Exploring Expedition Research Articles

A Basketmaker II Massacre Revisited

Over 100 years ago, Richard Wetherill and other members of the Hyde Exploring Expedition discovered a massacre site of 96 Basketmakers in Southeastern Utah. A possible scenario is that the massacred were Basketmaker II people who had moved into Southeastern Utah when rainfall was plentiful and conditions were favorable for dry-farming of maize. When a period of dry global cooling began, killing frosts made it difficult to grow maize, and competition to survive became critical resulting in the massacre of the Basketmakers by a competing group.

Pueblo Bonito, by George H. Pepper. Preface by David E. Stuart. University of New Mexico Press, Albu­querque

Pueblo Bonito was originally published in 1920, twenty-five years after the Hyde Exploring Expedition first began work at the site in 1896. The re-issue of this volume, long out-of-print and difficult and expensive to obtain, marks the 1OOth anniversary of the onset of the excavation of Pueblo Bonito. The book is a most welcome addition to the list of historically important works on American archaeology and anthropology that have been reprinted during the last several decades. The University of New Mexico Press is to be com­ mended for undertaking to republish this report, especially at such a reasonable price for the paperback.

Bernhardus (= Pagurus) Armatus Dana, 1851 (Decapoda, Anomura): Replacement of the Neotype By a Rediscovered Syntype

In 1851 and 1852, James Dana described a large number of new crustaceans collected by the United States Exploring Expedition. One of these was Bern hardus armatus, a new species of northern Pacific hermit crab. Many of Dana's type specimens, including the type specimen(s) of B. armatus, were thought lost the great Chicago fire of 1871 (see Evans, 1967), but we here report the dis covery of a syntypic specimen the collections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ). Dana introduced Bernhardus (now Pagurus) armatus (type locality: in freto Tuget' Oregonensi [= Puget Sound, Washington]) a brief latinized descrip tion (1851: 270), and later gave an expanded English description (1852: 442). No illustration of the species appeared until the publication of Dana's Atlas of Crustacea (1855, pi. 27 fig. 2a) and Dana never designated a holotype nor cited an exact number of specimens his type series. Stimpson (1858: 248) syn onymized the species with Eupagurus (now Pagurus) ochotensis (Brandt, 1851), but both Makarov (1938: 202) and McLaughlin (1974: 48) recognized the two species as distinct (see McLaughlin, 1974, for a more complete nomenclatural history). McLaughlin (1974: 57), citing the prior difficulties of separating P. ar matus and P. ochotensis and believing the type(s) to have been lost or destroyed, designated a male specimen (United States National Museum [USNM] 143637 from off Fauntleroy Fry Dock, Puget Sound, Washington) as the neotype for Bernhardus armatus.

At Vulcan's shoulder; James Dwight Dana and the beginnings of planetary volcanology

