CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 215 



carefully adapted to the needs of the military authorities, and 

 the language used was such that persons having no geological 

 training could make use of the information conveyed. That 

 the German geologists served their armies well was abundantly 

 testified to by the Allied army engineers^ who repeatedly re- 

 marked the skill with which the enemy turned surface form 

 and underground structure to his advantage in all his engineer- 

 ing works. 



Nothing has yet been said of the highly valuable services 

 rendered by the geologists of most if not all of the combatant 

 nations, in connection with the great work of mobilizing all the 

 resources of each country in support of the fighting machine. 

 Not only on the War Trade Boards and similar organizations 

 engaged in studying the mineral and other resources of Allied 

 and enemy countries, was the geologist busy, but out in the field, 

 scattered over the plains and in remote mountain valleys, in 

 many a distant corner of the world, geological investigators 

 might have been found seeking new deposits of the type of 

 sand necessary for the best optical glass, of some mineral needed 

 in a new anti-submarine device, or of some other element 

 required in the manufacture of high explosives, poison gas, or 

 any one of a hundred other products essential to a victorious 

 issue from the titanic struggle. In laboratories other geologists 

 were working day and night to test these materials and deter- 

 mine their fitness for various military uses. Still others were 

 examining sites of cantonments, reporting on their water sup- 

 plies, and preparing detailed studies of the geology and topo- 

 graphy for use by those engaged in the task of training a great 

 citizen army. At Washington the United States Geological 

 Survey was placing its equipment, its vast stores of geological 

 data, and its personnel at the country's service, and the Division 

 of Geology and Geography of the National Research Council 

 was organizing and correlating geological war work throughout 

 the country, and keeping in direct touch with the geological 

 needs of the army, thus acting as a clearing-house for geological 

 information of every kind. In other capitals similar service, 



