00

Making an average of fifteen thousand nine hundred dollars a year.
In my letter to yourself, dated January first, eighteen hundred and
sixty-six, and published by order of the last Legislature, I gave a suc
cinct statement of the condition of the work of the survey at that time,
and I will now proceed to recapitulate, as briefly as possible, what pro
gress has been made, both in the fieldwork and in the publication,
department, since the date of that letter.

I will first, however, allude to our plan of operations, as gradually

developed during the progress of our work and finally brought into
shape at the time of the publication of the volume devoted to geology.
(See Preface, Geology of California, Vol. I., where, also, a resume of the
movements of the various parties of the survey, up to the close of the
year eighteen hundred and sixty-five, is given.) According to this plan
the survey is divided into three principal departments, each of which is
again divided into subordinate branches.

The main divisions with the subdivisions may by seen at a glance in
the annexed scheme :

A. — Topography. — 1. Topographical Survey and Maps; 2. Physical
Geography.

B. — Geology. — 1. General Geology; 2. Palaeontology; 3. Economical
Geology; including Mining and Metallurgy.

C. — Natural History. — 1. Botany; 2. Zoology.

To the above must be added the collection of a museum of geology
and natural history, to illustrate the resources and geological structure
of the States and Territories of the Pacific Coast.

Each one of the subdivisions specified above demands one or more
volumes of the published series, for the results embraced in it. The
number of volumes depends, of course, on the thoroughness with which
the work is performed, and that again on the amount of money appro
priated.

The following scheme shows the lowest and the highest number of
volumes contemplated in each department :

Title of Work.

it

r?

'. o

• l-»5

W

I?

1*

1 $

1 k

Physical Geography

1

-\

«

2

Economical Geology

1

2

Palseontoloo'v ... ....

2

8

Botany

1

2

Zoology

8

4

Maps .. . .....

1

1

Totals

11

15

Of the condition of these volumes, as regards progress in preparation
for the press, information will be given further on.

The original Act authorizing the survey, provided for such a complete
examination of the State and report on all departments of the geogra
phy, geology, and natural history, as is contemplated in the above
synopsis of the proposed volumes; and, although the plan may to
some have seemed too vast in its scope for the intelligence and the
resources of the State, yet it is my firm opinion that if ever carried to
completion, its suitableness will be more and more appreciated as the
State increases in wealth and civilization. Had the appropriations

asked for by the State Geologist been granted, the work would, without
having been any serious burden on the people, be now far advanced
towards completion.

With the above brief suggestions, I will proceed to give, first a
synopsis of the movements of the different parties which have been in
the field during the past two years, and then a concise statement of the
present condition of our work, following the order stated above, for the
different departments.

FlELDWORK OF 1866.

1. Messrs. W. M. Gabb and F. E. Brown commenced January fourth,
eighteen hundred and sixty-six, a geological exploration of the southern
coast ranges, with the especial purpose of obtaining materials for the
palaeontology of the tertiary rocks and to determine the geological
position and economical value of the bituminous materials found in Los
Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties. This party
reached San Luis Obispo, April eighth, and was joined by Mr. Hoffmann,
and both geological and topographical work was carried on from there
northward, in the Santa Lucia, Gavilan, and Monte Diablo ranges, until
June, when the party returned to San Francisco.

2. After writing up his notes, Mr. Gabb continued his work nortbward
of the Bay of San Francisco, assisted by Mr. Frank Coffee, and they
proceeded to make a detailed geological examination of a large portion
of Sonoma, Mendocino, and Humboldt Counties, returning to San Fran
cisco about the first of November.

3. A party, consisting of Messrs. C. King* J. T. Gardner, H. 1ST.
Bolander, and C. R. Brinley, with two men, left San Francisco, June
sixth, to commence the geological and topographical survey of the region
adjacent to the Yosemite Valley, so as to connect our work of eighteen
hundred and sixty -four, in the High Sierra, with that of Mr. Wackenren-
der, commenced in previous years and continued in eighteen hundred
and sixty-six and eighteen hundred and sixty-seven. The especial
object of this party was the collection of material for a map, on a large
scale, for the Yosemite Guide Book, especially authorized by the last
Legislature. (The dimensions and scale of this map will be given fur
ther on.) This party remained in the field until November first, Mr.
King carrying on the geological work, and Mr. Gardner the topograph
ical. Both these gentlemen returned to the Eastern States in November,
where Mr. Gardner occupied himself until spring, plotting his summer's
work. These gentlemen have since been employed by the United States
War Department, by special authority of Congress, to make a geological
and topographical survey of the region bordering on the Pacific Railroad
along the fortieth parallel, in which great work they are still engaged.

4. Early in August I left San Francisco, having previously been with
the parties above mentioned for some time, to make a geographical
and geological survey of Plumas County. The party consisted, besides
myself, of Mr. Wackenrender, who had charge of the topographical
work, assisted during a part of the time by Mr. A. Hartwig, and then
by Mr. A. W. Keddie, with two men. The geological portion of the
survey I myself had in charge. This party remained in the field as long
as the season would permit, nearly finishing the work in Plumas, and at
the same time doing a part of Sierra, it having been found advisable to
combine these two counties on one map.

The above were the principal parties in the field during the season of

6

eighteen hundred and sixty-six; but, in addition, there was considerable
field and office work done, chiefly of a topographical character. Mr.
Wackenrender was in the field in May and June, mapping the country
between the Sonora and the Big Tree roads, across the Sierra Nevada.
Mr. George H. Goddard plotted for this survey a large amount of work
done in previous years at the head of the Mokelumnc, Stanislaus, and
American Eivers. He also plotted a considerable area along the eastern
boundary of the State, including part of the White Mountain range.
Mr. E. D'Heureuse commenced the survey of Kern County, on his own
account, which work he was unable to finish, and which was therefore
ti>rned over to us on payment of a small portion of its cost, with the
understanding that he should go on to complete it during the next year,
at the expense of the survey. Mr. S. F. Peckharn, in May and June,
made a special detailed examination of all the important oil-bearing
localities, or those which were reputed as such, for the purpose of secur
ing a supply of material for chemical examination, and to obtain informa
tion in regard to the economical value of the bituminous substances of
that region.

During the winter of eighteen hundred and sixty-six and sixty-seven,
Mr. Gabb was detached from the survey, and accompanied by Mr. F.
Yon Lbhr, made a survey of the Peninsula of Lower California, for pri
vate parties. The scientific geological results of this expedition, which
were of veny considerable value, as giving the first clue to the structure
of an extensive and important region, were communicated to and will
be published by the California Academy of Sciences.

The chemical examination of the bituminous products collected during
the season was carried on at Boston and Providence during the ensuing
winter, by Mr. Peckham, for the term of six months, and the results
obtained by him will be embodied in the volumes of economical geoloi»y.

The fieldwork of this year (eighteen hundred and sixty-six) was pro
longed until late in the season, and as early as possible the next year it
was resumed, as will be seen from the following synopsis :

FIELDWORK OF 1867.

