prehistoric and exotic people but also of modern 

 civilized subjects), biology of a great variety of 

 flora and fauna, ecosystems, paleobiology, miner- 

 al sciences, oceanography, history, archeology, 

 conservation, etc. The Smithsonian's Tropical 

 Research Institute on Barro Colorado Island pub- 

 lishes some 50 papers a year on the flora and 

 fauna of the areaJ'^'' 



The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory is 

 an important center for basic research. It is part 

 of a larger center that is operated jointly with 

 Harvard University. Much of the research at the 

 headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., is in the field 

 of x-ray astronomy; for this work the Observato- 

 ry uses satellite data collectors. The first of these 

 satellites, Uhuru, has collected a large amount of 

 data of such interest that the third Uhuru atlas is 

 claimed to have been the most quoted single ref- 

 erence in all scientific literature in one recent 

 year. '98 Jhe fourth atlas, published in 1977, con- 

 tains some 200 x-ray sources, two of which are 

 thought to be superclusters of galaxies in which 

 there is evidence of an enormous mass of gas, 

 giving rise to speculation that this may provide 

 enough mass to give a cosmologically closed univ- 

 erse. 



A new activity at SAO is the Langley-Abbot 

 program, named in honor of the two secretaries 

 who were astrophysicists. This will provide mod- 

 est opportunities for visiting theorists to come to 

 SAO and make use of the enormous store of data 

 on the sun to aid them in their attempts to explain 

 solar phenomena. The radio astronomy of the 

 Center for Astrophysics is primarily a Harvard 

 activity, but SAO is involved in the work at the 

 Mt. Hopkins Observatory near Tucson, Ariz. 

 Facilities here include a 10-meter telescope for 

 gamma-ray astronomy and optical and infrared 

 astronomical telescopes. Of particular significance 

 is a new 4.7-meter optical telescope expected to 

 be available in the spring of 1978. The reflector is 

 made of many panels, all mounted on the same 

 bore system but given mini-adjustments by a la- 

 ser-activated servosystem, the first time this tech- 

 nique has been attempted on such a large scale for 

 such short wave lengths. 



The Department of the Interior 



Early History 



The Department of the Interior is the Nation's 

 principal conservation agency. It is responsible for 



most of our nationally owned lands and natural 

 resources, for American Indian reservation com- 

 munities, and for people who live in island territo- 

 ries under United States administration.'*^ 

 Created in 1849 by act of Congress, it assembled 

 several disparate organizations — the General Land 

 Office transferred from Treasury, the Patent 

 Office transferred from the State Department, the 

 Bureau of Indian Affairs transferred from the War 

 Department, and a new Pension Office established 

 to take over certain functions from the War and 

 Navy Departments. The Secretary of the Interior 

 was given some other responsibilities in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia and he was made responsible for 

 the National Census. 200 Interior's research may be 

 said to have had its foundations in the expeditions 

 and surveys conducted earlier by the Army, and in 

 the later State resource surveys. 



The Land Office and the Census were severely 

 criticized in 1865 for having "the most profound 

 ignorance of everything connected with the sub- 

 ject" (of the management of mineral lands). -Oi 

 However, in 1867 they commissioned Ferdinand 

 Hayden to make a geological survey of Nebraska. 

 He expanded this year by year until it became the 

 Geological and Geographical Survey of the Terri- 

 tories. He did some important work, collected a 

 great deal of data, and published extensively; 

 however, he did not really effectively serve the 

 needs of the mining industry and the land-grant 

 people. The survey cost over $600,000.^0: 



There were concurrent surveys by the Army 

 and by John Wesley Powell. Professor Powell and 

 his students first began exploring the Colorado 

 Rockies under University of Illinois auspices, but 

 with authority from the Army to draw rations for 

 his party in the field. In 1868 and 1869 he did his 

 famous work on the Grand Canyon with the same 

 sort of support, but with specific congressional 

 approval. In 1870. he conducted the Geographical 

 and Topological Survey of the Colorado River of 

 the West; this survey was funded by Congress, 

 ostensibly through the Department of the Interior, 

 but, due to a mixup. the first appropriation for it 

 was given to the Smithsonian. In 1874, it became 

 the Geographical and Geological Survey of the 

 Rocky Mountain Region, under the Department of 

 the Interior. In 1878, the excellent geological 

 work of Powell's staff, Powell's own important 

 work on the 'ndians. and his irrigation studies 

 were published in his "Report on the Lands of 



'''■'Oehserll.pp. 124-126; Smithsonian Vear— /97.')(Smithsoni- 

 ;in Institution Press: Washington, D.C., 1975), pp. 448-450. 



"*Dr. Ricciirdo Giacconi. SAO, communication to NSB 

 staff, January 1977. 



!•« United States Government Manual 1976/77. op. cit. , p. 292. 



200j)epartment of the Interior, America 200, Conservation 

 Yearbook II (GPO: Washington, D.C.. 1976). 



-"'Whitney, J. D., Director of California State Survey, quoted 

 in Dupree, p. 197. 



M-Dupree,pp. 198-199. 



COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND HISTORICAL TRENDS 345 



