February 7, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



205 



upon keeping them up and do our best to 

 make possible the proper preparation of the 

 students. 



With teachers prepared to teach zoology 

 as probably we all feel it should be taught 

 in our schools, and consequently with our 

 students quite ready for a deeper look into 

 animal life, and with a more widely dis- 

 tributed interest in zoological work, we 

 shall find the more or less vague feeling for 

 something that is wanting vanished and 

 shall have a larger and more capable class 

 of applicants for more special and advanced 

 courses. Until this condition is realized 

 we must as best we can provide for both 

 classes of our students as well as for the 

 preparation of the men and women who are 

 to bring the rich blessing of a general in- 

 terest in natural history to the common- 

 wealth. 



In the progress toward the realization of 

 this worthy end Section F, in my humble 

 judgment, can be made a most efficient fac- 

 tor by serving as the one sure and safe link 

 between the general public and the zool- 

 ogists as investigators and teachers. 



The preparation being well done below 

 the plane of the investigator, or, if you pre- 

 fer, outside the circle of investigators, Sec- 

 tion F will continue as a vigorous branch 

 of a fruitful vine, and, being trained to 

 meet the conditions of its general environ- 

 ment will yield to the people at large at- 

 tractive, choice and satisfying fruit. 



H. F. Nachtkieb 



TEE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL 

 SURVEY^ 



The record of the work of the Geological 

 Survey during the fecal year 1912 may 

 fitly be preceded by a statement of the con- 

 ditions under which that work has been 

 done, not as an apology for either the 



' Extracts from the Tliirty-tliird Annual Eeport 

 of the Director. 



quantity or quality of the results of the in- 

 vestigations made, but rather as an exhibit 

 of the limitations forced upon this bureau 

 — limitations on economy and efficiency 

 which seriously hamper all efforts for bet- 

 ter administration in the expenditure of 

 public money. 



The offices of the Geological Survey have 

 become wholly inadequate and unadapted 

 to its needs. Since 1884, when the Survey 

 was first quartered in the Hooe Building, 

 at 1330 F Street, the effort has been fre- 

 quently made to provide for the growth of 

 the organization by adding wings and ex- 

 tensions to the building, but every increase 

 in floor space has been made at the expense 

 of proper lighting of the older portions of 

 the building, so that its fitness for the Sur- 

 vey's use has been steadily impaired, and 

 the resultant conditions constitute an ac- 

 tual detriment to health and a menace to 

 life and property, as well as an obstacle to 

 efficiency. The conditions under which the 

 Survey employees work in the Washington 

 office are to be condemned for both humani- 

 tarian and business reasons. . . . 



The present housing of this federal 

 bureau is unworthy of the nation. Both 

 the work and the workers of the United 

 States Geological Survey have an interna- 

 tional reputation, and visiting foreign 

 scientists do not conceal their astonishment 

 at the miserable environment in which 

 these investigations are being carried on. 

 Our neighbors on this continent, in Canada 

 and Mexico, have erected buildings espe- 

 cially adapted to the work of their geolog- 

 ical surveys, which are properly housed, 

 as is nearly every other geological survey 

 in the world, and yet the geological survey 

 of no other nation compares in size of or- 

 ganization or scope of work with that of 

 the United States. In fact, the surveys of 

 several of the larger European countries 

 are organizations whose personnel is com- 