1. Mr. Hoffman, with Mr. A. D. Wilson as assistant, commenced
March sixth, to work up the region of the foothills between the Chow-
chilla and King's Eivers. May twentieth 1 joined the party, and we con
tinued the surveys to the Big Tree grant and across the Yosemite to
Coulterville. where the party was broken up, Mr. Hoffman returning to
San Francisco to go on with the office work. Mr. W7ilson was then
joined by Mr. Von Lohr, and they proceeded to make a survey of the
Calaveras Grove of Big Trees on their way to the road across the Sierra,
via Placerville.

2. Mr. Gabb, accompanied by Mr. E. E. Poston, about the middle of
June, joined Messrs. Wilson and Lohr, and they together proceeded to
the eastern border of the State for the purpose of making the necessary
surveys to complete the southeastern sheet of the Central California Map.
Of this party, a portion of the expenses was paid by the United States
and apart by myself. Only that was charged to the State of California
which was justly due for work done within its limits. This party, after
exploring the White Mountain range, carried their work east ;>s far as
the one hundred and sixteenth meridian, working up the geology and
topography of an extensive region very difficult to explore, and one in

regard to which there had been up to that time but little definite*
information obtained. •

It was my intention to have the expedition extend its work as far as
the eastern border of Nevada, embracing the area between the thirty-
seventh and thirty-ninth parallels; but winter set in very early, so that
it became necessary to leave the field during the latter part of October.

3. Mr. Hoffman, assisted by Mr. H. Craven as topographer, Mr. W.
Harris as photographer, and two men, left San Francisco about the
middle of August, and were occupied for about six weeks in completing-
the work commenced during the previous year by Messrs. King and
Gardner, about the head of the Merced and on the upper portion of the
Tuolumne.

They explored the interesting valley called by the Indians Heteh-
Hetchy, an almost exact counterpart in its general features and in some-
of its details, of the Yosemite Yalley. A number of photographs were
taken, of which the negatives are in our possession, to be used in illus
trating our future volumes in case it should be desirable. This party
also made a minute survey of the bottom of the Yosemite Valley for the
Commissioners, to be paid for from the fund to be appropriated for their
use. This work was found to be necessary for the purposes of the Com
mission in carrying out the objects of the grant made by Congress to
the State of California.

4. Mr. K. D'Heureuse continued his topographical work in Kern,,
Tulare, and Inyo Counties, with two assistants, commencing May twenty-
eighth, and ending September nineteenth. This survey has been plotted
on a scale of two miles to an inch, and embraces an area of about one
hundred miles north and south, by fifty in the opposite direction. It
takes in all the settled part of Kern County, about half of Tulare, and
the western edge of Inyo, embracing the whole of the Sierra Nevada
from Walker's Pass to the parallel passing along the lower end of Owen's-
Lake. Mr. D'Heureuse also collected a large amount of geological in
formation in regard to the region traversed by himself. He discovered
an extensive grove of the Big Trees, of the existence of which we have
no previous account.

5. Mr. Wackenrendcr has also been engaged during the whole season,
with the exception of two weeks, in continuing his surveys in the cen
tral portion of the Sierra Nevada. During this time he has made several
trips along the Sierra, between Alpine and Plumas Counties, completing
the high pajjt of Alpine, Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado, and Sierra
Counties. There is about three months more work to be done to enable
us to plot the whole of the Sierra Nevada on the largest scale required,
from Walker's Pass to Lassen's Peak, a distance of about four hundred
miles in a direct line. The area of the region thus surveyed by our par
ties during the past four years, including only what may be called the
" High Sierra," is about twenty thousand square miles, or fifty miles in
width on an average, by four hundred miles long, as stated above. The
counties in which the work is deficient are Tuolumne, Nevada, and
Placer, but we could plot the whole of the higher portion of these with,
tolerable accuracy, on the six miles to an inch scale, in case of necessity.

During the past two years the State Geologist has been actively and
exclusively engaged in the State attending to the necessary work of the
survey in all its departments, with the exception of two short periods of
absence, one of four weeks in Oregon and Washington Territory, and
one of two weeks in Nevada. These excursions were made for the pur
pose of settling important geographical and geological questions inti-

mately connected with our own work. Lest, however, misapprehensions
should arise, I will slate that for absences of this kind there is no charge
made to the State, either for salary or expenses incurred.

Having in the preceding pages given a summary of our movements
during the past two years, enumerating the times and specifying the
localities where the principal parties were at work, I will proceed to
state what progress has been made in each department, necessarily with
much brevity, following the order of the scheme of our work as given
above.

1. TOPOGRAPHY AND MAPS.

By far the largest amount of expenditure has been durjng the past
two years in this department of the survey. The reasons for this were
twofold. First — By the resignation of Professor Brewer, who left our
work to take a chair in Yale College, and by the sickness and resigna
tion of Mr. Esmond,* I had been deprived of my principal geological
assistants, and the appropriation was too small to enable me to engage
others without dismissing a part of the topographical staff. But the
gentlemen employed in this department were engaged on work already
commenced, and with which they alone were familiar; hence they could
not be dismissed without entirely breaking up the topographical work,
and allowing a large amount of valuable material to be utterly lost.
Second — The want of any even approximately correct maps of any part
of the State, made it entirely impossible for us to work out the detailed
geology without first preparing such maps as we needed. We could
neither lay down the placer mines nor the quartz veins, nor indicate the
different strata cropping out on the surface, or make our descriptions of
the geological structure of the country intelligible in any other than the
most general way, without having an accurate geographical basis for our
work. Properly, our work should be carried on pari passu in both the
geographical and geological departments; but, if means are only pro
vided for one, the former must have the precedence, and be completed
first.

The general plan of our topographical work embraces maps on four
different scales. The largest is that of a mile to two inches; this is
reserved for the most iaiportant mining districts, where the special illus
tration of the occurrence of veins or mineral deposits makes a large
scale necessary. The next is two miles to an inch; this is the scale of
the Bay Map and of the County Maps in progress, as will, be noticed
further on. The next is six miles to an inch ; this scale is adopted for
the Central California Map; and finally, a scale of ten or twelve miles to
an inch will have to be adopted for a general map of the State, if we
ever are able to compile one from our materials. I did, in former years,

-Mr. Remond left the survey early in eighteen hundred and sixty-six, being completely broken
down in health — constitutional tendencies to disease of the lungs having been aggravated and
hastened towards a fatal termination by his arduous exertions and devotion to the work in which
he was engaged. He removed to Santiago, Chile, in the hope that the climate of that country
might exercise a beneficial influence on his health. It was too late, however ; the hand of death
was on him, and he returned to California, after a little more than a year's absence, living only
a few days after landing in San Francisco. He died at the early age of twenty-nine, May thirty-
first, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven. He was an enthusiastic lover of the natural sciences
with remarkable perceptive powers, and full of energy and perseverance. Had his life been
spared, he would have risen to an eminent position in his favorite departments of geology and
palaeontology. His valuable work in connection with our survey, and especially that carried on
by him under the greatest difficulties in Northern Mexico, will entitle him to be ranked among
those who have done much to aid the cause of science on the Pacific coast.

contemplate as large a scale as six miles to an inch for the general map
of the State; but this would require nine sheets, and seems too extensive
an undertaking for our means, or for any means that we are ever likely
to be supplied with; and the publication on that scale of the Central
California Map, which embraces only one third of the area of the State,
but ninety-five per cent, of its population, will render it less necessary
to use so large a scale for the very thinly inhabited region of the
extreme north and south.

