10 Geological Surveys [208 



logical formations combined with vegetable debris or humus ; 

 (3) in determining the magnetic elements of variation, 

 declination, and force so much affected by the underlying 

 rocks, and (4) in the study of the surface and underground 

 waters so largely dependent on the geological structure. In 

 addition to these lines of work the Survey was directly con- 

 cerned in the past in organizing the modern methods of state 

 highway construction which were introduced in 1898, and for 

 ten years thereafter it was the only state agency intrusted with 

 this important service and until the transfer of its Highway 

 Division in 1910 to the newly-organized State Roads Com- 

 mission, on which it also had, by law, influential representa- 

 tion until 1914. During this time the Survey built 150 miles 

 of public highways at an expenditure of nearly $1,500,000, but 

 more than that, developed standards of work and a trained 

 engineering force that today largely control this important 

 public enterprise. 



The Survey has also participated in the re-surveys of many 

 of the state boundaries, including the re-survey of the Mason 

 and Dixon Line, and also of several county boundaries. It 

 has made extensive geological and mineral exhibits at the Buf- 

 falo, Charleston, St. Louis, Jamestown, and San Francisco 

 Expositions, the more important materials then secured being 

 today maintained as a permanent exhibit in the Old Hall of 

 Delegates in the State House at Annapolis. 



Returning now to the strictly geological work of the Survey, 

 I wish to call attention to the fact that some of our official 

 organizations, carried away by the clamor for immediately 

 practical results, are devoting their time much more than in 

 the past to present commercial needs, ignoring the fact that 

 their greatest service to the public is in studying the funda- 

 mental scientific problems furnished by the rocks even when 

 they appear to afford no application to the industries of today. 

 I feel that a Survey that is continually thinking of the practi- 

 cal results it can secure should not have the name of geologi- 

 cal, for I dislike to feel that geology has no higher public 



