274 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



agricultural industries." He also advanced the view that the 

 land-parcelling survey should be part of the same organization. 

 He stated that the transcontinental triangulation of the Coast 

 Survey and the barometric observations of the Signal Service 

 could and should be made the basis of further work, but did 

 not indicate how this was to be done. 



On November 6, the committee submitted a unanimous report 

 to the Academy. The report was considered at a special meeting 

 held in New York and after three hours' discussion was adopted 

 with but a single dissenting vote.^"" The President of the Acad- 

 emy thereupon acquainted the principal executive officers of the 

 Government with the recommendations contained in the report, 

 which were favorably received by the President, the General of 

 the Army, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the 

 Treasury and the Superintendent of the Coast Survey. The 

 Chief of Engineers of the Army opposed the plan. On the open- 

 ing of Congress in December the report was transmitted to 

 both houses and by them ordered printed. 



The committee in this report confined its attention to six 

 scientific surveys of the public domain which were then in 

 operation. These were the surveys west of the looth meridian, 

 under the War Department; the U. S. Geological and Geograph- 

 ical Survey of the Territories and the U. S. Geographical 

 and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, under 

 the Department of the Interior; the U. S. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, under the Treasury Department; and the Land Office 

 Surveys, under the Interior Department. It pointed out that 

 the work of these organizations could be summed up under two 

 headings, " i. Surveys of mensuration, 2. Surveys of geology 

 and economic resources of the soil," and its recommendation was 

 that they be recombined to form three distinct organizations. 

 These were to be as follows : " ( i ) The Coast and Interior Sur- 

 vey, whose function will embrace all questions of position and 

 mensuration; (2) the United States Geological Survey, whose 

 function will be the determination of all questions relating to 



""Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. i, p. 152. 