To pass to the statement of what is accomplished in collecting the
materials and putting them on paper, in accordance with the above plan,
the following is subniitted :

(a) Scale of a mile to two inches. — On this scale a map of the vicinity
of Monte Diablo has been completed, and is now ready for the engraver.
It is two and a half by three feet in size, and embraces the most '
important coal deposits yet discovered in the State. It covers an area of
one hundred and seventy square miles.' The Map of the Yosemite Valley,
made by Mr. Gardner, and engraved for the Yosemite Book, is also on
this^cale. It is fifteen inches by twenty-four in size.

(b) Scale of two miles to one inch. — On this scale the "Map of the vicin-^
ity of the Bay of San Francisco" has been drawn and engraved. This
map covers an area of four thousand two hundred and forty-eight square
miles of land, just about equal to that of the State of Connecticut. It is
four feet by three in size, and has been engraved on two sheets. It
embraces the whole of San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Ala-
meda, and:Marin Counttes, a large portion of Santa Cruz and Santa
Clara, and a part of Solano, Sonoma, and Napa. This is the most
densely settled portion of the State, containing as it does the heart of
the agricultural and commercial region. Over one third of the popula
tion of California reside within its borders. This map has been engraved
in New York, and copies of it are expected by the next steamer. Much
delay in issuing it has been caused by the necessity of sending proof
sheets back and forth from San Francisco to New York, and also by the
numerous change^ which have been made in the boundaries of ranches
during the past two years.

On the same scale as the Bay Map, three maps of the central counties
of the State along the Sierra Nevada, and including the principal mining
region of the State, are projected. Of these, the northern one embraces
Plunlas and Sierra, and parts of Yuba and \Butte Counties; the central,
Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Amador, and Calaveras, and portions of
Yuba, Butte, Sutter, Sacramento, and San Joaquin; the southern, part
of Calaveras, all of Tuolumne and Mariposa, and parts of Stanislaus,
Merced, and Fresno Counties. Of these, the fieldwork for Plumas -and
Sierra is nearly completed, and the map can be drawn whenever the
state of our funds permits it. The Central County Map is commenced,
and the fieldwork about one third completed ; that of the southern
counties is also about one third completed. These maps are intended to
show the minute details of the topography; the position of all towns,
villages, mining camps, and ranches; the roads, mines, mills, and ditches;
and, in short, to answer all the requirements of the different counties
for geographical purposes.

On the same scal$ as the Bay Map is also drawn the " Map of a por
tion of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to the Yosemite." This is thirty
inches by twenty in size, embracing between two and three thousand

10

square miles of one of the roughest and most picturesque regions of
the State. It extends from Mariposa and Big Oak Flat on the west, to
the head of the San Joaquin and Mono Lake on the east, it is the first
accurate map of any high mountain region ever prepared in the United
States. This map is now drawn, and in the hands of the engravers. It
is intended to accompany the Yosemite Book.

A large amount of material in Kern, Tulare, Inyo, Alpine, and Mono
Counties has been plotted on this scale, not necessarily for publication,
but for use in compiling the general map of the State.

(c) Scale of six miles to one inch. — This is the scale adopted for the
Central California Map, which embraces the region from Owen's Lake
north to Lassen's Peak, and from Clear Lake east to the meridian, which
passes a little east of Owen's Lake and a few miles west of Austin,
Nevada. It is embraced between the parallels of 36° and 40° 30' and
the meridians of 117° 30' and 123°. It is in four sheets, each twenty-
four inches square, and covers an area of about eighty thousand square
miles, of which, however, owing to the peculiar shape of the eastern
boundary of California, a portion is within the State of Nevada — about
eighteen thousand square miles. About one third of the area of Califor
nia is embraced in this map, and as before remarked, fully ninety-five
per cent, of its population, according to the last census. The four sheets
are intended to be put together for use as a wall map, which will be
about four feet square. Of this Central California Map, the southwest
quarter, embracing the region of the coast range from about twenty
miles south of Monterey to Santa Kosa, and «a portion of the Sierra
Nevada in Calaveras and Amador Counties, is drawn and ready for the
engraver. The southeast quarter is also partly drawn, and the field
work is entirely completed, with the exception of a small section east of
Owen's Lake, which is not accessible without an escort. This sheet,
however, will be completed so as to be ready for the engraver in the
spring, making half the map done. Of the remaining haft', the eastern
quarter is nearly finished as to fieldwork, say four fifths completed,
while the western quarter is about half done. With two parties in the
field next season, this map can be completed and drawn, ready for publi
cation, in about two years. This, the largest inland work of topography
yet undertake^ in the United States, as it aims to give the topography
as accurately and as much in detail as it can be shown on the scale
adopted, of eighty thousand square miles of country, a large part of
which is very mountainous, including the highest and roughest eleva
tions in the country, and probably on the North American Continent.
The Nevada portion of the map will be filled in from various sources,
among which may be particularly mentioned the Central Pacific Kail-
road surveys, and the work carried on in eighteen hundred and sixty-
seven by the United States, both under the authority of the War arid of
the Interior Departments. Enough has been done this year in Nevada
to give a very good idea of the topography of the western and central
portion of the State, and to make the worthlessness of the maps com
piled from the previously obtained data appear perfectly evident. To
form an idea of the size of California and the magnitude of our work, it
should be remembered that the area embraced on our Central Map is
twice that of Ohio, one of the largest States east of the Mississippi.

On the same scale of six miles to an inch, we commenced at an early
period in the survey a map of the coast ranges south of the Bay of
Monterey, and extending to Santa Barbara. It is three feet by two and
a half in dimensions, and embraces about sixteen thousand square miles

11

of territory, in Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties.
The information obtained from time to time- during the progress of the
survey has been added to it, and it is now completed as far as the fifth
standard line south of the base line. A party would be able to finish the
fieldwork remaining to be done on this map in two seasons, or six
months of fieldwork.