J. D. Dana was a pioneering American naturalist who put an impressive stamp on four fields-mineralogy, zoology, volcanology, and geology-during a long career. Educated at Yale, the seminal event of his post-graduate education was participation in the United States Exploring Expedition in the Pacific between 1838 and 1842. Observations of atolls, volcanic islands, and active Hawaiian volcanoes, together with insights gained from the charting activities of the expedition, enabled him to make the first synthesis of volcanic action in the Pacific and to formulate the broader doctrines of the contrasts between, and the permanence of, continents and ocean basins, and of the historicity of the Earth. The magnitude of Dana9s contribution must be viewed from the perspective of geological sciences in the early 19th century. At the onset of the Exploring Expedition, direct accounts of volcanic action were scant, the Wernerian neptunist view of the aqueous origin of basalt had only just been laid to rest, most geologists still had no clear conception of how basalts erupted from volcanoes, fossil sequences were only beginning to be understood, and both geological mapping and systematic stratigraphy were in their infancy. Dana had little formal training in geology, but his observational skills were already evident in an early description of flowing lava and fire fountaining at Vesuvius (1835). Wide reading had made him familiar with current concepts of continental geologists. Dana was perhaps the first trained naturalist to observe the fluidal character of erupting basaltic lava, this at Kilauea on Hawaii, and he at once understood how this contrasted with the more viscid attributes of lava at Vesuvius. But he was also able to perceive how basaltic eruptions could build a large volcanic island, and to understand that fluvial action and subsidence eventually could reduce a Hawaii to an eroded volcanic stub, sustained as a land area only by the countergrowth of fringing and barrier reefs. Dana identified the linear arrangements of volcanic chains on the sea floor and established their age progressions using extent of erosion and development of offshore reefs. He predicted the existence of the vast tracts of drowned and deeply submerged atolls, now termed guyots, in the western Pacific, and said where they could be found. Dana the geologist was unreservedly historical, a perspective that reflected his Christian opinion of the human estate as the culmination of Divine creation. The geological past was directed toward this moment no less than recorded human history, with a genuine beginning and substantive changes through time. This view contrasted with the uniformitarian (deistic) opinions of Hutton and especially Lyell, who saw processes repeated through an indeterminant length of time but no pattern of fundamental change. Dana9s North American puritan tradition gave him the optimism that an Earth history could be established by human ingenuity and effort, and it persuaded him to devote all his energies to this end. Dana entered the Pacific seeking broad patterns. The first of these he discerned was the interaction of volcanic action, fluvial erosion, subsidence, and coral growth on the islands he explored, leading to formation of atolls. This provided proof of direction in Earth history and a unifying planetary perspective, focused on volcanology, which was first outlined in Dana9s report on Geology for the Exploring Expedition in 1849. Later, through voluminous writing and years of teaching, Dana carried these views to a position of extraordinary influence and importance for all subsequent geological science.

James Dwight Dana's old tectonics; global contraction under divine direction

The old global tectonics of James Dwight Dana was one of America9s first major contributions to theoretical geology. That theory began with Dana9s experiences in the Pacific on the Wilkes Exploring Expedition (1838-1842), which paralleled closely the experiences of Charles Darwin a few years earlier. He refined Darwin9s hypothesis of oceanic subsidence in 1843 by adding geomorphic evidence of subsidence, differential crustal responses, and variable island ages, and went on to develop a comprehensive global theory during the remainder of his life. Dana accepted the long-standing assumption that the Earth began molten and had contracted as it cooled. Early in his career, he recognized the fundamental geologic difference between continents and ocean basins, which he believed had arisen early in the history of the planet. He inferred that the northwest and northeast trends of many linear island chains, shorelines, and mountain ranges reflected fundamental cleavage lines, which he thought had originated during Archean thermal contraction and continued to influence subsequent evolution of the crust. Because continents were first free from eruptive fires, they must have cooled first and, being very old, must also be permanent. With their active volcanoes and depressed topography, ocean basins must be the chief loci of cooling and contraction. Furthermore, their greater subsidence inevitably causes lateral pressure, folding, and uplift of continental margins to form mountains. The geosyncline was a late refinement from 1873 in response to Hall9s 1857-1859 \"theory of mountains with the mountains left out\" (according to Dana). Contractive pressure buckled the continental margin; a downbuckle or geosynclinal received thick sediment derived by erosion of a complementary upbuckle or geanticlinal. Finally, the whole system failed and became stabilized as an addition to the growing continent while a new geosyncline-geanticline couplet formed oceanward. Dana regarded North America as the perfect, simple example of continental evolution, which \"revealed God9s plan of creation\" better than any other continent, therefore it could instruct the rest of the world. Its margins reflect the northwest and northeast cleavage lines with the oldest Azoic rocks representing the \"first germinant spot\" or nucleus around which the continent had expanded by additions of mountain belts through successive \"vibrations of the crust.\" Thus was born the important concept of continental accession or accretion with \"contraction as the power, under Divine direction, for humanizing the earth.\" Dana9s old global tectonics had profound influence even after thermal contraction lost favor around 1910. First Chamberlin9s gravitational contraction and later thermal convection extended that influence and helped nurture the American resistance to continental drift until the new tectonics appeared in the 1960s.

