GOVERNMENT GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS 197 



months he completed his field work and returned to 

 Washington, and on February 17, 1835, his report was 

 transmitted to Congress. Two years earlier Feather- 

 stonhaugh had memorialized Congress for aid in the 

 preparation of a geologic map of the whole territory of 

 the United States, and in connection with this project he 

 suggested that geology as an aid to military engineering 

 should have a place in the curriculum at West Point. 

 This first United States geologist also appears to have 

 combined an appreciation of the practical worth of "the 

 mineral riches of our country, their quality, quantity, 

 and the facility of procuring them," with an interest in 

 the more scientific side of geology, though his hypotheses 

 regarding both economic geology and stratigraphic and 

 structural geology have not won the endorsement of all 

 later workers in the same regions. In all these respects, 

 however, Featherstonhaugh may stand as a fairly good 

 prototype. His contributions to international affairs 

 subsequent to his scientific service to the United States 

 are of interest; he served as one of Her Majesty's com- 

 missioners in the settlement of the Canadian-United 

 States boundary question in 1839-40 and made an exam- 

 ination of the disputed area, and after the settlement of 

 this controversy he was appointed British Consul for the 

 Department of the Seine, France, where in 1848 he per- 

 sonally engineered the escape of Louis Philippe from 

 Havre. 



The Federal geologic work thus started was soon con- 

 tinued in surveys of wider scope and more thorough 

 accomplishment. The position of the Government as the 

 proprietor of mineral lands in the Upper Mississippi 

 Valley led to their examination. These Government 

 lands containing lead had been reserved from sale for 

 lease since 1807, although no leases were issued until 1822. 

 The amount of illegal entry and consequent refusal of 

 smelters and miners to pay royalty after 1834 forced the 

 issue upon the attention of Congress, and in 1839 Presi- 

 dent Van Buren was requested to present to Congress a 

 plan for the sale of the public mineral lands. In carrying 

 out this policy Dr. David Dale Owen was selected to 

 make the necessary survey. 



Owen had served as an assistant on the State Survey 



