278 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Engineer Corps of the Army will, we are persuaded, give way on reflection to 
considerations of the public good. No chief of the civilian surveys will be likely 
to declare himself indispensable, and his pet plan the embodiment by patent right 
of all science.” 112 
The committee on Appropriations of the House of Repre- 
sentatives incorporated the whole plan of the Academy in a 
bill (House Res. 6140) which was duly reported to Congress. 
When the matter came to issue, however, the portion of the plan 
relating to the establishment of a single geological survey under 
the Department of the Interior and the appointment of a com- 
mission to consider the codification of laws relating to the survey 
and disposition of the public domain and other matters was 
approved, while that providing for the consolidation of all 
mensuration work under the Coast Survey was not. The law, 
which forms part of the Sundry Civil Act for the fiscal year end- 
ing June 30, 1880, which was approved March 3, 1879, is as 
follows: 
“For the salary of the Director of the Geological Survey, which office is hereby 
established, under the Interior Department, who shall be appointed by the Presi- 
dent by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, six thousand dollars: 
Provided, That this officer shall have the direction of the Geological Survey, and 
the classification of the public lands and examination of the Geological Structure, 
mineral resources and products of the national domain. ... . And the Geo- 
logical and Geographical Survey of the Territories, and the Geographical and 
Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, under the Department of the 
Interior, and the Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, 
under the War Department, are hereby discontinued, to take effect on the 
thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine. ... . 
“For the expenses of a commission on the codification of existing laws relating 
to the survey and disposition of the public domain, and for other purposes, twenty 
thousand dollars; Provided, That the Commission shall consist of the Commis- 
sioner of the General Land Office, the Director of the United States Geological 
Survey, and three civilians, to be appointed by the President.” . .. . 1% 
*2 The Nation, vol. 28, p. 29, January 9, 1879. “The proposed reforms in our land and 
scientific surveys” (pp. 27-29). 
™ Stat. at Large, vol. 20, p. 394, 45th Congress, 3d Session, chap. 182, 1879. See remarks 
on the debate in Congress, quoted from the Philadelphia Bulletin in Amer. Nat., vol. 13, 
pp. 181-183. 
Clarence King, the first director, was nominated by the President about March 24, 1879; 
was confirmed by the Senate on April 3, 1879, and took the oath of office on May 24. 