(d) St'ftle of ten miles to one inch. — This will probably be the scale
adopted for the final general map of the whole State, and this map
would be about five feet square, in four sheets, and would also necessarily
embrace a large portion of Nevada, unless the space were designedly
left blank. For this map we have already a large amount of material,
comprised in not less than one hundred sheets, portions of which have,
of course, been used in the other maps now in progress. All these sheets
should be looked on as so much plane table work, to be compiled here
after and co-ordinated by a system of carefully conducted astronomical
observations, which will fix the position of a considerable number of
points on the different sheets with great accuracy. Until this is done
we can never have even a tolerable map of the whole State, as there are
errors and discrepancies in the work of the United States Land Office
which can only be cleared up by a careful series of astronomical obser
vations. The portions of the State where most remains to be done in the
topography are the southeastern and northwestern corners, regions the
most thinly inhabited of any, and where Indians have frequently been
very troublesome.

2. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

The collection of materials in this department has gone on uninter
ruptedly. The number of barometrical observations for the determina
tion of absolute heights of important points, has greatly increased during
the past two years. The important investigations of Colonel R. S.
Williamson in regard to the fluctuations of the barometer on this coast,
are now in process of publication ; and when this volume shall have
been completed, it will be advisable for us to commence a systematic
revision of all our barometrical works, and to publish the final connected
results in a tabular form. We shall be able to give a close approximation
to the heights of between one and two thousand points in this State,
including all the higher mountains and most of the towns and mining
camps. To compute the observations already made will, however,
require not less than a year's unremitting labor; but the results will be
of great practical as well as scientific value.

We have continued the investigation of other subjects connected with
the physical geography of the State. Among them, the nature and dis
tribution of the forest trees may be mentioned, as of peculiar interest.

A beginning has been made in the construction of a map on which the
boundaries of the areas occupied by the principal groups of trees are
laid down.

3. GENERAL GEOLOGY.

For the reasons stated above, much less progress has been made in the.
strictly geological than in the topographical department Still, a very
considerable amount of work has Been done, as will be seen from the
above synopsis of the operations and movements of the various parties
during the past two years. This synopsis will also show where, when
and by what persons the geological work has been executed.

t 12

A large amount of material has been accumulated for the remaining
volume of geology which it is proposed to issue; but this volume will be
the last one published of the series, as it will be intended as a complete
resume of all the geological and palffiontological work. It will be accom
panied by all the necessary sections, showing the structure of the moun
tain ranges, and with a geological map of California, and probably of all
the Pacific States and Territories.

4. PALAEONTOLOGY.

But little exclusively palseontological work has been done within the
past two years, as Mr. Gabb has been employed in the field during most
of the time when in the service of the survey, as will be seen from the
synopsis of the movements of our parties given above. Most .of the
work performed has been in the way of arranging the collection of
fossils, unpacking the materials obtained, and selecting such as wTas
wanted for description. (See further on, under the head of " Publica
tions."

5. ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY.

It is proposed in this department to prepare first that portion of the
report which includes the non-metalliferous minerals. Under this head
will be included coal, all bituminous substances, asphaltum, maltha,
petroleum, building materials, cements, paints, ochres, and earthy mate
rials in general.

No plans can be made with regard to the continuation of the econo-
nomical geology so as to embrace the full and complete investigation of
the mines of the State, unless the Legislature can be induced to make a
more liberal provision for the support of the survey. It is useless to
commence in this department unless the work in it can be thoroughly
done. We have enough already of crude estimates, superficial investi
gations, and other worthless rubbish. If properly executed, the work
in this department will be of the greatest pecuniary value to the State ;
but the Legislature cannot expect results of this high importance with
out any outlay. Eminent mining engineers arid chemists cannot be
found willing to work with salaries less than the wages of ordinary
mechanics.

6. BOTANY.

The collection of material for the botanical report has been continued
during the past two years in such a manner as to be but a trifling
expense to the State. • Mr. Bolander has had charge of this department,
and has made extensive additions to our collections and to the material
placed in the hands of the botanical collaborators of the survey in the
Eastern States and in Europe. Indeed, so many new discoveries have
been made, that the thorough wrorking up of our materials seems likely
to occupy a somewhat longer time than was expected.

Mr. Bolander was in the field from April eleventh, eighteen hundred
and sixty-six, to September twenty-fifth, collecting in Mariposa, Tuol-
umne, and Mono Counties. In eighteen hundred and sixty-seven he
made another excursion of a month through Sonoma, Mendocino, and
Humboldt Counties; and later in the season, spent some time in Santa
Cruz and San Mateo. The northern part of the State, namely, Trinity,
Humboldt, Klamath, and Del Norte, is the portion which now most
needs botanical exploration. Another month's collecting in San Diego

13

is also highly desirable. Professor Brewer thinks that the volume under
his charge will be ready for the press during the next year.

7- ZOOLOGY.

All that has been done in this department will be found further on,
under the heads of " Publications " and " Museum/'

8. MUSEUM.

The same statement has this year to be repeated which has already
been made so many times before. The collections of the survey are
large and valuable, but are exposed to loss by tire, and are placed where
there is no possibility of displaying them in a proper manner, or having
them open to the general public so as to form an attractive and instruc
tive exhibition.

But considerable has been done within the past two years towards
getting our multifarious materials in order. A part of the minerals,
ores, and rock specimens, are laid out on shelves, so as to be examined
without difficulty. The fossils are arranged in handsome cases, and
named, so far as practicable, so that they can be consulted by students
in that department. The shells of the species now living on this coast
have also been very carefully arranged, named, and labelled, and can be
studied at all times by those interested in this branch of natural history.
The plants have been placed in cases, arranged in families and genera,
so far as known, and the specific names are added as fast as they are
received from the various authorities engaged in working them up. The
cones of all the pines, firs, and spruces, the seeds, fruits, etc., have been
arranged in drawers, as well as the cryptogamic vegetation so far as it
has yet been worked out.

9. PUBLICATIONS.

Since the last session of the Legislature, the following publications
have been issued by the Survey :

Pala&ontolofjy < Vol. II, Section 1, Part 1, comprising the first instalment
of the Tertiary Invertebrate Fossils; by Mr. Gabb. This is accompa
nied by thirteen plates, which have been lithographed, and which will
soon be ready for delivery. The text is stereotyped. It is estimated
that the whole of this volume will be required for the remainder of the
Cretaceous and Tertiary invertebrate fossils. A third volume will con
tain the other Secondary and the Palaeosoic fossils, the plants, vertebrate
remains, and the microscopic fossils, the material for these researches
being already in the hands of eminent authorities at the East.

Geographical Catalogue of the Mollusca found west of the Rocky Mountains j
by Dr. Cooper. This was prepared to facilitate the arrangement of the
conchological collection and for convenience in exchanging. It contains
the names and localities of eight hundred and twent}7-five species, so
printed that the catalogqe may serve for labels as well as for a check
list.

Mining Statistics, No. 1, containing the quartz mines and mills between
the Merced and Stanislaus Rivers; by A. .Remond.

In the zoological series the drawing and engraving for the volumes of
birds and fishes has been going on steadily, and that of the birds is
believed to be so nearly completed that the work can go to press imme-

14

diatcly. Arrangements have also been made for editing and issuing the
volume of conchology, and a beginning made on the mammals.

