In addition to the ascent of Mount St. Elias, it was part of the original plan of the expedition to make an accurate topographic map of the region explored. It was not, however, for this purpose proposed to divide the party or to deviate much from the most direct route to Mount St. Elias from Yakutat bay. Triangulation of fair precision was provided for. Details were to be filled in by approximate methods. Field-work began June 20 by the careful measurement of a base-line, 3,850 feet in length, near the point of landing, on the northern shore of Yakutat bay. Expansion was readily carried to the foot-hills, and several horizontal angles were taken to an astronomical station of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey at Port Mulgrave. In the region of these initial triangles, work was done from a central camp; and topographic details were fixed with considerable precision by intersection and vertical angles. After the departure of the expedition from the Base Line camp, an accident to the transit made resort to an inferior instrument necessary, and, furthermore, as the region traversed proved to be ill-adapted to, and the line of travel too direct for, the proper development of a narrow belt of triangles, the anticipation of a degree of precision in the triangulation which would give high value to the determinations of position and altitude of the several peaks was not realized; but topographic map work, showing the general features, altitudes and location of the mountain ranges, valleys and glaciers, was extended over about 600 square miles. Within the approximate geometric control, stations were interpolated by the three-point method, and minor locations were multiplied by intersection and connected by sketch. The best meander possible under the circumstances was carried forward on the line of travel by compass directions and estimates of distance from time intervals. The work ceased August 22 with the abandonment of the instruments in a snow-storm of four days' duration on the eastern slope of Mount St. Elias. The accompanying map (a reduction of which forms plate 8, page 75) shows the ice-streams and peculiar mountain topography of a region heretofore unvisited, and constitutes a considerable addition to the geography of Alaska. {196} APPENDIX C. REPORT ON AURIFEROUS SANDS FROM YAKUTAT BAY. BY J. STANLEY-BROWN. Among the specimens obtained by Mr. I. C. Russell during the course of his explorations on and about Mount St. Elias is a bottle of sand procured from the beach on the extreme southern end of Khantaak island, Yakutat bay, and characteristic of the shore material over a large area. This sand was turned over to me for examination, and additional interest was given to its study by the fact that it is from a comparatively uninvestigated region and possesses, perhaps, economic value; for the sample is gold-bearing, and it is said that a "color" can readily be obtained by "panning" at many points on the bay shore.