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Show PREFACE. THE writer of the following pages, in the years 1858- 59, was Chief Topographical Engineer of the Army of Utah. While serving in this capacity, he- explored and opened, under the auspices of the War Department, a wagon route from the valley of Great Salt Lake across the Great Basin of Utah, by which he shortened the distance between Great Salt Lake and San Francisco more than two hundred miles. As the features, topographical, geological, and ethnological, of the country explored by him have never been published, he has deemed it due to the public, the army, and himself, that some general account of the same should be presented, and, in con-nection, a history of the explorations of the Great Basin from the earliest records extant. A detailed report of the writer's explorations in Utah, accompanied by sub- reports on the various subjects connected therewith, from some of the most distinguished professors in the country, was submitted to the Government early in 1861; but its publication has never been ordered by Congress. ( 3) |