I04 RANSOME: NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



character and quantity of material carried in suspension and in 

 solution in river waters, have much geological importance. 

 Such studies supply data for estimating the rate of erosion and 

 sedimentation. They are to be regarded, however, rather as an 

 illustration of the way in which geology overlaps other branches 

 of science and utilizes their results than as reason for considering 

 hydraulic engineering as normally a function of a geological 

 survey. 



FOREIGN MINERAL RESOURCES 



One of the results of the war was to suggest the advantage to 

 the citizens and government of the United States of a central 

 source of information concerning the mineral resources of foreign 

 countries. The United States Geological Survey undertook to 

 gather this information, primarily for the specific purpose of 

 supplying data to the American representatives at the Peace 

 Conference. As the Director of the Survey states in his fortieth 

 annual report : 



"Two general purposes were ser^'ed — first that of obtaining a 

 clear understanding of the relations between our own war needs 

 and the foreign sources of supply from which these needs must 

 or could be met; second, that of obtaining an understanding of 

 the bearing of mineral resources upon the origin and conduct of 

 the war and upon the political and commercial readjustments 

 that would follow the end of hostilities." 



This work, of a kind that so far as known had not been pre- 

 viously undertaken by any national geological survey, has been 

 continued with the view that it is important for those who 

 direct American industries to possess as much information as 

 possible concerning those foreign mineral resources upon which 

 they can draw or against which they must compete. The 

 results aimed at are directly practical and are largely obtained 

 by compilation of available published and unpublished material 

 as it is manifestly impossible to make direct detailed investi- 

 gation of the mineral resources of all foreign countries. Neverthe- 

 less the work appears to fall appropriately within the field of a 