The Bay Map in two sheets, as mentioned above, has been in the
engraver's hands for more than a year, and is supposed to be on its way
out to California. It is intended to be sold separately, in various styles,
and also to form one of the series in the volume of maps, sections, and
illustrations.

Both maps for the Yosemite Book are drawn, and one is engraved.
The illustrations are also prepared, and the work can go to press at an
early day.

The finished sheet of the Central California Map will soon be sent to
the engraver.

The preparation of the first volume of the Economical Geology will be
commenced as soon as favorable action has been had by the Legislature
on the question of the continuance of the survey.

The plan of the "Yosemite Book/' in its two editions of the "Guide
Book " and " Gift Book/' will be found stated at length in the report of
the Yosemite Commissioners. It is intended that the " Gift Book" shall
be as elegant a volume as has ever been published in this country.

10. ACCOUNTS AND EXPENDITURES.

The accounts of the survey, and a complete statement of all expendi
tures in the different departments, will be submitted at an early date to
the committee of the Legislature to which the subject of the geological
survey may be referred.

It may be stated, however, that our expenditures have overrun the
appropriation made for the survey. At the end of the current year I
shall have expended about eight thousand five hundred dollars more than
the total appropriation, as will be seen from the following concise state
ment :

STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURES OF GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

To December 31, 1805,* as per account previously rendered.

January 1 to December 31, 1866

January 1 to September 30, 1867

Estimate October 1 to December 31, 1867

Total appropriations.

Deficiency at end of 1867

$89,998 71

22,617 66

15,853 40

5,600 00

$134.069 77
125,600 00

$8,469 77

Allowing that all the fieldwork is discontinued, and nothing done for
the next six months except to plot and write up the work already on
hand, it will require at least six thousand five hundred dollars to con
tinue the survey to the end of the current fiscal year, and I have to ask,

#See Report of the Committee on Mines and Mining in the Assembly to the last Legislature, in
which our expenditures are tabulated in full to December thirty-first, eighteen hundred and
sixty-five.

15

therefore, that an appropriation for the continuance of the survey during
the present fiscal year, of at least fifteen thousand dollars, be inserted in
the deficiency bill, or else acted on separately near the beginning of the
session. Should this not be passed, it will be my duty to dismiss all my
assistants and to discontinue the survey at once, a step which I should
greatly regret having to take, as there is much valuable matter in my
hands either in process of publication or nearly ready to go to the
printer and engraver.

I might have discontinued the survey at the time the appropriation
was exhausted; but I preferred to take the risk of overrunning the
appropriation rather than abandon the work, although it has not been
without difficulty that I have continued it, and not without considerable
pecuniary embarrassment.

I have the honor to be, with high respect,
Your obedient servant,

J. D. WHITNEY,

State Geologist.

REPORT

COMMISSIONERS TO MANAGE

YOSEMITE VALLEY

For the Years 1866-7.

SAN FRANCISCO:

TOWNE AND BACON.

1868.

REPORT.

To His EXCELLENCY, F. F. Low,

Governor of California :

SIR — As required by law, the "Commissioners to Manage the
Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove " beg leave to submit
the following report :

The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States,
by an Act approved June 30, 1864, granted to the State of Califor
nia, on certain stipulated conditions, the Yosemite Valley and the
Mariposa Grove of Big Trees ; and, by an Act of its Legislature, the
State accepted the same and pledged itself to the fulfillment of these
conditions. In the language of the Act of Congress, the grant was
accepted " on the express conditions that the premises shall be held
for public use, resort and recreation, and shall be inalienable for all
time." It was also stipulated by Congress that the management of
the premises thu^ granted should be in the hands of nine Commis
sioners, of whom the Governor of the State should be one, and who
should also have the power to fill vacancies in the Board caused
either by death, removal or resignation. To the Governor was also
confided by Congress the power of appointing his eight associates,
the first Commissioners, and this was done by Executive proclama
tion, dated September 28, 1864. The Commissioners first appointed
were F. Law Olmsted, J. D. Whitney, William Ashburner, I. W.
Raymond, E. S. Holden, Alexander Deering, George W. Coulter and
Galen Clark, all of whom continue in office, with the exception of
Mr. Olmsted, who has returned to the East and resigned his place,
which has been filled by the appointment of Henry W. Cleaveland of
San Francisco.

The surveys necessary to establish the boundaries of the grants
in question, as required by the Act of Congress, were duly made in

the autumn of 1864, by King and Gardner, their notes filed in the
office of the United States Surveyor-General of California, and the
official plat of the same has been forwarded to Washington and ac
cepted by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and this
plat is, in the language of the Act of Congress, the evidence of the
locus, extent and limits of the grants of the Valley and the Grove.
A map of the Yosemite Valley was drawn by Mr. Gardner, on a
scale of two inches to one mile, showing the boundaries of the Yo
semite Valley grant and the topography of its immediate vicinity.
This map is now in the archives of the Commission, and has been
loaned by them to the Geological Survey to be engraved for use in
the publication authorized by the Legislature, of which some account
will be given further on in this report. For the payment of King
and Gardner, for the surveys necessary to establish the boundaries
of the grant, an appropriation was made by the last Legislature.

At the first meeting of the Legislature of California after the pas
sage of the Act of Congress making the grant to the State of the Yo
semite Valley and Big Tree Grove, an Act was passed accepting the
grant on the stipulated conditions, confirming the appointment of
the Commissioners, organizing them into a body for legal purposes
and empowering them to make regulations and by-laws for their own
government. The Act of the ' Legislature also contained provisions
making it a penal offense to commit depredations on the premises,
and other sections in regard to further surveys in and about the
Valley and the Grove. It also appropriated $2,000 for carrying out
the purposes of the Act, authorizing the appointment of a Guardian,
whose salary should not exceed $500 per annum.

Soon after the passage of the Act of the Legislature accepting the
grant, and providing for the organization of the Commissioners, they
met, at the call of the Governor, and organized themselves by the ap
pointment of a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer,
and an Executive Committee. They also adopted a set of 'by-laws for
their own government, a copy of which is attached to this report.
Copies of all the other official documents cited above will also be
found printed with the by-laws for convenient reference. The Com
missioners furthermore appointed one of their number, Galen Clark,
residing at Clark's ranch, near the Big Tree Grove, guardian of the
grove and valley, fixing his salary at the maximum allowed by law,
namely, $500 per annum.

As by far the largest amount of work done in and about the valley,
in consequence of the Act of the Legislature, has been executed by

the Geological Surveying Corps, reference will first be made to this
branch of the subject

By Section 5 of the Act of the Legislature accepting the grant of
Congress, the State Geologist was authorized to make further explora
tions on the grants and in the adjacent region of the Sierra Nevada,
for the purpose of preparing a full description of the country, with
maps and illustrations, to be published and sold as other works issued
by the Geological Survey are, namely, for the benefit of the Common
School Fund of the State.

