For accurate knowledge and clearly defined statements relating thereto, it was found that the geographic work must be improved, and this has been done by using instruments of greater precision and methods of greater refinement.
The geology of the country has proved to be of much interest. The great faults north of the Colorado have been traced southward, and extensive volcanic formations in that region have been studied. A relief map and a stereogram of the high plateaus of Utah have been constructed for the purpose of a more thorough discussion and illustration of the geologic structure of the district. By these, three important purposes are served. The great accumulation of facts derived from the elaborate system of mensuration used in the geographic work are made available for the determination of geologic structure, the exaggeration and distortion which too often characterize the results of research in this department of investigation are avoided; and the stereogram affords a method of graphically presenting a multiplicity of facts and details that in the texts but serve to obscure the more salient features. Both of these methods have been previously employed in the work with satisfactory results.
Ethnologic researches have been continued among the Utes, Shoshonis, Gosiats, Poncas, Omahas, Iowas, Dakotas, and many other tribes, and much material has been collected relating to their languages, social and governmental institutions, mythology, customs, habits, &c.
During the year the office has been engaged in the construction of a map of the United States, intended to represent the distribution of the various tribes of Indians when they were first discovered by Europeans. This map is near completion and will accompany a report on the classification of the North American Indians, by linguistic affinities, now in course of preparation. Much progress has been made in the preparation of a bibliography of North American linguistics, which will constitute an appendix to the same report.
During the past year the office work has been vigorously prosecuted, and charts, on a scale of four miles to the inch, delineating the geography of the entire region previously embraced in the survey have been completed. The engraving of these charts is rapidly progressing. The drainage and contour lines are finished and the rock and hill work is now in progress. This engraving has been done on copper plates in order that the maps might be put in permanent form for the use of the government in time to come, as well as for the purpose of illustrating the reports of the survey itself. Thus the results of the work will have enduring value.
During the year the following reports have been prepared: Report on the arid lands of the United States, 4°, printed; report on the high plateaus of Utah, 4°; report on the geology of the Black Hills, 4°; report on the Indians of Oregon and Washington Territory, 4°.
Much has been done toward the preparation of subsequent reports on
