INLAND WATER SURVEY 371 
Main Memoranpum B. 
ORGANISATIONS IN CERTAIN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
By Brysson CUNNINGHAM. 
The following particulars of organisations of water survey in foreign 
countries are derived from information which has been courteously supplied 
from official sources in response to inquiries. 
I. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
The collection of basic information on water, its quantity, quality and 
utility, is made in the United States by two Federal bureaus: the Weather 
Bureau and the Geological Survey. ‘The Weather Bureau collects informa- 
tion with respect to meteorological phenomena, including rainfall, snowfall, 
temperature, wind movement, etc., and also obtains records of stages and 
makes flood predictions for certain of the rivers which have sufficient 
length to permit of the forecasting of floods a considerable time in advance 
of their actual occurrence. The Geological Survey collects information 
on the quantity, chemical quality, availability and utility of water, both 
surface and underground, with reference to its control by reservoirs or 
levees, and to its utilisation for various purposes. 
Administratively, the Geological Survey is grouped with other bureaus 
in the Department of the Interior, and consists of five co-ordinate 
branches: the Geologic Branch, the Topographic Branch, the Alaskan 
Branch, the Conservation Branch, and the Water Resources Branch. 
The Water Resources Branch, which is primarily concerned with the 
collection of data relating to water, is, in turn, made up of five divisions : 
Division of Surface Water, Division of Ground Water, Division of Quality 
of Water, Division of Power Resources, and Division of Water Utilisation. 
The Water Resources Branch maintains at the present time 2,900 river 
gauging stations, of which about 2,000 are equipped with recording gauges. 
Records of systematic observations in meteorology are published by the 
Weather Bureau. Similar observations in regard to water, both surface 
and underground, are published by the Geological Survey. 
The cost of collecting the data and maintaining the above services is 
divided between the Federal Government and the several States. The 
Geological Survey conducts the major part of its investigational work in 
regard to water supplies in co-ordination with about 40 out of 48 States. 
This co-operative work is paid for jointly, but is supervised and controlled 
by the Geological Survey. 
The Director of the Geological Survey, who furnished the foregoing 
information, makes a striking comment which must be quoted in full :-— 
* One of the phases of our organisation, which may be of sufficient interest 
to justify me in mentioning it specifically to you, is the segregation of the 
investigational activities from those related to construction or adminis- 
tration. This segregation seems to us in this country to be of considerable 
importance because of the human tendency to protect in times of stress 
only those activities that are of greatest interest to the controlling officials, 
and because of the suspicion as to integrity or reliability of records that 
arises if the responsible agency in their collection has ex parte interests in 
the records. 
“It has been, I believe, well demonstrated here that continuous and 
reliable records needed as a basis for sound development or for satisfactory 
