NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—-RANSOME. 975 
the duty should not devolve upon geologists at the expense of their 
own science but should be cared for by a special staff. Some coopera- 
tion between the statistical staff and the geologic staff may be advis- 
able, but the extent of this cooperation should be determined by 
executives who are fully alive to the necessity of safeguarding geol- 
ogy against encroachments by statistical work. 
WATER RESOURCES. 
Studies concerned with the occurrence of underground water are 
of course as much geological as those concerned with the occur- 
rence of petroleum. Investigations of surface waters, however, in- 
cluding stream gauging and the study of water power, come within 
the field of engineering and have so little connection with geology 
that it is difficult to see any logical ground for their inclusion within 
the group of activities belonging properly to a geological survey. 
In an ideal apportionment of fields of endeavor among the scientific 
and technical bureaus of a government, stream gauging and estima- 
tion of water power would scarcely fall to the national geological 
survey. As it happens, the United States Geological Survey does 
perform these functions, and I am not prepared to say that there 
is not ample legal and practical justification for this adventitious 
growth on a geological bureau. There has been little or no tendency 
to draft geologists into hydraulic engineering, and consequently the 
principal objection urged against the inclusion of statistical work 
within the sphere of a geological survey does not here apply. Ap- 
parently the only practical disadvantages are the introduction of 
additional complexity into a primarily scientific organization and the 
consequent danger of the partial submergence of principal and pri- 
mary functions by those of adventitious character. 
It should be pointed out in this connection that certain studies 
of surface waters, especially those that are concerned with the char- 
acter and quantity of material carried in suspension and in solu- 
tion in river waters, have much geological importance. Such studies 
supply data for estimating the rate of erosion and sedimentation. 
They are to be regarded, however, rather as an illustration of the 
way in which geology overlaps other branches of science and utilizes 
their results than as reason for considering hydraulic engineering as 
normally a function of a geological survey. 
FOREIGN MINERAL RESOURCES. 
One of the results of the war was to suggest the advantage to 
the citizens and Government of the United. States of a central source 
of information concerning the mineral resources of foreign coun- 
tries. The United States Geological Survey undertook to gather 