As early in^&6g as the season would permit, a party was organized
by the State Geologist for the purpose of making a detailed geograph
ical and geological survey of the region of the high Sierra adjacent
to the Yosemite Valley. This party consisted of C. King, J. T. Gard
ner, H. N. Bolander, and C. R. Brinley, with two men employed to
pack and cook. They commenced work early in June, and continued
in the field until the latter end of October, being accompanied by the
State Geologist during a portion of the time. Owing to unavoidable
causes, this party was obliged to return from the field before the work
was completed. But enough had been done to enable Mr. Gardner
to commence and partly finish a map, and the following plan of pub
lication was determined on by the State Geologist.

The work will consist of text, maps, and photographic and other
illustrations, and two editions will be issued — one without photo
graphs, the other with them. One will be called the "Yosemite
Guide Book," the other the " Yosemite Gift Book." The Guide Book
will contain the text of the Gift Book and the same maps, but the
photographic illustrations will be omitted. The text will be such as
will be suitable for a complete and thorough guide, or hand-book, to
the Valley and its surroundings, including the high Sierra, and, in
general, the region between Mariposa and Big Oak Flat on the west,
and the head of the San Joaquin and Mono Lake on the east. The
map of the region thus designated is drawn on a scale of two miles
to one inch, and is thirty inches by twenty in size. It contains all
the minute details of the topography of one of the most elevated and
roughest portions of the State, and is the first accurate map of any
high mountain region ever prepared in the United States.

The surveys for the completion of this map were continued during
the months of August and September of the present year, by a party
of the Geological Survey, in charge of C. F. Hoffmann, and the work
is now complete, and the map ready for the engravers. The photo
graphic illustrations, twenty-four in number, made by C. E. Watkins,

with the Dallmeyer lens of the Survey, are also all printed and deliv
ered, and the work can be put to press as soon as the State Geolo
gist has time to attend to it. It is believed that it will be one of the
most elegant books ever issued from an American press, and that it
will have no little influence in drawing attention to the stupendous
scenery of the Yosemite and its vicinity.

Mr. Hoffmann and party also made a careful survey of the bottom
of the valley, including all the land within the talus or debris fallen
from the walls, and this work has been plotted on a scale of ten
chains to one inch, making a map fifty inches by thirty in size, with
the number of acres in each tract of meadow, timber and fern land
designated upon it, and also the boundaries of the claims of the set
tlers in the valley, and the number of acres inclosed and claimed by
them. This map was found to be necessary for the purposes of the
Commission, and an appropriation will be asked for to pay the ex
pense of the survey and of preparing the map.

The principal grove of trees in the Big Tree Grant has also been
carefully surveyed by the State Geologist, assisted by Hoffmann, each
tree of over one foot in diameter measured, and the height of a num
ber of them accurately determined. There are in the main grove,
of trees over one foot in diameter (that is, of the Big Trees or Sequoia
gigantea\ just three hundred and sixty-five, besides a great num
ber of smaller ones. The trees thus measured have been plotted
and numbered, so that their exact position and size relative to each
other can be seen at a glance.

The Commissioners, seconded by the Geological Survey, have
thus done all that is for the present requisite toward obtaining all
the necessary statistical data in regard to the valley and grove, and
for making this information public in an attractive form. It may be
added that the Yosemite Guide-book and the Yosemite Gift-book
will both be sold, as are other publications of the survey, and the
proceeds paid into the treasury of State, for the benefit of the Com
mon School Fund.

One of the important duties of the Commissioners is the care of the
valley and grove, so as to secure them and their surroundings from
devastation by fire, and from wanton injury by cutting down trees
and defacing natural objects. The care of the Guardian has pre
vented fires from running in the Big Tree Grove, and to a consider
able extent has protected the Valley from wanton injury. There
have been instances, however, of the felling or mutilation of con
spicuous and beautiful trees, which instances were not discovered

until after the offenders had left the valley and were far away from
the place where the mischief was done. It is considered necessary
by the Commissioners that there should be a Guardian and sub-
Guardian, one or the other — during the season of visitors at least —
always in or about the Valley and Big Tree Grove, in order to bring
about entire safety and security that wanton damages will not be
inflicted. It is also necessary that the Guardian and sub-Guardian
should be endowed by the State with police or constabulary authority,
so that offenders may be arrested on the spot where the mischief is
done, as otherwise it will be entirely impossible for the Commis
sioners to answer for the safety of the property committed to their
charge. The localities are so distant from the county-seat or resi
dence of a magistrate, that it would be impossible for the Guardian,
unless this change is made, to obtain a warrant for the arrest of the
offenders and get back to the place where the offense was committed,
until long after the offenders had left the valley.

Aside from wanton trespassers in the valley, there are other per
sons residing there to whose cases we will now direct attention.
And, in order to understand the position of the parties in question,
it will be necessary to go back and make a brief statement of the
history of the discovery and settlement of the valley, which we will
now proceed to do, relying on information furnished by persons who
have been acquainted with the region since it was first explored by
white men.

The Yosemite Valley was first discovered and entered by white
men in March, 1852, and by a party commanded by Captain John
Boling ; this party was in pursuit of Indians, for the purpose of tak
ing them to the Reservation on the Fresno. During the same year
a party of miners came into the valley and were attacked by the In
dians, and two of the whites killed. They were buried near the
Bridal Veil Meadow. Some persons connected with Captain Bol-
ing's party communicated to the newspapers an account of the
wonders of the valley, and especially of the Yosemite Fall, which
was described as being " more than a thousand feet high." This
notice meeting the eye of J. M. Hutchings, at that time engaged in
collecting materials for 'the California Magazine, to illustrate the
scenery of this State, he collected a party and made the first regular
tourist's visit to the valley in the summer of 1855. This party was
followed the same year by another from Mariposa, consisting of six
teen or eighteen persons. The next year (1856) the regular travel
commenced, and the trail on the Mariposa side of the valley, from

8

White & Hatch's, was opened by Mann Brothers, at a cost of about
$700. This trail was purchased in 1859 by the citizens of Mariposa
County and made free. The sum paid was $200.

The first house was built in the Yosemite Valley, nearly opposite
the Yosemite Fall, in the autumn of 1856; this is still standing, and
has been usually known as the Lower Hotel. At the locality about
half a mile farther up the valley, and now known as " Hutchings's
Yosemite Hotel," a canvass house was built by G. A. Kite, in the
spring of 1857, and in the spring of the next year the present house
was built by Hite & Beardsley. They kept it as a public house that
season, and it afterwards passed into the hands of Sullivan & Cash-
man, for debt. It was kept 1859-61 by Peck, then by Longhurst,
and from 1864 by Hutchings, who came to the valley in the spring
of that year, having purchased, or made arrangements to purchase,
the house of Sullivan & Cashman. The claim, however, as far as
the land is concerned, is supposed to have been the property of Hite
& Beardsley, at least as much their property as a claim of that kind
on unsurveyed land, and in that residence, could be that of any per
son. In the spring of 1857, Cunningham & Beardsley had a store
house and shop a little above the present Hutchings' Hotel. The
lower hotel was kept by John Neal in 1857, and by Cunningham
from 1858 to 1861. In 1862-3 it was not occupied except by oc
casional stragglers. For the past three or four years it has been
occupied by G. F. Leidig. j . C. Lamon took possession of the
upper end of the valley, above Hutchings's, in 1860, and has con
tinued to reside there since that time, being the only permanent
resident in the valley prior to 1864.

