JOHN WESLEY POWEIJ. DAVIS 



Survey publications with productive geologists, whereby many 

 an isolated worker was kep in touch with the progress of the 

 great national undertaking. The early reports and mono- 

 graphs were, moreover, .of exceptional interest and immedi- 

 ately commanded the admiration of the whole geological world. 

 A sound method of business administration was developed. 

 Powell's detailed account of it before a Joint Commission of 

 Congress in 1885 made a most favorable impression on the 

 majority of the Senators and Representatives who heard him. 

 A full statement of this matter is given in systematic form in 

 the Eighth Annual Report, and a briefer statement 'of the or- 

 ganization of the Survey was communicated to the National 

 Academy in 1884 and printed in the American Journal of 

 Science for February, 1885; but it is the original report 

 of the Joint Commission, an exceptionally interesting public 

 document, published in the form of questions and answers 

 usual in such cases, that best shows Powell's close familiarity 

 with all details of survey work and his remarkable competence 

 in setting forth methods of administration. ) Those who were 

 then members of the Survey will remember how nearly every 

 one was for a time pressed into the work of summarizing the 

 reports of foreign topographical and geological surveys, so 

 that the Director should have precise and detailed information 

 in his hands; his testimony illustrates how ably he used the 

 varied material thus placed at his disposal. 



Powell's third report the Fourth Annual Report of the 

 Survey announces that the congressional act making appro- 

 priations for the Survey for 1882-1883 required the prepara- 

 tion of "a geologic map of the United States;" thus for the 

 first time explicit authority was given for extending the opera- 

 tions of the Survey over the whole country, and therewith im- 

 plicit authority for the preparation of a topographic map as 

 the necessary basis of the geologic mapj Who can say how 

 far Powell himself suggested the use of these highly signifi- 

 cant words! (Reports on topographic work were thereafter 

 placed at the head of the list of administrative statements in 

 the annual reports issued by Powell. The failure of Congress 

 to establish three years before an independent topographic bu- 

 reau was thus repaired, and by a curious combination of cir- 



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