232 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 7 



tories, excellent places to operate seismographs. The Survey there- 

 fore detects, locates, and studies earthquakes for scientific purposes, 

 as well as for practical ends having to do with engineering precau- 

 tions, public safety, and insurance rates. 



The interest and observational skill of the Bureau in geodesy, geo- 

 magnetism, seismology, and some aspects of physical oceanography 

 have led to its selection as the operating agency for substantial por- 

 tions of the United States program for the International Geophysical 

 Year of 1957-58. Field activities of this program will augment those 

 of many other countries joined together for worldwide cooperation 

 in this event, as in the previous two International Polar Years of 

 1882-83 and 1932-33, which provided important scientific advances 

 in geophysics. 



The discovery of gold in Alaska in 1882, and the later Klondike 

 gold rush of 1897, speeded the northern work and started a long and 

 still unfinished story of charting in that remote, austere land. 

 All later Survey officers have had their share of battling what have 

 often seemed to be hopeless odds of weather and terrain. The waters 

 of Alaska, infinitely complicated and strewn almost everywhere with 

 rocks rising out of the depths, have nevertheless great importance in 

 the development of the territorial resources of fish and minerals. Al- 

 most unbelievably dismal, and torn by some of the world's worst 

 weather, the seas and waterways of the territory are nevertheless 

 exquisitely beautiful at times. Every man who has put in his time 

 sounding its channels, surveying its craggy shores, or tracing bound- 

 aries through the muskeg must count it a highlight of his life. 

 The peaks, bays, headlands, and glaciers bear the names of Dall, 

 Mendenliall, Faris, and many other Survey field men. Literally 

 hundreds of places have names betraying the visits of the famous 

 steam launch Cosmos and other survey vessels that spent their years 

 in those waters. 



Much the same can be said of the other great overseas undertaking 

 of the Survey, involving the provision of modern charts for the 

 7,000 islands of the Philippines. Beginning in 1901, this became a 

 routine part of every Survey career — an interlude spent in a tropical 

 wonderland where the weather was almost always good, the scenery 

 lush and beautiful, and where experience was gained apace, despite 

 certain drawbacks of local insurrections, unfriendly natives, tropi- 

 cal heat with pests and fever, and typhoons. Starting from nothing, 

 a basic modern survey was made in 40 years, and a skilled hydro- 

 graphic and geodetic service developed in time to be handed over to 

 the new government of the Republic after World War II. 



When Hassler died in 1843 it is probable that he little realized 

 how enduring his example would be. On this 150th anniversary of 

 his bureau, the realization becomes vivid indeed ! 



