206 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 945 



parable in number only with that of single 

 divisions of the American Survey. 



The practical side of this feature is the 

 increased inducement that suitable quar- 

 ters would afford in retaining in the gov- 

 ernment service men of the highest profes- 

 sional talent. At best, most of these in- 

 vestigators are carrying on their govern- 

 ment work at a financial sacrifice, and the 

 temptation to go into professional or cor- 

 poration work at largely increased salaries 

 is strengthened by the contrast between the 

 well-lighted and sanitary offices generally 

 provided in the business world and the 

 noisy, dirty, dark and crowded quarters 

 .offered by the Survey. To retain in the 

 ^government service the best men is by far 

 Ihe largest administrative problem of the 

 •director of the United States Geological 

 ^Survey. 



Notwithstanding the growth of the Sur- 

 vey work along practical economic lines, 

 scientific work has not been neglected. In 

 fact, in the Geological Survey the scientific 

 investigations are inseparable from the 

 economic work, though the one or the other 

 may predominate in purpose according to 

 the needs of the particular research in 

 hand. In any field economic work of the 

 highest rank is impossible without full 

 knowledge of the scientific laws and prin- 

 ciples pertaining to the subject of the work; 

 but as there is no application of geology 

 which does not involve unsolved problems, 

 some of them of the highest importance, 

 the best knowledge available is nevertheless 

 relative. It thus follows that the broad 

 and searching observations which should 

 accompany every piece of good economic 

 work comprehend data that are eventually 

 combined in the construction of new sci- 

 entific hypotheses, some of which, as more 

 observations accumulate, grow into estab- 

 lished laws or principles that are in turn 

 -of the greatest practical consequence. ThiLs 



the detailed studies of the metalliferous de- 

 posits in one region or another bring to 

 light evidence from which to determine the 

 genesis of the ores and the modes or condi- 

 tions of their occurrence, and the economic 

 inquiry becomes more intelligent and suc- 

 cessful when once this new principle re- 

 garding the mode of an ore occurrence is 

 understood. 



On account of the plain duty of this 

 federal service to minister to the immediate 

 needs of the various mining districts, it is 

 not generally possible to concentrate and 

 direct the observations to a series of re- 

 gions systematically chosen as suited 

 soonest to furnish the requisite data bear- 

 ing especially on some particular scientific 

 problem, however important and advan- 

 tageous its solution may be; but neverthe- 

 less the data are gradually accumulated for 

 the interpretation of many of these prob- 

 lems without sacrifice of the Survey's obli- 

 gations to the public. An interesting illus- 

 tration of the deduction of a principle from 

 data so accumulated is found in the paper 

 by W. H. Emmons on the enrichment of 

 sulphide ores, the manuscript of which has 

 been completed during this year. Another 

 illustration of scientific results based on a 

 long period of field studies, pertaining 

 mainly to economic areas, is found in the 

 pre-Paleozoic history of central North 

 America, as described in the monograph by 

 Van Hise and Leith on the geology of the 

 Lake Superior region, which appeared 

 during the year. 



Among other long-term studies more dis- 

 tinctly scientific in character may be men- 

 tioned particularly the investigations, 

 made under Mr. Vaughan's direction, of 

 the formations of the southern Coastal 

 Plain and Gulf embayment, which, though 

 having an economic object, are yielding 

 important contributions to our knowledge 

 of the stratigraphy, physiography and 