Lectotypification of some marine red algae described by W. H. Harvey from Japan

SUMMARYMuch of the marine algal material collected during Perry's Japan Expedition of 1852–54 and Rodgers’ North Pacific Exploring Expedition of 1853–56 was sent by Asa Gray of Harvard University to William Henry Harvey (1811–66) of Trinity College, Dublin, for examination. Preliminary accounts were published in 1857 and 1860, but the full descriptions and illustrations intended were never completed for publication. Original specimens collected from Japan during these expeditions are deposited in the Herbarium of Trinity College, University of Dublin, and in the Natural History Museum, London. The red algae are re‐examined and, where necessary, lectotypes are designated. The transfer of Polysiphonia stimpsonii Harvey to Enelittosiphonia is proposed as Enelittosiphonia stimpsonii (Harvey) Kudo et Masuda in Masuda et al. comb. nov. It is concluded that Polysiphonia flabellulata Harvey, which has in recent years been omitted from the Japanese marine algal flora, is an independent, characteristic species with six periaxial cells. Caulacanthus compressus Harvey is reduced to be synonymous with Gloiopeltis complanata (Harvey) Yamada, and Wrangelia tayloriana Tseng is synonymized with Wrangelia tanegana Harvey.

Timeless Journals: Reading Lewis and Clark with Nicholas Biddle's Help

The journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition describe the continental crossing of the first United States Exploring Expedition between 1804 and 1806.1 Under the command of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the explorers followed the Missouri to its source in Montana. They crossed the continental divide at Lemhi Pass hoping to find a short portage to the headwaters of the Columbia River. After the mysterious Wilderness Passage proved to be an illusion, they struggled through the Bitterroot Mountains in northern Idaho and then continued

The Shumards in Texas

Benjamin Franklin Shumard was appointed State Geologist of Texas in 1858. His brother, George Getz Shumard, served as his Assistant State Geologist; both were experienced field geologists. Benjamin Shumard had served in federally sponsored surveys of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa conducted by Dale David Owen, in Oregon and Washington by John Evans, and in the Missouri Geological Survey. George Shumard had accompanied Captain Randolph B. Marcy into Texas on two of his federally sponsored expeditions of exploration (the Pacific Railroad Survey along the 32nd parallel) to drill wells exploring for water east of the Guadalupe Mountains. George Shumard gave most of the fossils he collected to his brother for description and publication. Although the Geological and Agricultural Survey of Texas ended with the Civil War, the Shumards made three principal contributions to the geology of Texas: 1. They advanced the knowledge of the State's Cretaceous rocks, even though they did not recognize the Balcones Fault Zone and arranged part of the section erroneously; 2. They determined that not all mountains in the Southwest were formed around granite cores; and 3. They discovered the marine Permian in Texas.

Edwin Jesse De Haven: the first US Arctic explorer

ABSTRACTEdwin Jesse De Haven (1816–1865) led the first Grinnell expedition in search of the lost British explorer Sir John Franklin in 1850–1851. Since it was the ship's charismatic surgeon, Elisha Kent Kane, who wrote the popular account of the voyage, De Haven's achievements have generally been overlooked. De Haven joined the United States Navy when he was 13 and was master on the ill-fated Peacock during the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842) to the Antarctic under Charles Wilkes. He saw action in the Mexican War in 1848, and was serving under Matthew Fontaine Maury at the Naval Observatory when he was chosen to take command of the first United States Franklin search expedition. He retired from the navy at the age of 46 and died three years later.

