JOHN WESLEY POWELL. 635 



tion, and a special iiiNcstipitioii was made of tlic water sii])i)ly of the 

 Territory of IJ^tali. 



Of parallel growtli were the surveys (h'xclojxMl under the initiative 

 of Dr. Hayden, Clarenee Kinu-, iiiid Lieutenant AN'lieeler. Theii- func- 

 tions were similar, and witli the exception of the work by Kino-, which 

 had a detinite limit, their ambitions included the exploration and 

 survey of all the western domain of the ITnited States. They thus 

 became rivals, and there was need of reorganization. After luisuc- 

 cessful eii'orts to arrange for the partition of the ti(d(l and fritMidly 

 cooperation between the ditierent corps, Powell advocated their merg- 

 ing into a single bureau of the Interior Department, and it was largely 

 through his initiative that the work ^vas finally reorganized in 1879. 

 The Powell, Hayden, and Wheeler surveys were abolished and the 

 present United States Geological Survey created, Mr. King becoming 

 by presidential appointment its tirst director. At the same time the 

 Bureau of Ethnology was created to carry forward the ethnologic 

 work, and of this Powell l>ecame director. The Geological Survey 

 was made a bureau of the Interior Department, and the Bureau of 

 Ethnology was attached to the Smithsonian Institution. 



The study of water supply in relation to irrigation led to the con- 

 clusion that the land laws of the United States were ill adapted to the 

 conditions obtaining in all the drier portions of the country, and 

 Powell l)ecame nuu-h interested in the legislative problems thus arising. 

 Partly at his instance a conunission was appointed to codify tlie land 

 laws and recommend such modifications as seemed to be re([uired. 

 Powell gave nuu'h of his time for two years to the work of this com- 

 mission, and a comprehensive report was prepai'ed, which, however, 

 led to no legislation. 



In ISSI Mr. King resigned the directorship of the (T(M)logical Sur- 

 vey, and Powell was immediately named as his successor. He retained 

 the direction of the Bureau of Ethnology and conducted both l)ureaus 

 until lS9-i, when he resign(Hl from the Geological Survey. During 

 his administration the work of the Survey was greatly enlarged, espe- 

 cially in its geographic l)ranch, and the investigation of water supply 

 with special referenc(> to utilization for irrigation was added to its 

 functions. 



In the last years of his life Powell ])ractically relinijuished adminis- 

 trative responsibility, intrusting the management of th(> Bureau of 

 Ethnology to his |)rincipal assistant, Mr. McCiee, and de\()ting his 

 time to personal studies, which passed gradually from anthropology 

 into the fields of ps3"chology and general philosophy. 



In summarizing the results of his active life it is not easy to separate 

 the product of his [x'rsonal work from that which he accomplished 

 through the organization of the ^vork of othei's. He was (^xtriMiiely 

 fertile in ideas; so fertile thai it was (juitc impossible' that he slioukl 



