NATURE 



381 



THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1875 



SCIENTIFIC SURVEYS 



THE almost universal idea in this country of what 

 constitutes a Scientific Survey goes no further, we 

 believe, than the departments of Topography and Geo- 

 logy, and, as we are a seafaring people, the Hydrography 

 of our coasts. We daresay many of our readers will 

 be surprised to hear that some whose opinions in matters 

 of this kind ought to have great weight, deem any 

 survey totally inadequate which does not, to a greater or 

 less extent, include nearly every department of science. 

 What are the prevalent notions on the subject on the 

 other side of the water, may be learned from a Report 

 just issued on a proposed New Survey of the small State 

 of Massachusetts. 



Last year the American Academy of Art and 

 Sciences presented a memorial to the General Court 

 of the State of Massachusetts, urging the necessity 

 for a new Scientific Survey of the Commonwealth. 

 It is forty years since there was a survey of the State ; 

 that was the first public survey in the United States, 

 and included not only topography and geology, but 

 zoology, botany, and agriculture as well. The bio- 

 logical surveys were so well done that some of the reports 

 are even yet regarded as standard works, but the ad- 

 vances in all departments during the past forty years have 

 been so great, that practically a new survey is required. 



The suggestion of the new survey came appropriately 

 from the principal scientific body of the State, and it is 

 gratifying to sec that the Legislature have such a respect 

 for its opinion as at once to take action upon the suggestion. 

 The memorial of the Academy was referred to the Board 

 of Education, a committee of which took the wise course 

 of calling to their council the most eminent men of 

 science in the State, who could aid them with their advice. 

 The names of most of those who were called in to give 

 the results of their study and experience are known to 

 science all the world over ; they are Professors B. Peirce, 

 N. S. Shaler, and E. N. Horsford ; President Clark, Dr. 

 T. Sterry Hunt, Dr. Asa Gray, Dr. A. S. Packard, Mr. G. 

 B. Emerson (who reported on the trees and shrubs in the 

 former survey), Mr. Alex. Agassiz, Hon. Moses Kimball, 

 Mr. C. F. Adams, Mr. S. H. Scudder, Mr. A. G. Boyden, 

 and Mr. H. F. Walling. 



The Report which has come to hand gives an account 

 of the meeting between these eminent representatives of 

 science, pure and applied, and the committee of the 

 Board of Education. Each one freely expressed his 

 opinion of the desirableness of the proposed survey, showed 

 how it should be conducted so far as his own department 

 was concerned, and pointed out the advantages which 

 would certainly follow from a thorough survey. As might 

 be expected, they are unanimously in favour of the pro- 

 posed undertaking ; and the immense advantages which 

 were shown would accrue from it if carried out thoroughly 

 in all departments, leave the State no alternative but to 

 organise it as early as convenient. 



A special committee from among the men of science 

 named above — Messrs. Peirce, Sterry Hunt, Shaler, and 

 Scudder— in their Report to the Education Committee 

 Vol. XI.— No. "281 



recommend a scale of i : 25000, or 2^ inches to the mile 

 as the scale which ought to be adopted for the survey ; 

 but this they do solely on the score of expense, admitting 

 the superiority of the 6-inch scale. Prof. N. S. Shaler, in 

 an impressive article in the March number of the Atlantic 

 Monthly, strongly advocates the latter scale ; for although 

 the immediate cost would be at least double that of the 

 smaller scale, still in the end it would be more econo- 

 mical ; as, although the smaller scale would serve many 

 useful purposes in the meantime, he declares it would 

 be found that the sur\ey would have to be repeated on 

 the larger scale. We think the State of Massachusetts 

 would be wise to profit by Mr. Shaler's hint, and accom- 

 plish the survey once thoroughly and completely on the 

 larger scale, so that it would never require to be repeated 

 Indeed, the United States have had several lessons on 

 this point ; a considerable number of the States have been 

 surveyed, but the surveys have all been more or less 

 failures ; " there is not a single survey in this country," 

 Prof. Shaler states, " which does not need at the moment 

 to be done over again." 



The practical advantages of topographical and geolo- 

 gical surveys are so evident that it is unnecessary to point 

 them out ; no one, we presume, will deny that it is the inte- 

 rest and duty of every civilised country to obtain a complete 

 and trustworthy knowledge of the extent, configuration, 

 and composition of its surface. The important practical 

 advantages which may result from a thorough geological 

 survey have been well illustrated by a recent undertaking 

 in America— the Hoosac Tunneh It is Prof. Shaler's belief 

 that " a due inspection of the surface of that ridge would 

 have disclosed some of the difficulties encountered in the 

 excavation of the tunnel, difficulties which would have 

 been in a large measure avoided, had the engineers been 

 forewarned. It does not seem too much to say that the 

 cost of a complete survey, with a map on the scale of six 

 inches to the mile, might have been saved by this easily 

 gained knowledge." 



But the State of ;\Iassachusetts has already had the 

 wisdom to perceive that it is for the material advantage 

 of a country that a knowledge of more than its topography 

 and its geology should be easily accessible. To a thickly 

 populated country, what can be of more moment than its 

 hydrography, its water supply, which is also of so great 

 importance in connection with manufactures .'' In the 

 proposed survey of Massachusetts a thorough knowledge 

 of its hydrography will probably be considered as an 

 indispensable part of the work. It seems almost a truism 

 to say that in a country devoted to agriculture, an ex- 

 haustive scientific examination of its soil would be a work 

 of the greatest national advantage ; such an examination 

 has been to some extent made in Massachusetts, and the 

 scientific men whose advice has been asked urge that it 

 should be carried out over the whole of the State. 



The practical advantages to be derived from a know- 

 ledge of the botany and zoology of a country, especially a 

 country where agriculture is one of the staple industries, 

 seem almost equally apparent. If our farmers were well 

 acquainted with all the plants and insects and birds 

 which annually destroy so large a quantity of the culti- 

 vated produce of the soil, and at the same time knew 

 how to meet their ravages, the saving to the nation would 

 be enormous. Dr. A. S. Packard estimates that in Mas- 