At the time the Governor's proclamation was issued, namely,
September 28, 1864, the persons residing in the valley and claiming
rights there were J. C. Lamon and J. M. Hutchings. Ira B. Folsom
also claimed to own the ferry across the Merced, and the ladders by
which access is had to the summit of the Vernal Fall. There were
probably other and conflicting claims to houses and land in the Val
ley ; but, if such existed, the Commissioners have never been officially
notified of them, nor would it have been in^ their power to recognize
them, or to decide between them.

The claim of Lamon, as defined by himself and limited by his
fences, occupies the upper part of the valley, at the junction of the
Tenaya Fork with the main Merced River, and comprises 378.76
aqres, of which about 149 acres are good meadow land, the re
mainder being chiefly a strong soil, covered with ferns to a consider-

able extent, and requiring a large amount of labor to reduce it to
cultivation. Lam on has cleared and subdued about twenty acres,
and planted a large number of fruit trees, and has been especially
successful in raising berries of several kinds — especially strawberries,
raspberries, and blackberries — which have found a ready market in
the valley among the visitors. There is no question that Lamon
would have had a clear claim as a preemptionist under the United
States laws, had this been ordinary surveyed land, or provided he
had remained upon it until it was surveyed and sold, supposing it to
have followed the usual course of United States surveyed lands. In
view of the position of Lamon's claim, which is so situated that his
buildings are not at all conspicuous in the valley, and of the useful
character of the work done by him, the Commissioners did not hesi
tate in offering him the greatest privilege it was in their power to
grant, namely — a lease of his premises for the term of ten years, at
the nominal rent of $i per annum.

Hutchings's improvements consist of a small log house and a large
barn and shed, with a garden and orchard, on the north side of the
Merced, as well as the hotel on the south side, said to have been
purchased of Sullivan & Cashman. Hutchings has resided perma
nently in the valley since the spring of 1864, but most of, if not all
his improvements have been made since the Governor's proclamation
was issued taking possession of the valley in the name of the State.
It is fair to say, however, that Hutchings's improvements have been
made with an eye to the preservation of the beauty of the valley
unimpaired, so far as was consistent with his ideas of the amount of
stock necessary to be kept for the use of the hotel. Hutchings's claim
embraces 118.63 acres, chiefly of the best meadow land, and the
best, or one of the best, sites for building in the valley. Consider
ing the fact of Hutchings's long residence in this place, and of his
evident desire to effect his improvements without injury to the pic
turesque appearance of his surroundings, and taking into view the
small number of persons who up to this time have visited the Yo-
semite — so that keeping a public house has not been nor is likely
for some time to be a matter of profit,* the Commissioners were dis-

* The largest number of visitors to the Yosemite was in 1866, when probably
between six hundred and seven hundred persons were there, the number having
been nearly double that of the previous year. In 1867 there were probably not
more than four hundred and fifty persons in the valley. These numbers include
persons camping as well as those stopping at the hotels. The causes of the
smaller number of visitors during this year are supposed to be — first, the late-

IO

posed to be as liberal to him as the powers intrusted to them would
permit. They therefore offered him a lease for ten years of 160 acres
of land, including the hotel and house, at a nominal rent. Hutch-
ings, however, believing that he has a legal claim to a fee simple of
the land occupied by himself, refused to accept a lease or to acknowl
edge the authority of the Commissioners, as did also Lamon. There
has been, therefore, no alternative for the Commissioners, and they
have commenced legal proceedings against both these gentlemen as
trespassers, with the view of having the question decided (about
which there seems to be no reasonable doubt) whether the State
really is the proprietor of the grant made by Congress, or, in short,
whether the United States have authority to dispose of the unsur-
veyed and unsold public land. It is not the desire of the Commis
sioners to put Lamon and Hutchings to any greater expense than is
absolutely necessary to establish the validity of the claim of the
State, and they regret that the necessity for legal action should have
arisen.

The claim of Folsorh to the ferry and ladders will be noticed, after
speaking of the improvements made in the valley by the Commis
sioners, from the funds appropriated by the last Legislature. And
this leads us to consider next "the approaches to the Yosemite and
the Big Trees, the trails and roads leading to the grants, and the
facilities for visiting these places.

The Yosemite Valley is situated nearly due east from San Fran
cisco, and distant in a direct line about 155 miles, but by the route
usually traveled — via Stockton — it is about 260 miles. The main
Merced River runs through the Valley, and access to it is therefore
possible from both sides of the river. Not, however, by following
up the river itself, as would naturally be supposed. This would be
extremely difficult, if not impossible, as the river runs, for many
miles below the Yosemite, through a narrow canon with precipitous
walls. To enter the Valley, therefore, it is necessary to rise fully
3,000 feet above it, and then to descend again, a practicable trail
having been constructed from the north and south down its precip
itous sides at the lower end. On the north side, the traveller may
start from Big Oak Flat, or Coulterville, the latter being of late
years the point usually selected.

ness of the season, the snow not having left the trail until late in June ; sec
ond, the fact that nearly all the pleasure travel of the country has been attracted
to Paris by the Exposition ; and lastly, the general stagnation of business at the
East.

II

Although there is a waggon-road from Coulterville as far as Black's
seventeen miles, travellers generally start from the first-named place
on horseback, ride seventeen miles, and stop at Black's over night,
and the next day ride into the Valley, the total distance being forty-
nine miles, of which seventeen are made the first day and thirty-two
the second. The hotels in the Valley being both on the south side
of the Merced, travellers arriving from Coulterville, until recently,
had to cross by a ferry after descending into the Valley, as it is only
rarely, and then very late in the season, that the river can be lorded.
This, the ferry noticed above, is claimed by Mr. Folsom, and is situ
ated three-quarters of a mile below the lower hotel. It is possible,
however, to ride up the Valley on the north side of the river, and
cross at a bridge directly opposite Hutchings's hotel ; but a portion
of the trail is apt to be boggy and another part is very rocky, there
being much the best ground for a road on the other side. To avoid
the delay of the ferry, therefore, and to make it possible for visitors
to ride entirely around the Valley, the Commissioners have had a
substantial bridge erected at the foot of the Bridal Veil Meadow, not
far from the place where the trail descends from the north. This
will enable travellers to make the tour of the Valley, after the trail on
the north side has been put in good order, and early in the season,
when that side is boggy, to avoid inconvenience, arid also to avoid
the delay and expense of the ferry.

