NATURE 



213 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1879 



AMERICAN SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS 



ATTENTION has frequently been called in these 

 columns to the progress of American exploration. 

 Only a few months ago ' reference was made to the-want 

 of concert among the different surveying expeditions, to 

 the consequent loss of labour and reduplication of work, 

 and to the desirability of consolidating the whole explo- 

 ratory service under one connected organisation. It is 

 satisfactory to know that an important movement in this 

 direction is now in progress, and that Congress has 

 called in to its assistance the advice of the most eminent 

 scientific authorities in the States. 



Readers of Nature may remember that a few years 

 ago (1874) a discussion was raised in Congress as to the 

 alleged repetition of the survey of the same area of 

 territory by independent expeditions, and that a com- 

 mittee of inquiry was appointed to take evidence on the 

 subject and report. The result of that inquiry was a 

 recommendation that the Engineer Department should 

 be restricted to such surveys as might be necessary for 

 military purposes ; but "that all other surveys for geo- 

 graphical, geological, topographic, and scientific purposes 

 should be continued under the direction of the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior." It was easy to see from the 

 evidence given before this Committee that a good deal of 

 personal feeling had been evoked by the conflict of 

 interests among the various surveying corps. The 

 Engineer Bureau, in particular, with its well organised 

 military equipment and its just pride in the large amount 

 of exploratory work it had accomplished, seemed to resent 

 the existence of the civilian expeditions as an infringe- 

 ment of its own proper sphere of operations. We may 

 suppose that it was proportionately chagrined by the 

 decision of the Congress Committee. 



There was thus no great love between the rival sur- 

 veyors in the beginning, and heaven seems to have de- 

 creased it on better acquaintance. With their plotting 

 and counter- plotting, of which there has, no doubt, been 

 plenty, we have of course nothing to do. Last summer 

 the subject came up again before Congress. Representa- 

 tive Hewitt moved a resolution there, referring the ques- 

 tion of the Geological and Geographical Surveys of the 

 Territories for consideration and report by the National 

 Academy of Sciences. It was kno\\-n that double siu^ey- 

 ing had been carried on to a large extent, notwithstanding 

 the information elicited and recommendations given by 

 the Congressional Committee of 1874. One officer, 

 indeed, was alleged to have duplicated surveys to the 

 extent of more than 100,000 square miles, at a cost to 

 the public exchequer of nearly half a million of dollars. 

 The object of the resolution in Congress is said to have 

 been to consolidate the power of the military surveys ; 

 but certainly nothing could be more impartial and sweep- 

 ing than the law passed last June. It was to the follow- 

 ing effect :— " The National Academy of Sciences is 

 hereby required, at their next meeting, to take into con- 

 sideration the methods and expenses of conducting all 

 surveys of a scientific character under the War or Interior 

 Department, and the sur\'eys of the Land Office, and to 



' Nature, vol. x\iii. p. 694. 



Vol. XIX. — No. 480 



report to Congress, as soon thereafter as may be prac- 

 ticable, a plan for surveying and mapping the territories 

 of the United States on such general system as will, in 

 their judgment, secure the best results at the least pos- 

 sible cost ; and also to recommend to Congress a suitable 

 plan for the publication and distribution of the reports, 

 maps, and documents, and other results of said sun^eys." 

 The Academy, in accordance with this requirement, 

 appointed a committee to consider the question. The 

 weight of authority of this Committee may be judged 

 from the names of its members : O. C. Marsh, James D. 

 Dana, William B. Rogers, J. S. Newberry, W. P. Trow- 

 bridge, Simon Newcomb, Alexander Agassiz. The finding 

 arrived at by such a group of men must command respect 

 all over the Union, as it will on this side of the Atlantic. 

 At a meeting of the Academy held in New York on 

 November 6th, the result of the deliberations of the 

 Committee was presented in the shape of a formal report, 

 which, being approved and adopted, was forwarded to 

 the President of the Senate on the 26th of the same 

 month. 



In this Report the various surveys of the public domain 

 are broadly grouped into two divisions : i. Siu-veys of 

 mensuration ; and 2. Surveys of geology and economic 

 resources of the soil. Each of these divisions is discussed 

 somewhat in detail. 



I. Under the first group are included no fewer than 

 five different and independent organisations : i. The 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey. 2. The surveys carried on by 

 the War Department to the west of the looth meridian^ 

 3 and 4. The topographical portion of the work carried 

 on by the two sur\'eys under the Interior Department. 

 5. The survey for land-parcelling under the Land L ffice. 

 Between these various kindred wcrks no concert or co- 

 ordination of any kind exists. In the language of the 

 Report, "their original determinations of position are 

 independent, their systems of surveys discordant, their 

 results show many contradictions, and involve unneces- 

 sary expenditure." On the one hand the geographical 

 reconnaissances of the Engineers and the Interior 

 Department are too sketchy to serve for the subdivision 

 of public lands ; on the other hand, the land-parcelling 

 sur\-eys are of correspondingly slight topographical or 

 geographical value. The National Academy insists that 

 as all these surveys must be based upon accurate deter- 

 minations of position, they can never be effectively and 

 economically conducted until they are united into one 

 system conducted under the same head. On a review of 

 the powers and capabilities of the different survesing 

 staffs, the Academy has come to the conclusion that the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey is, practically, best prepared 

 to undertake the charge of the unified system proposed 

 to be established. It recommends that this survey be 

 transferred from the Treasury to the Departm.ent of the 

 Interior, and that, with its modified and extended func- 

 tions, it should hereafter be known as the United States 

 Coast and Interior Survey, with a Superintendent ap- 

 pointed by" the President, and reporting directly to the 

 Secretary of the Interior. The duties of this branch of 

 the public service, besides those of the present Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey, should include a rigid geodetic 

 survey of the whole public domain ; a topographical 

 survey, including detailed topographical work, as well as 



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