RELATION U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY TO PUBLIC 653 



meiit cartographers, for example, in ploration work in this northern out- 

 making the Post Route maps of the post of our country has resulted in 

 Post-office Department, or as bases for maps that have well served the pur- 

 the military maps prepared by the War poses of the prospectors and miners 

 Department. While we know the ex- who have added so much to the Na- 

 ter.t to which the maps are put to a tion's wealth. The literature on Alaska 

 federal use, we can only estimate how of value to mining men is almost wholly 

 largely they are utilized by the engineer of Survey authorship ; yet the explora- 

 in private practice in the great indus- tions represented by these reports and 

 trial enterprises of the day maps have involved an expenditure of 



These maps now possess a degree of less than half a million dollars or only 



accuracy which fits them to serve the one-half of one per cent, of the gold 



general purposes of preliminary sur- output of Alaska for the same period, 



veys, so that the engineer can use them not to mention the increasing produc- 



for the location of railroads, canals, tion of coal and copper. Few taxes are 



highways, trolley lines, or in connec- so light as this. 



tion with planning water supply, sewer- The investigation work of the .Survey 



age, drainage, or irrigation systems, is closely connected with the explora- 



The fact that the sales of these Sur- tions by the field-men. The data col- 



vey maps average over a thousand lected must be studied, whether the.^^c 



sheets every day in the year is evidence are geologic, geographic hydrograpbic, 



of a popular demand, but the measure or technologic : that is, whether they 



of the contribution of these surveys to concern, for instance, ore deposits, 



the public includes more than the ex- mountain passes, waterfalls, or smoke 



tent of map distribution. Over all parts abatement. Many are the lines of in- 



of the country there have been lines of vestigation, and each in its final analy- 



levels run amounting to more than sis is found to be utilitarian. 



200,000 miles, over 8,000 miles be- One of the most important investi- 



ing run last year. Permanent bench gations under the Geological Survey is 



marks are established, 2 100 last that of the water resources of the coun- 



year, as a result of this accurate level- try. The daily flow of streams has 



ing, and these monuments serve the been gaged at over 1,500 points 



public, whether it be the western ranch- throughout the United States for a 



ers planning their irrigation system or period of years, and from these records 



the eastern engineers selecting a pipe- tne public can gain the most authorita- 



line route. tive information available regarding 



Geologic mapping by the Survey the average flow of these rivers. Dur- 



geologists is another branch of explora- ing the past year 630 gaging stations 



tion work, in which not only is the were maintained. 



surface distribution of the rocks and Still another line of activity in scien- 



soils observed and mapped, but also the tific investigation by the Geological 



subjacent formations are studied, to the Survey is its technologic work. The 



end that the published maps may fur- testing of the fuels and structural mate- 



nish the prospector, the mine-operator, rials, of which the Government itself 



or the driller for oil, gas, or water with is so large a consumer, has inaugurated 



reliable information as to what may be investigations which have already 



encountered at hundreds and thousands yielded results of the greatest value 



of feet beneath the surface. Detailed to the public. Time permits mention 



geologic maps covering thousands of only of the general scope of this work, 



square miles are issued each year, and but this is sufficient to indicate its im- 



the issue of such a map of a mining dis- portance. These investigations include 



trict is eagerly awaited by the mining the gas-producer tests which have 



engineers and mine-owners. shown the practicability of utilizing for 



Nowhere has the Survey made a power generation low-grade fuels, such 



better record than in Alaska. Ex- as slack coal, bone, and lignite ; the 