The Commissioners have also expended a small amount on the
improvement of the trail from the Valley up the canon of the Mer
ced to the Vernal Fall, so that visitors can ride nearly to the foot of
this fall, thus rendering a visit to this interesting portion of the Yo-
semite much easier than it has formerly been. They have also
placed a bridge across the river above the Vernal Fall, making the trip
to the summit of the Nevada Fall a matter of no great difficulty, this
having been an extremely long and fatiguing trip before the bridge
was built. The same bridge gives access to new and admirable
views of the Nevada Fall and also to Mount Broderick, or the Cap
of Liberty, and is, on the whole, a quite important addition to the
convenience of travellers.

The building of the bridge at the lower end of the Valley does
away with the necessity for a ferry, and the convenience of the public
requires that a set of steps, or staircase, shall be erected at the Ver
nal Fall, in place of the present ladders, which are awkward j and
perhaps even dangerous, for ladies to climb. The Commissioners
propose, therefore, next year, to place a convenient and commodious

12

staircase near the present ladders, leading by an easy and safe ascent
to the top of the fall.

Since the Valley came into the hands of the State but little has
been done to improve the means of access to it from either the
Coulterville or the Mariposa side. From Mariposa there is a waggon-
road as far as White & Hatch's, and indeed some two miles farther,
but persons usually take horses at Bear Valley or Mariposa. Last
season, however, arrangements were made so that travellers could be
driven to White & Hatch's, riding from there to Clark's the same
day, if desired ; the trail between these two last mentioned places
is very good, so that it is not difficult for moderately good riders to
make the trip from Mariposa to the Yosemite in two days, or in
three, if one day be allowed for visiting the Big Trees, four miles
from Clark's ranch.

The best method, undoubtedly, to see the Yosemite Valley and the
Big Tree Grove, is for the traveller to make the round trip, starting
from Coulterville and returning to Mariposa, or vice versa. The
accommodations are good at Black's, on the Coulterville side, and
at (Clark's, on the other side, and these are the usual stopping places
on the way in and out of the Valley. But as Black's is only seven
teen miles from Coulterville, the distance is quite unequally divided
on that side by the Half-way House, so that one day's ride is quite
fatiguing, being about thirty-two miles. This may be avoided, how
ever, by establishing a public house at Deer Flat and straightening
the road, which now is extremely circuitous, the distance from Coul
terville to Deer Flat being only a little over twelve miles in a direct
line, while it is nearly double that by the present trail.

The trail on the Coultervile side passes the Bower Cave, a curios
ity well worth seeing ; while on the Mariposa side the views from
the trail descending into the Valley are sublime, and such as cannot
be obtained from any other points. It is for the traveller to decide
whether he prefers getting these grand general views of the Valley
after he has already been there, or on his way into it. If he
wishes to have the whole grandeur of the Yosemite revealed to him
at once, he will enter the Valley on the Mariposa side j if, on the
other hand, he prefers to see the various points in succession, one
after another, and then finally, as he leaves the Valley, to have these
glorious general views as a kind of summing up of the whole, he will
enter by the Coulterville and depart by the Mariposa side. In that
case much the hardest day's work will be the second, or the ride from
Black's into the Valley.

13

A waggon-road can be made without much difficulty from Black's
to the edge of the Valley ; but to construct one into the Valley, down
the cliffs on that side, would be extremely difficult and expensive, if
indeed possible at all. On the south side a waggon-road can be
made into the Valley, but the expense would be very considerable —
probably not less than $30,000. A considerable saving of time and
labor, for those not accustomed to riding horseback, could be made
by continuing the waggon-road from White & Hatch's to Clark's,
which could, probably, be done in good shape, for about $10,000.

The Commissioners do not, however, consider it any part of their
duty to improve the approaches to the Valley or Big Trees. This
may safely be left to the competition of the counties, towns and indi
viduals interested in securing the travel. A small expenditure on
either side will bring the Yosemite to within one day's easy ride on
horseback — that is to say, easy for persons somewhat accustomed to
mountain travel. And when a waggon-road shall have been extended
from Coulterville to the brow of the Valley on that side, and to
Clark's on the other, the trip need no longer be one which will over-
fatigue travellers in ordinary health, provided they do not attempt to
make the journey in the smallest possible number of days, thus
sacrificing everything to the single idea of getting through the jour
ney rapidly.

In the Valley, the Commissioners are desirous of continuing the
work begun by them, of making all the most interesting points as
accessible as possible, and of removing all obstacles to free circula
tion. The road around the Valley requires improving ; the trail to
the Vernal Fall needs some additional work to make it secure ; a
bridge must be built over the Illiluette fork, and a stair-case up the
Vernal Fall. A bridge across the Merced at the upper end of the
Valley, and one across the Tenaya Fork, are also desirable, and the
Commissioners recommend an appropriation of $1,200 to enable
them to effect these improvements during the next two years.

The following is a summary of the above report :

1. The Commissioners propose to leave the improvement of the
roads to the Big Trees and the Yosemite Valley to parties interested
in increasing the amount of travel on either of the rival routes.

2. They desire to continue, on a moderate scale, the improve
ments in and about the Valley itself, for the purpose of rendering
interesting points more accessible, and to remove all charges on
visitors for trails, bridges, ladders, ferries, etc. For this purpose they

14

ask an appropriation of $1,200, or $600 for each of the next two
years.

3. They propose to increase the salary of the Guardian so that he
may pay an Assistant Guardian, and in order that one or the other
of them may remain permanently in the Valley during the season of
visitors. For this they ask authority and an appropriation of $2,000,
or $1,000 per annum.

4. They also ask for $800 to pay the necessary expenses incurred
by them in preparing a plat and survey of the* claims in the Valley,
which has been found indispensable.

5. They intend to continue the legal investigation of the claims
of the settlers in the Valley until the highest Court of law has de
cided on their value.

6. They leave it to the Legislature to say whether any remuner
ation shall be made to the settlers, Lamon and Hutchings, for dam
ages done them by the action of Congress and the State in taking
possession of the Valley.

7. They ask that police authority be given to the Guardian and
sub-Guardian of the Yosemite Valley, so that offenders may be ar
rested at once, without the necessity of taking out a warrant at a
place sixty miles distant from the spot where the offense was com
mitted.

8. They ask for $1,000 to pay the necessary travelling expenses
of the Commissioners and all other incidental expenses during the
next two years.

Summary of appropriations asked for: For surveys of claims
and plot of Valley, $800; for improvements in Valley, $1,200; for
pay of Guardian and assistant, $2,000; for travelling and incidental
expenses, $1,000: total, $5,000. The above is the smallest sum
with which the business of the Commission can be carried on for
the next two years.

The above is respectfully submitted, by order of the Board, to
gether with the Treasurer's account of expenditures, as required by
law.

J. D. WHITNEY,
Chairman of Executive Committee.

SAN FRANCISCO, November 14, 1867.

I1 Ml VERS1TY ?

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