Genetic variation and covariation in a population of tetraploid Dactylis L. accessions

Efficient utilization of divergent germ plasm sources in breeding cultivated Dactylis glomerata L. ssp. glomerata Domin depends on knowledge of quantitative variation within and among accessions. This study was undertaken to quantify variation and covariation for forage yield, maturity, disease reaction, and ground cover within a population of tetraploid Dactylis accessions. Variation was observed among families within the population for each variable. Most genetic variation (73%-93% of the family sums of squares) was within country sources or within accessions. Thus, country boundaries, which are traditionally important factors used in defining limits of plant exploration expeditions, have limited expected use in targeting future exploration for specific sources of high yield, disease resistance, or ground cover. Maturity was the exception to this; late-maturing accessions were identified as originating exclusively from the USSR. Some relationships among traits, such as that for yield and disease reaction, differed for accessions and cultivars. Several accessions and families within accessions were identified to have performance superior to most or all cultivars included in this study. Existing germ plasm from several countries was identified to have potential in breeding orchardgrass, while that from other countries appeared to have little or no potential in supplying germ plasm for hay production in humid-temperate environments.

Morphometric and electrophoretic evidences for two species of the genus Liopetrolisthes (crustacea: decapoda: porcellanidae) and some aspects of their variability

1. 1. Four colour forms of the porcellanid commensal crab Liopetrolisthes from Chilean coastal waters were compared by canonical discriminant analysis (DCA) over 10 morphological variables and by horizontal starch gel electrophoresis of 16 enzymes and total proteins with the aim of determining whether they correspond to the single species L. mitra or to different species. 2. 2. The morphometric analysis showed the existence of two morphological groups which were principally discriminated by the dactylus and propodus dimensions of the chelipods. 3. 3. Nine enzymatic systems were successfully tested: α-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase (α-GPDH), malic enzyme (ME), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), phosphoglucose isomerse (PGI), phosphoglucomutase (PGM), glutamate-oxalacetate transaminase (GOT), isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), lactae dehydrogenase (LDH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and total proteins (PT), which gave a total of 16 loci analyzed. 4. 4. The biochemical analysis demonstrated that there were no electrophoretic differences within the two morphological groups discriminated by the DCA. However there was great genetic divergence among them, expressed by eight diagnostic loci and by an unbiased estimate of Nei's [ Gentics, Austin, Texas 89, 583–590 (1978)] genetic distance of 0.979. 5. 5. The magnitude of this divergence and the lack of evidence of gene flow between the two morphological groups, allows us to conclude that Liopetrolisthes shows two valid species. 6. 6. A following study [Weber, Gayana Zool. (in press, 1991)] demonstrated that these two species are L. mitra [Dana, United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838–1842, under the command of Charles Wilkes, U.S.N., Vol. 13, Crustacea, Part 1, p. 685 (1852)] and L. patagonicus [Cunningham, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 27, 465–502 (1871)]. 7. 7. Liopetrolisthes mitra showed a polymorphism of 0.200 and an unbiased observed heterozygosity of 0.089 which are nearly values given for anomurans. Liopetrolisthes patagonicus, which lives on the overexploited sea-urchin Loxechinus albus, showed much reduced variability with a polymorphism of 0.066 and an unbiased mean observed heterozygosity of 0.008, which may be related to the fishing pressure-bottleneck hypothesis.

Sir Joseph Banks et l'envoi des naturalistes dans les explorations anglaises

Sylvie Lacroix : Sir Joseph Banks and Scientific expeditions. Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society for 42 years (1778-1820), ceaselessly sponsored naturalists on naval expeditions of exploration organised by the British government. He had created a model of scientific efficiency, above all in botany, and of cooperation between scientists and Royal Navy sailors when he took part, at his own expense, in Cook's first voyage ; he was accompanied by a team of 8, chosen by himself, which included Dr Solander, a pupil of Linnaeus. The Admiralty, although at first dubious, put him in charge of organisation and then of exploiting the results of all collection of natural science specimens on voyages, in particular those of Flinders and Vancouver. Until his death in 1810 he was seen as the spiritual heir of Cook, and thanks to him the Admiralty never questioned the presence of non-Navy scientists, like Darwin later on, on its ships.

