534 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 617. 



stated before, the only form of cooperation that 

 is at all practicable is that proposed in my letter 

 of January 31. This seems to be reasonable and 

 just, and will give you full credit for all of the 

 work that you have done, and for the maps of the 

 region which you have prepared. Should you not 

 be willing to accept this proposition, your ma- 

 terial will be of little value, and there will be no 

 hope of future publication. 



We propose to send a party into the field on 

 or about March 1, and if you feel inclined to 

 accept our proposition, we shall be glad to hear 

 from you at your earliest convenience so that 

 the party may have the benefit of your material. 

 Very respectfully, 



Chas. D. Walcott, 



Director. 



(Sub-signatures M. K. C. and C. W. H.) 



Stanford Univebsity, Cal., 



February 26, 1906. 

 Hon. C. D. Walcott, 



Director of the U. S. Geological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C. 

 Sir: I beg to resign my position as geologist of 

 the United States Geological Survey. 



The immediate reason for my resignation is 

 that I consider the action of the survey as com- 

 municated in your letter of the sixteenth in re- 

 gard to my work upon the coal regions of Ar- 

 kansas as an outrage and an unwarranted per- 

 sonal affront to which no self-respecting geologist 

 can tamely submit. 



Kespectfully yours, 



J. C. Branner. 



Washington, D. C, March 8, 1906. 

 Db. J. C. Branner, 



Stanford University, Cal. 



Dear Sir: Your letter of February 26, contain- 

 ing your resignation from the survey, is received. 

 I sincerely regret that you have felt impelled to 

 take this action. Certainly no outrage or affront 

 was intended in my letter and I fail to under- 

 stand the reasons for your position. 



The field work of the Arkansas Survey in the 

 coal districts was done, as I understand, about 

 eighteen years ago. It was based upon topo- 

 graphic maps which are much below the present 

 standard and which could not be published on 

 the present scale without thorough revision, 

 amounting in most cases practically to a com- 

 plete resurvey. 



It is no refiection upon that work or the 

 geologists who were responsible for it to say that it 

 does not come up to present standards, and, there- 



fore, could not be accepted for publication by this 

 survey. Moreover, the active development since 

 the state survey work was done now makes a 

 large amount of information available which was 

 quite inaccessible in 1888, and any publication by 

 this survey would be judged by present standards 

 and in view of this new information. We have 

 refrained from entering this field notwithstand- 

 ing many urgent requests, in consideration of the 

 fact that your final report remained unpublished. 

 It now seems necessary to meet the demands for 

 information which have become especially insistent 

 since the results of the fuel-testing work at St. 

 Louis have indicated new and important uses for 

 this coal. Also several serious complaints have 

 been made of specific errors in the map of the 

 Arkansas coal fields published in the Twenty- 

 second Annual, by which considerable losses have 

 been occasioned. 



A resurvey of the region being therefore neces- 

 sary, it seemed to me that the work should be 

 done by members of the regular survey force, 

 from whom immediate results could be obtained 

 and whose salaries must in any case be provided 

 for. I was anxious to obtain your unpublished 

 data, for which adequate payment would have 

 been made and full credit given, both as a matter 

 of justice to yourself and to avoid the duplication 

 of so much of the work as could be utilized. I 

 still think this is by far the best way in which 

 this unpublished material can be utilized, but 

 shall not urge your acceptance of the offer. 



I shall hold your resignation for the present 

 with the hope that you may be willing to recon- 

 sider the matter. 



Very respectfully, 



Chas. D. Walcott, 



Director. 



(Sub-signature C. W. H.) 



Stanford University, Cal., 



October 13, 1906. 

 Hon. Chas. D. Walcott, 



Director of the U. S. Geological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C. 

 Sir: Your reply of March 8, last, to my 

 proffered resignation was duly received. I have 

 postponed answering your letter in the hope that 

 time might enable me to see the wisdom and 

 justice of your decision, and to feel less acutely 

 the personal reflection upon myself and upon my 

 assistants implied by the survey's action. Seven 

 months have now passed since I received your 

 letter of February 16, telling me that you would 

 not consider any proposition that would leave me 

 to finish my own work, and reminding me that 



