academy of sciences] SCIENTIFIC RELATIONS 143 



expended. The practical exigency was met in a practical way, and as a result the effectively 

 mapped Appalachian area increased rapidly. A number of years later, when paleontological 

 studies were more advanced, they were given greater application. 



While the work of the Appalachian division was in successful progress, a new task of large 

 importance was laid upon its chief. The growth of the survey necessitated that descriptions 

 of all formations belonging under the chief divisions of the geological time scale in every part 

 of the United States should be gathered from the countless articles and reports in which they 

 were recorded, comprehensively reviewed, and summarized in standard form for ready reference. 

 Hence a series of bulletins, called " Correlation Papers," were begun by various authors under 

 Gilbert's supervision, as will be further told below. But in spite of these added duties, he 

 reported on July 1, 1889: 



The monograph of Lake Bonneville is now complete in manuscript, and will be transmitted in a few days. 



It might be thought that he would have thereupon turned his attention more closely to 

 the Appalachian field, but a very different fate awaited him. The direction of work on the 

 Appalachians was handed over to Willis, and Gilbert was appointed to the new office of "chief 

 geologist" in order to relieve Powell of administrative details; as a result he was withdrawn 

 from nearly all his own studies and held in Washington for three years even more closely than 

 before. 