Robert Brown and the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition

Robert Brown, a twenty-one-year-old Scotsman, arrived on Vancouver Island in 1863 for the purpose of collecting seeds, roots, and plants for the Botanical Association of Edinburgh. Relations with his employer quickly deteriorated, however, and when the opportunity arose in 1864 to head the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition, Brown eagerly accepted the position as its commander. During the four and a half months of the expedition, Brown kept a journal which is published here for the first time. It is remarkable for its record of life on Vancouver Island over a century ago and its description of the island's pristine wilderness as well as for its proposals for future economic development. The accounts of agricultural settlements at Cowichan, Chemainus, and Comox and of the coal-mining town of Nanaimo are among the earliest available. The Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition did not venture north of Comox, but it crossed the island at several points, often by new routes, and in the process left its mark by giving place names to several locations. The expedition's most celebrated achievement was the discovery of gold at Leech River, named after the second-in-command, which resulted in a short but sensational gold rush. Robert Brown was exceptionally interested in the way of life of the native people. His entries on land reserve policies and on the failure to settle land claims are especially pertinent today. Excerpts from his related writings, among them one of the earliest records of a potlatch (at Alberni) and a collection of Indian myths and legends display an appreciation unusual at that time. Most of the known drawings of the expedition by Frederick Whymper, the travelling artist, are included in the book and give a contemporary view of many of the sites the expedition encountered. A checklist of Brown's other writings on the northwest coast completes the book.

India-Based Expeditions of Trade and Discovery in the North Pacific in the Late Eighteenth Century

Subsequent to James Cook's third voyage, which advertised the possibilites of a new branch of commerce, merchant adventurers outfitted expeditions of exploration and especially trade to exploit the sea otter resources of the Northwest Coast of North America and to barter with the local Indians. Significant in this avenue of business were the mariners John Mcares and James Strange, based in Calcutta and Bombay respectively. Nine India-based vessels sailed for the Northwest Coast. Gradually the trade's Asian focus shifted to Macao and Canton, as certain corporate interests within the East India Company concentrated their capital and ships at Macao and Canton, closer to the Chinese market for the sale of sea otter skins.

Voyage to the Southern Ocean: The Letters of Lieutenant William Reynolds from the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842

Letters written by a young Navy lieutenant document the experiences of a scientific expedition.

