706 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



might have had the short-lived existence that has been the fate 

 of so many other state surveys. 



Cooperation of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. — Under a 

 law of Congress, passed many years ago, the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey cooperated with such states as had either geological or 

 topographical surveys in progress. This aid consisted in the 

 determination of the latitude and longitude of certain points and 

 the establishment of others by triangulation preparatory to correct 

 mapping. Through the agency of Governor L. F. Hubbard, in 

 1884, this matter was brought to the attention of the Superintend- 

 ent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and this law of Congress 

 was made operative for the State of Minnesota, and has continued 

 so to the present. That furnished the commencement of the topo- 

 graphical survey which the state law orders. By the combined 

 operation of these laws such triangulation and other field work 

 is authorized as will eventuate in a complete topographical map- 

 ping of the state in the most approved methods. This articula- 

 tion between the two surveys was practically established by 

 Major C. O. Boutelle, an officer of the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey, and the subsequent conduct of the survey has been under 

 the direction of Professor W. R. Hoag, of the University of Minne- 

 sota. This plan not only carries on, with little expense, the 

 required topographical survey, but furnishes to the department 

 of engineering in the university an object lesson in the use of 

 the nicest instruments and some employment for its advanced 

 engineering students — for in all departments of the state survey 

 the law requires the employment of the professors and students 

 of the university when they can be found competent. 



The scientific progress of this survey it is not necessary to 

 enter upon, and the writer might not be the best judge if he 

 should attempt to set it forth. Its reports are widely distributed, 

 and its agency, such as it is, in the recent development of the 

 geology of the state, and of the Northwest, is well known. 



Conclusion. — It is the custom to " finish " such surveys, but 

 no one who has been cognizant, for twenty years, of the incom- 

 pleteness of the work which such surveys have to be satisfied 



