206 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



metal and materials for concrete. Although he had no special 

 geologic knowledge himself, he fully appreciated the impor- 

 tance of the maps. At the same time he added that the serv- 

 ices of a geologist would have been most valuable to him. 

 The maps available were very generalized, the locations of 

 contacts were not sufficiently accurate for his needs, and the 

 formations were not sufficiently subdivided. He needed for 

 the sector covered by his defense engineering works a larger 

 scale geologic map which would show accurately the distribu- 

 tion of each formation important from the engineering stand- 

 point. Because of the lack of such a map he had been com- 

 pelled to do a large amount of exploratory work, uncovering 

 outcrops and studying the formations himself until he was 

 sure he had located the proper horizon for a given purpose. 

 All this had cost valuable time, and he felt that it was un- 

 fortunate to have French geologists mobilized for routine mili- 

 tary occupations when their special abilities might have been 

 utilized to save time and energy in important military under- 

 takings. 



Many concrete examples could be cited of the unfortunate 

 consequences resulting from failure to seek geological ad- 

 vice. For sake of illustration I select one from the region of 

 Verdun. At the Cote du Poivre a position was being organ- 

 ized on the back slope of the ridge. The officer in command 

 ordered the construction of dugouts for protection from ar- 

 tillery fire at certain points, basing the selection of these points 

 purely on tactical grounds and without regard to the geological 

 structure of the district. After much loss of valuable time it 

 was found quite impossible to make dugouts suitable for hu- 

 man occupation in the places selected, because of the great 

 volumes of water encountered. The points chosen were lo- 

 cated on a water-bearing horizon. Only 150 yards distant, 

 and in positions equally good from the tactical point of view, 

 the dugouts could have been excavated in a dry, impervious 

 formation. Ignorance of the very simple geological structure 

 of the dissected plateau was responsible for the commission 



