X CHANCE— BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF J. P. LESLEY. [April o,. 



the work it therefore was essential that reports be made and pub- 

 Hshed each year, that these reports consist of great accumulations of 

 facts describing the occurrence of ores, oils, coals and other valuable 

 deposits in a form useful to the practical miner, and that the deduc- 

 tion of general laws, correlation of geological names, elaboration 

 of geological structure, investigations of deposits of obscure origin 

 and palseontological studies all must be deferred until the survey 

 had been in progress for several years. 



To meet these conditions, Professor Lesley devised the system 

 adhered to throughout the life of the survey of publishing the mate- 

 rial in " Reports of Progress," each report being art octavo volume 

 usually confined to a certain district of county, that data covering 

 any locality could be obtained from a single volume — now a system 

 of recognized merit and since adopted by other governmental surveys. 



In planning the organization and scope of the survey, the board 

 of commissioners extended to him the utmost freedom, conferring 

 upon him power to use his own methods, to select his assistants, to 

 determine what work should and what should not be done, relying 

 upon his judgment and ability to produce the best results at least 

 cost, and standing loyally by him as staunch friends and supporters 

 through all these years. 



Almost immediately after his election he appointed as his prin- 

 cipal assistants, Persifor Frazer, Frederick Prime, Jr., John H. 

 Dewees, Franklin Piatt, J. J. Stevenson, John F. Carll and Andrew 

 Sherwood, geologists, and Dr. F. A. Genth and A. S. McCreath, 

 chemists, each being assigned to a certain district or to special duties, 

 and given one or two younger men as aids. With these as a nucleus, 

 he gradually built up, chiefly by promotion from among* the younger 

 men, a large and efficient corps of trained workers, to whom he ac- 

 corded the greatest latitude, encouraging them to originate, to devise 

 new methods and theories, holding them responsible only that their 

 work be well and accurately done. Probably no public organiza- 

 tion was ever less bound by the red-tape of officialism than this 

 survey corps, whose members he left untrammelled, unhampered, 

 trusting each to do his duty, thus placing each in a position where he 

 was driven to do his best, where he would be ashamed to do less. 



He assumed the editing and proof-reading of nearly every report. 



