CHAPTER VII. 



THE ERA OF NATIONAL SURVEYS OR FIFTH ERA OF STATE 

 SURVEYS, 1870-1879. 



The period of the civil war had brought to light a considerable 

 number of men for whom the piping- times of peace, even when varied 

 by Indian outbreaks in the West, afforded insufficient opportunities. 

 They were men in whom the times had developed a power of organ- 

 ization and command. They were, moreover, men of courage to the 

 point of daring. It was but natural, therefore, particularly when the 

 necessity for military routes in the West and public land questions 

 were taken into consideration, that such should turn their attention 

 toward western exploration. Further, the surveys made in the third 

 decade, in connection with routes for the Pacific railroads, and the 

 work done by Evans, Hayden, and Meek in the Bad Lands of the Mis- 

 souri, had whetted the desires of numerous investigators. Willing- 

 workers were abundant and Congress not difficult to persuade into 

 granting the necessary funds. Hence expedition after expedition was 

 organized and sent out, some purely military, some military and geo- 

 graphic, with geology only incidental, and others for the avowed pur- 

 pose of geological research. 



Under such conditions was inaugurated the work which culminated, 

 in 1 8 T i » , in the organization of the present I T . S. Geological Survey, 

 which, for breadth of scope and financial resources, is without coun- 

 terpart in the world's history of science. 



The more important of the expeditions above referred to, as will be 

 seen, were Hay den's Geological Surveys of the Territories; King's 

 Geological Survey of the Fortieth Parallel; Powell's Surve} T s of the 

 Grand Canyon of the Colorado and adjacent regions; and Wheeler's 

 Geographical Surveys West of the One-hundredth Meridian. 



These expeditions demanded men in the prime of life and bodily 

 vigor — men who could endure exposure and fatigue and, if necessary, 

 face danger. It is a natural consequence that there should be found 

 among the workers many names and faces which have not heretofore 

 appeared in our chronicles. Among those who appear now, if not for 

 the first time, at least for the first time prominently, mention may be 

 made of C. E. Button, S. F. Emmons, G. K. Gilbert, Arnold Hague, 

 W. H. Holmes, Clarence King, O. C. Marsh. A. R. Marvine, A. C. 

 Peale, J. W. Powell, I. C. Russell, Orestes St. John, J. J. Stevenson, 

 and R. P. Whitfield. 



551 



