WORK OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

 IN MAPPING THE RESERVES 



BY 

 CHARLES D. WALCOTT 



Director of the United States Geological Survey 



I HAVE been asked many times during the last seven 

 years how it came about that the Geological 

 Survey was taking part in matters pertaining to the 

 Government forest reserves; and I am glad to have 

 the opportunity to give to this notable Congress some 

 of the reasons for the activity of the Survey in this 

 direction, and to record what has been done by it in 

 surveying and examining the reserves. 



Let me first speak very briefly of the influences and 

 events that led to the Survey's taking up the work 

 assigned to it by the Congress of the United States. 

 Not many years ago one of our leading foresters said 

 that, apparently, the forest policy of the Government 

 had been to get rid of the land and that of the people 

 to get rid of the timber ; but within the last decade the 

 country has awakened to a realization of the vast 

 importance of its woodlands. Perhaps most influential 

 in this awakening were the American Forestry Associ- 

 ation and the Division of Forestry of the Department 

 of Agriculture, under the leadership of Dr. Bernhard 

 E. Fernow. From these organizations there came 

 many reports, essays, and lectures on the subject, and 



