290 GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES 



complex an area as the United States required much careful pre- 

 liminary work. That has been accomplished and systematic 

 geologic mapping has been in progress for some years. 



The aspect of the country and its utility for man's use is 

 largely dependent on the annual rainfiill. This ranges from a 

 very few inches in the driest part of the arid or desert regions of 

 the southwest to nearly or quite 8 feet per year on the coast of 

 Southern Alaska. As the humid regions were settled up popu- 

 lation gradually pushed into the semi-arid and desert regions of 

 the for west, where agriculture without artificial irrigation is im- 

 possible, but ivith irrigation marvelously successful. Thus came 

 a demand for knowledge as to water suppl}^ and to this work one 

 division of the Geological Survey is wholly devoted. 



Intimately associated with water supply is the forestry prob- 

 lem. The proper administration of the forests — their preserva- 

 tion from destruction by carelessness or greed — is a question 

 now attracting serious attention. A number of large forest tracts 

 in the west have been recently set apart as reservations, and these, 

 with the Yellowstone National Park, the Yosemite, and others 

 previously reserved, comprise a total area estimated at 38,880,000 

 acres, or more than 60,000 square miles. In the budget for this 

 year Congress has included an item of $150,000 for the survey 

 of these forest reserves. This work is under the direction of the 

 United States Geological Survey. 



The output of the mines and quarries of the United States has 

 grown in value from $369,000,000 in 1880 to $622,000,000 in 1896. 

 That authentic information on this subject might be promptly 

 available a division of mineral statistics has existed in the Geo- 

 logical Survey from the beginning, charged with the duty of 

 gathering and publishing statistics. This it does in an annual 

 volume devoted to mineral statistics, and the state of the mining 

 industry from year to year finds permanent record in these vol- 

 umes. 



Navy Department. — The Hydrographic Office of the Bureau of 

 Navigation has for a primar}'- aim the securing and publication 

 of information useful to those who go down to the sea in ships. 

 This includes surveys and chart-making of all coasts (except 

 those of the United States), ocean meteorology, terrestial mag- 

 netism, and ocean physics. The charting of the coasts of the 

 United States is done exclusively by the Coast Survey, which has 

 nearly completed the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and about three- 

 fifths of the Pacific coast, except Alaska, of which only .a small 



