No. 21 ] FIFTH BIENNIAL REPORT 2$ 



In a number of states, indeed, Geological Surveys have been 

 organized, prosecuted for a few years, and concluded by the 

 publication of so-called final reports. But there can be no final 

 report on the geology, the botany, or the zoology of any dis- 

 trict of country. In those states whose Geological Surveys have 

 published what have been called final reports, enlightened citi- 

 zens and legislators have sooner or later come to see the neces- 

 sity for organizing a second, and in some cases a third, Survey, 

 and doing the work over again. The sciences of nature are 

 progressive ; new discoveries from time to time put old facts 

 in new relations, and raise new questions whose answer requires 

 new methods of investigation. There are changes also in the arts 

 which depend upon the application of the sciences, as well as in the 

 sciences themselves. New forms of raw material become valuable, 

 new modes of utilizing well-known materials become practicable. 

 On the economic side, as well as on the purely scientific side, 

 arises a necessity that the work of a Survey which had been 

 supposed to be completed should be done over again. 



If a State Survey is recognized as a permanent bureau, it 

 can publish, from time to time, supplementary reports correcting 

 and amplifying its previous work as may be necessary. It can 

 be ready also to give attention to particular investigations which 

 may have a special importance, for economic or other reasons, at 

 some particular time. Moreover, the work of a Geological and 

 Natural History Survey can be carried on much more economic- 

 ally by the plan of small appropriations maintaining a permanent 

 organization, than by the plan of attempting to complete the 

 work in a few years and then doing it over again a generation 

 later. Field work can be done in the summer vacations by college 

 professors, teachers, and others who are willing to do a certain 

 amount of such work for very small compensation. Investigations 

 can be made and bulletins can be written in large degree in odds 

 and ends of time, by men who receive salaries for work in the 

 colleges and schools or in museums and other scientific institutions. 

 Under such conditions men of a high grade of ability and attain- 

 ment are willing to offer for publication the result of their 

 investigations for merely nominal compensation. The amount 

 of valuable material already published, and the amount which is 

 ready or nearly ready for publication, by our Survey, in com- 

 parison with the very small cost, is a striking illustration of the 

 economy of this method of procedure. If, on the other hand, 

 the work of a Survey is to be completed, and final reports pre- 

 sented, in a few years, it is generally necessary that a number of 

 competent men should be employed to give practically their whole 

 time to the work. They must be paid salaries which will justify 

 them in resigning any official positions which they may hold and 



