JOHN WESLEY POWEU, DAVIS 



abundantly cited. But it was urged, on the other hand, that 

 our needs would be better served by civil rather than by mili- 

 tary engineers, because the uses of our public domain would 

 be much more largely in the way of peaceful settlement than 

 of warlike campaigns. On this point, as on many others, 

 Powell's opinion seems to have had weight. His view of the 

 entire problem was presented in a letter as a supplement to the 

 report of the Committee of the National Academy; and this 

 letter the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, then a leading member of 

 the House of Representatives, urged all his colleagues to read, 

 because the whole subject of reorganization of the surveys 

 was there "so much better treated than any gentleman on the 

 floor can hope to do." 



The "Geological Survey" was established by an act of Con- 

 gress on March 3, 1879. Although its work was, as noted 

 above, limited to the "public domain," the name "United States 

 Geological Survey" was at once assumed. A Bureau of Eth- 

 nology was created at about the same time, but the duties of 

 the Coast Survey and the Land Office were not changed, and 

 no special provision was made for a topographic survey. It is 

 significant that the law establishing the Geological Survey 

 mentioned the. classification of the public lands before the ex- 

 amination of their geological structure. It is significant also 

 that on account of Powell's active share in bringing the new 

 Survey into existence he refused to be considered a candidate 

 for its directorship. He was appointed instead to the director- 

 ship of the Bureau of Ethnology, and Clarence King, previ- 

 ously chief of*the famous Fortieth Parallel Survey, was ap- 

 pointed Director of the new Geological Survey in March, 

 1879 ; l le resigned two years later on the ground of preferring 

 personal investigation to administration. Powell, believing his 

 duty in the Bureau of Ethnology to be permanent and engross-^ 

 ing, had given up "all thought of continuing his work as a ' 

 geologist ;'' but he was appointed Director of the Geological 

 Survey after King's resignation, while still retaining his other 

 directorship, and returned to geological work in March, 1881, 1 

 with vigor and enthusiasm. 



Many of the activities of the Geological Survey were then 

 for over ten years so characteristic of Powell's method of work 



47 



