210 



A CENTURY OF SCIENCE 



including half a million dollars from War Department 

 appropriations being spent in the topographic work of 

 the Survey. The corresponding increase in personnel 

 has been from 39, listed in the first report, to 911 holding 

 regular appointments at the present time, divided among 

 the different branches as follows: A scientific force of 

 173 in the Geologic Branch, 169 in the Water Resources 

 Branch, 71 in the Topographic Branch, and 15 in the 

 Land Classification Board, with a clerical force of 168 

 divided among the same branches, and the remainder 

 the technical and clerical employees of the publication 

 and administrative branches. These personnel statistics 

 are not expressive of normal conditions, since a large 

 number of the topographic engineers are commissioned 

 officers and thus are not included on the civilian roll, 

 while, on the other hand, the classification of the stock- 

 raising homestead lands makes the technical force of the 

 Water Resources Branch unusually large this year. 



The primary aim of the Geological Survey is geo- 

 logic, whether directed by authority of law toward 

 the "examination of the geological structure, mineral 

 resources, and products of the national domain," toward 

 the preparation of the authorized "reports upon gen- 

 eral and economic geology and paleontology," of the 

 "geologic map of the United States," or of the "report 

 on the mineral resources of the United States," or 

 toward the "continuation of the investigation of the 

 mineral resources of Alaska" or "chemical and physi- 

 cal researches relating to the geology of the United 

 States." The spirit and the purpose of the Sur- 

 vey's work in all these fields are not believed to have 

 materially changed from those of the founders of the 

 science in America. From time to time too much empha- 

 sis may have appeared to be laid upon applied geology as 

 contrasted with pure science, yet the report of the 

 National Academy to Congress in terms placed the stress 

 upon economic resources and referred to paleontology as 

 "necessarily connected" with general and economic 

 geology. The practical purpose of geologic research 

 under Government auspices must be recognized by the 

 administrator, whether he be the paleontologist like Wai- 



