346 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912, 



Another reason for the large number of State grants for geologic 

 work lay in the ' general westward movement of population from 

 the Atlantic States. Tliis had a twofold effect on geologic surveys. 

 First, it gave rise to a demand for information about the new lands, 

 and second, it put the older States on their mettle to hold their popu- 

 lation. So rapid was the westward movement that the Atlantic 

 States became alarmed for their future. In 1815 and 1816 the legis- 

 latures of both North CaroHna and Virginia appointed committees to 

 devise means for checking the drain on their population. Tliis was 

 unquestionably the motive in estabhsliing many of the Eastern State 

 surveys and in directing their activities toward agricultural problems. 



Meanwhile the Federal Goveimnent had undertaken the inves- 

 tigation of the resources of the unorganized western Territories. 

 The chief purpose seems to have been a classification of the public 

 lands — a work which was to be interrupted for over half a century 

 and then resumed as the proper function of Federal geologists. 



According to Dr. MerrilP the first epoch of State surveys declined 

 even more rapidly than it arose, due largely to the financial crisis 

 of 1837. An era of promotion, inflation, and straining of State 

 credits to their uttermost, accompanied by a waste of the borrowed 

 millions and the lack of an}^ sound Federal financial policy, resulted 

 in a money panic, the collapse of many ill-advised enterprises, the 

 repudiation of their public debts by several of the States, and a 

 widespread commercial depression. It is no wonder that, under 

 these conditions, geologic surveys were regarded as luxuries that 

 might well be spared; particularly since these first governmental 

 surveys, it must be admitted, hardly justified themselves from the 

 standpoint of practical results. This fact does not detract from 

 the credit due the pioneer geologists who carried on these surveys 

 under almost insuperable difficulties. They learned much about 

 areal distribution of the larger geologic units, but most of the investi- 

 gations were not detailed enough to yield results of practical value. 

 Moreover, even in that day many geologists were still living in 

 "flat land" — they considered formations in only the two horizontal 

 dimensions ; for while the vertical element was by no means ignored, 

 it was not clearly understood. 



During the decade following the panic, few States had surveys, 

 and no great progi'ess was made in the science beyond the publica- 

 tion of results attained in the previous era. Though the contribu- 

 tions to geologic literature by the class of professional geologists — 

 whose appearance was perhaps the most important result of the 

 activity of the previous decade — were not unimportant, yet as a whole 

 both pure and applied science were at a rather low ebb. 



' The extensive use I have mude of "Contributions to the History of American Geologj'," by G. P. 

 Merrill, Washington, 1904, will be evident to all who have read that work. 



