NATURE 



233 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1884 



AMERICAN GEOLOGY 

 Twelfth Annual Report of the United States Geological 

 an.i Geographical Survey 0/ the Territories. In Two 

 Parts, with Atlas of Maps, &c. By F. V. Hayden, 

 U.S. Geologist. 8vo. (Washington : 1S83.) 



THERE is a singular fascination in American geology. 

 Its features are as a whole so massive and colossal, 

 their infinite detail so subordinated to breadth of effect, 

 their presentation of the great elements of geological 

 structure so grand, yet so simple and so clearly legible, 

 that they may serve as types for elucidating the rest of the 

 world. The progress of sound geology would assuredly have 

 been more rapid had the science made its start in the Far 

 West of America, rather than among the crumpled and 

 broken rocks of Western Europe. Truths that have been 

 gained on this side of the Atlantic by the laborious gather- 

 ing together of a broken chain of evidence would have 

 proclaimed themselves from thousands of plateaux, 

 canons, and mountain ranges, in language too plain to be 

 mistaken. No doubt much has been gained by the mere 

 toilsomeness of the search after the truth. A possession 

 is more valued when it has been hard to obtain, and the 

 cjualities which its capture has called forth and strength- 

 ened could probably be educated in no other way. 

 Nevertheless, no European geologist can visit these 

 western regions without realizing more or less distinctly 

 what an amount of time has been wasted here over 

 questions about which there should never have been any 

 discussion at all. This impression is renewed by every 

 new geological memoir which brings to us fresh revela- 

 tions of the scenery and structure of the Western Terri- 

 tories. It is especially deepened by a perusal of the 

 volumes of which a brief notice will here be given. 



It may be in the recollection of readers of Nature 

 that after some inquiry and discussion it was discovered 

 by the Congress of the United States that various inde- 

 pendent Surveys, under different Government departments, 

 had been engaged among the Western Territories, and, 

 having no connexion with each other, had, to some 

 extent, duplicated the mapping of the same ground ; and 

 that at last in the summer of 1879 a law was passed 

 whereby these various geological and topographical 

 Surveys were abolished, and a new single organization 

 was created under the name of the " Geological Survey of 

 the United States." (Jne of the Surveys thus abolished 

 was known as " the U. S. Geological and Geographical 

 Survey of the Territories," under Dr. F. X . Hayden as 

 Geologist in charge. The publications of this Survey 

 comprised a voluminous series of annual Reports and 

 Bulletins, quarto volumes of elaborate and well illus- 

 trated Memoirs, and Geological Maps and Sections. 

 Many thousands of square miles of country had been 

 examined by the staff, and had been mapped and de- 

 scribed in such a way as to lay out the broad features of 

 wild regions for the first time, not only for the assistance 

 of the geologist or geological surveyor who might after- 

 wards care to fill in the details and improve the mapping, 

 but for the guidance of future settlers in the far west, and 

 of the Central authorities who have charge of the public 

 Vol. XXIX. — No. 741 



lands. When, at the bidding'of Congress, Dr. Hayden's 

 Survey organization ceased to exist and his staff dispersed 

 in search of other occupations, the work done in the year 

 1878 had not been published, while several important 

 works were in progress. A small appropriation was 

 granted to enable him to bring out his last Report and to 

 complete other office-work of the Survey. This grant 

 was exhiusted in the summer of 1882, leaving five quarto 

 volumes still unpublished though far advanced towards 

 completion. These have been handed over to the Director 

 of the Geological Survey, to be finished and published 

 under his auspices. The final Annual Report, however, 

 being the twelfth of the series, has at last been issued, the 

 delay in its appearance having arisen from the scattering 

 of the staff and their employment in other avocations, but 

 partly perhaps (though he makes no mention of it) to the 

 prolonged indisposition under which Dr. Htyden has 

 been labouring ever smce his retirement from official life. 



Dr. Hayden's Report for 1878 is a most fitting tennina- 

 tion to the series which it closes. 1 1 consists of two massive 

 octavo volumes with an atlas of .Maps and Panoramas, 

 and is profusely illustrated with plates. It is of course 

 impossible to give any adequate notice of this elaborate 

 work within the limits permissible in these pages. But a 

 mere outline of its contents may afford some idea of the 

 nature and importance of this latest contribution to 

 American Geology. 



The first volume opens with a Prefatory Letter from 

 Dr. Hayden himself, stating briefly the arrangement of 

 the work under his supervision during the last year of its 

 progress. One of his parties was charged with the primary 

 triangulation of the entire area to be surveyed, and made 

 satisfactory progress, among the Wind River and ad- 

 jacent ranges westwards . to Henry's Lake, where its 

 operations were unfortunately cut short by Indians who 

 crossing its trail, carried off all its animals and a portion of 

 its outfit. Not far to the north lay the Yellowstone Park — 

 an area perpetually exempted from settlement by special 

 Act of Congress. That wild tract, surrounded by rugged 

 mountains, formed a natural retreat for bands of hostile 

 Indians when pursued by troops. Only the year before, 

 the Nez Perces, retreating from (general Howard, broke 

 into the region, killing and plundering as they went. No 

 wonder the surveyors should excuse any shortcomings in 

 their work by pleading "that peculiar mental condition con- 

 sequent on the uncertain and exaggerated rumours relative 

 to the movements of the hostile Bannacks by whom the 

 country was said to be overrun, but of whose presence we 

 saw no more than the traces of some days' old trails." 

 Next year, the writer of these lines, having previously heard 

 similar wild rumours, passed over some of the same 

 ground, but actually encountered an armed party, and will 

 always remember the " peculiar mental condition," which 

 the dust-cloud of the approaching red-skins awakened. 



.A second division of the staff made a detailed survey 

 of the Yellowstone Park, obtaining materials for a Map 

 of it on the scale of one inch to a mile. Mr. W. H. 

 Holmes, attached to this party, had excellent opportunity 

 for wielding that facile pencil to which geological science 

 is so much indebted. Dr. A. C. Peale and Mr. Musbach 

 made a detailed study of the thermal springs for which 

 the region is now so famous. 



A third division surveyed the previously little known but 



