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780 pp. Illustrated with 38 lithographed plates and maps, most duotone but including some chromolithographs, some double-page; plus 3 large folding maps. (4to) 11½x9, original brown cloth.

First volume in Wheeler's massive report on the surveys of the West he directed, with many notable lithographed plates, 3 important maps, etc. "Representing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wheeler surveyed some 361,000 square miles of the southwest between 1869 and 1979...Wheeler's primary objective was to prepare a detailed topographic map of the West. In pursuit of this goal he divided the area of the West into ninety-five 'principal' rectangles, each rectangle comprising 2 degrees 45' minutes of longitude and 1 degree 40' minutes of latitude, to be covered in four atlas sheets." (Schwartz & Ehrenberg, pp. 304-306). Wheeler's survey was the most ambitious of the great post-Civil War surveys of the West, in the area covered and in the breadth of attention paid to the natural sciences.