Lincoln's Lee The Life of Samuel Phillips Lee, United States Navy, 1812-1897 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Lincoln's Lee The Life of Samuel Phillips Lee, United States Navy, 1812-1897. By Dudley Taylor Cornish and Virginia Jeans Laas. (Lawrence : The University Press of Kansas, 1986. Pp. xv, 245. $29.95.) Lincoln's Lee is a welcome addition to the still small lexicon of historical biography of the early years of the United States Navy. This wellwritten book is a first-rate study of S. P. Lee, an important but longneglected figure whose career spanned forty-six years, including constant and invaluable service during the Civil War. One wonders why no one had written a biography of Admiral Lee before now? It is this mystery that the authors unravel so successfully. They have mined the rich collection of thousands of personal papers and primary documents in the Blair-Lee collection at Princeton, the National Archives , and the Library of Congress. Cornish and Laas have immersed themselves in this material, as well as in major secondary sources, and they thoroughly know their subject. As a result of this exemplary scholarship S. Phillips Lee emerges as an excellent example of the pre-Civil War naval officer. The poor son of a prominent Virginia family, his grandfather was Richard Henry Lee. Young Phillips Lee obtained a midshipman's appointment at age fourteen through family connections. For the next thirty-five years he served aboard various vessels, learning his profession. In a small navy with a large officer corps where advancement was by seniority only, promotion came slowly. But there were many opportunities for a young officer to experience all his profession had to offer. While still a young man, Lee had already sailed around the world, served in the Wilkes Exploring Expedition and in the Coast Survey, and served with distinction in the Mexican war. Yet with all these accomplishments and a thirty-five year career, Lee was just a naval commander when the Civil War broke out. One advantage Lee did have during those years was his family, namely his inlaws the Blairs, a powerful political family in Washington. In 1843, after a long and stormy courtship, of which her father particularly disapproved, Lee married Elizabeth Blair. Lee soon won over the elder Blair, and for the rest of his life he was a persuasive advoate for his son-in-law at the Navy Department. Blair's lobbying coincided very nicely with Lee's predilection, throughout his career, to ignore proper channels and go over the heads of his superiors to get orders changed. 174CIVIL WAR HISTORY During the early days of the Civil War, Lee came to the favorable attention of Navy Secretary Welles. However, Lee was surprised when Welles chose him, over many other available officers, to command the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in September, 1862, with the rank of acting rear admiral. For the next two years, Lee's squadron did its job with deliberate efficiency. At its height, Lee commanded over one hundred ships which patrolled the thousands of miles of coast, rivers, sounds, and inlets on the Atlantic Coast between southeastern Virginia and the southern boundry of North Carolina. Lee's knowledge of the coast, from his early days with the Coast Survey, along with his good business qualities and untiring appetite for precise and detailed work, made his blockade effective and profitable. Lincoln's Lee is a valuable addition to the scholarship of Civil War naval history, particularly in its rich and detailed work on the longneglected naval blockade, an area whose standard work is still the century -old study by James R. Soley. It is unfortunate that the authors could not have spent more time on the pre-Civil War navy, whose history has been neglected, especially on its struggle to reform and humanize as well as modernize itself. The authors with their focus too firmly set upon Lee, omit or barely mention such important early naval issues as the campaigns to end the practices of flogging and issuing grog, the battle to make officer promotions based on merit rather than seniority, and the rapidly evolving military technology and steam engineering of this era. Some attention to these topics and perhaps less detail on Lee's numerous business and real...

Magnificient Voyagers: The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842

Journal Article Magnificent Voyagers: The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838–1842. Ed. by Herman J. Viola and Carolyn Margolis. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985. 303 pp. Cloth, $35.00; paper, $17.50.) Get access William Stanton William Stanton University of Pittsburgh Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 73, Issue 4, March 1987, Pages 1036–1037, https://doi.org/10.2307/1904102 Published: 01 March 1987

Naturalists of the Pacific Shore: Early Explorer/Naturalists of California1

SYNOPSIS. Soon after the discovery of North America, Spain, Russia, Great Britain, France and slightly later, the United States, vied to exert political control over its Pacific coast. This article details the explorer/naturalists associated with those countries and the observations they made in the time period from 1500 to 1850. Although the principal concern is with observations made in California, some connection is made to Oregon. The paper relates the background of observers, their purposes for being there and the nature of their scientific contributions. Principal individuals mentioned (in chronological order) include: David Douglas (Great Britain–1830), Thomas Nuttall (United States–1834), the U.S. Exploring Expedition (United States–1841), William Gambel (UnitedStates–1841), John C. Fremont (United States–1843), William H. Emory (United States–1847). The account ends in 1850 because that is the year that California achieved statehood and the next two decades mark the origin of local institutions that changed in the way in which natural history observations were supported in California. Institutions begun inthis time period were: the California Academy of Natural Sciences, 1853; the California State Geological Survey, 1860; and the University of California, 1868.

Magnificent Voyage

Journal Article Magnificent voyage: The US Exploring Expedition confirmed the existence of Antarctica and helped establish science as a profession Get access Ellen W. Chu Ellen W. Chu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar BioScience, Volume 36, Issue 4, April 1986, Pages 222–225, https://doi.org/10.2307/1310208 Published: 01 April 1986

Exploration as science: Charles Wilkes and the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838–1842 : Jackson, C.I., 1985. Am. Scient., 73(5):450–461

Exploration as science: Charles Wilkes and the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838–1842 : Jackson, C.I., 1985. Am. Scient., 73(5):450–461