The Pacific Railroad Surveys (1853–1855) consisted of a series of explorations of the American West to find possible routes for a transcontinental railroad across North America. The expeditions included surveyors, scientists, and artists and resulted in an immense body of data covering at least 400,000 square miles (1,000,000 km2) on the American West. "These volumes... constitute probably the most important single contemporary source of knowledge on Western geography and history and their value is greatly enhanced by the inclusion of many beautiful plates in color of scenery, native inhabitants, fauna and flora of the Western country." Published by the United States War Department from 1855 to 1860, the surveys contained significant material on natural history, including many illustrations of reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals. In addition to describing the route, these surveys also reported on the geology, zoology, botany, paleontology of the land as well as provided ethnographic descriptions of the Native peoples encountered during the surveys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railroad_Surveys
James Graham Cooper (1830 – 1902) was an American surgeon and naturalist.
Cooper was born in New York. He worked for the California Geological Survey (1860–1874) with Josiah Dwight Whitney, William Henry Brewer and Henry Nicholas Bolander. He was primarily a zoologist, but he also made significant botanical collections from San Diego to Fort Mohave, Arizona in 1861. Cooper was active in the California Academy of Sciences, eventually becoming Director of the Museum.
He obtained his medical degree in 1851 and practiced in New York City until 1853. Spencer F. Baird, the Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution at that time, helped Cooper work with the Pacific railroad survey parties working in the Washington Territory. He joined this survey under Captain George McClellan as a surgeon until 1854. In 1855 he visited San Francisco and the Panama Isthmus. He collected many birds during this expedition.
This volume is part of the report of that expedition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Graham_Cooper
For a more complete sketch of the life nd work of Cooper, see:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Condor/1_(1)/Dr._James_G._Cooper
U.S.P.R.R. Exp. & Surveys, California. Re-bound excerpts from the Reports of Explorations and Surveys, To Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River To The Pacific Ocean"
1. Land birds west of the mississippi 2. Birds from Sacramento Valley 3. Ornithology of the 38th and 39th parallel 4. Ornithology of the 40th Parallel"
