OCR Text |
Show IV REPORT OP THE CHIEF OP ENGINEERS. Seven topographical sheets have been added to the atlas, and a number of others are being completed and in various stages of progress. The edition of colored maps published with the extra copies of the report exhibit the natural resources of the country, and are of value in connection with the settlement of the western region. In the areas given, the land branch of the Government may be able to see at a glance the adaptability of the surface for agriculture or grazing, and the area of timber, position of mines, & c. The special surveys of the Lake Tahoe region, and about the Gomstock mines; the maps from both of which are to be shown on scales larger than those usually employed, will illustrate some of the best topographical efforts of the survey, and prove useful to the mining and lumber interests of that section. The topographical maps which are the main results of the labors of the officers and assistants, and regularly issued as material is collected, are at once available to the War Department for its purposes, and reach the public in the regular course of publication, and through map publishers at home and abroad. The continuation of this useful work in its present satisfactory stage of organization will, it is hoped, commend itself to the favorable con* sideration of Congress. The amounts estimated by Lieutenant Wheeler for the continuation of the survey are recommended, viz: For continuing the geographical survey of the territory of the United States west of the one- hundredth meridian, the supply branches of the War Department assisting as heretofore, being for field and office work, and for the preparation, engraving, and printing of the maps, charts, plates, cuts, photographic plate, and other illustrations for reports; for temporary office- room at points remote from Washington, D. C, and the purchase at nominal rates of sites for field observations, for the fiscal year ending June 30,1877 $ 120,000 00 ( His annual report, with appendixes and estimates, is appended.) ( See Appendix N N.) |