October 10, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



50 



a boat party began a second voyage through 

 the canyons, the plan being to spend two 

 years in their mapping, and land parties 

 were at the same time organized to cooper- 

 ate with them. The river was abandoned 

 as a base of operations in the middle of the 

 second season, but the land work contin- 

 ued, with progressive development of plan, 

 for a period of ten years. About the mid- 

 dle of this period the study of the problem 

 of the utilization of the arid region through 

 irrigation and otherwise became a function 

 of the organization, and a special investi- 

 gation was made of the water supply of 

 the territory of Utah. 



Of parallel growth were the surveys de- 

 veloped under the initiative of Dr. Hay- 

 den, Clarence King and Lieutenant Wheel- 

 er. Their functions were similar and, with 

 the exception of the work by King which 

 had a definite limit, their ambitions in- 

 eluded the exploration and survey of all 

 the western domain of the United States. 

 They thus became rivals and there was need 

 of reorganization. After unsuccessful ef- 

 forts to arrange for the partition of the 

 field and friendly cooperation between the 

 different corps, Powell advocated their 

 merging into a single bureau of the Inte- 

 rior Department, and it was largely 

 through his, initiative that the work was 

 finally reorganized in 1879. The Powell, 

 Hayden and Wheeler surveys were abol- 

 ished and the present U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey created, Mr. King becoming by presi- 

 dential appointment its first director. At 

 the same time the Bureau of Ethnology 

 was created to carry forward the ethno- 

 logic work, and of this Powell became di- 

 rector. The Geological Survey was made 

 a bureau of the Interior Department, and 

 the Bureau of Ethnology was attached to 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



The study of water supply in relation 

 to irrigation led to the conclusion that the 

 land laws of the United States were ill 



adapted to the conditions obtaining in all 

 the drier portion of the country, and Pow- 

 ell became much interested in the legisla- 

 tive problems thus arising. Partly at his 

 instance a commission was appointed to 

 codify the land laws and recommend such 

 modifications as seemed to be required. 

 Powell gave much of his time for two years 

 to the work of this commission and a com- 

 prehensive report was prepared, which 

 however led to no legislation. 



In 1881 Mr. King resigned the director- 

 ship of the Geological Survey and Powell 

 was immediately named as his successor. 

 He retained the direction of the Bureau 

 of Ethnology and conducted both bureaus 

 until 1894, when he resigned from the 

 Geological Survey. During his administra- 

 tion the work of the Survey was greatly 

 enlarged, especially in its geographic 

 branch, and the investigation of water sup- 

 ply with special reference to utilization 

 for irrigation was added to its functions. 



In the last years of his life Powell prac- 

 tically relinc[uished administrative respon- 

 sibility, entrusting the management of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology to his principal as- 

 sistant, Mr. McGee, and devoting his time 

 to personal studies which passed gradually 

 from anthropology into the fields of psy- 

 chology and general philosophy. 



In summarizing the results of his active 

 life it is not easy to separate the product 

 of his personal work from that which he 

 accomplished through the organization of 

 the work of others. He was extremely fer- 

 tile in ideas, so fertile that it was quite 

 impossible that he should personally de- 

 velop them all, and realizing this he gave 

 freely to his collaborators. The work which 

 he inspired and to which he contributed the 

 most important creative elements, I believe 

 to be at least as important as that for which 

 his name stands directly responsible. As 

 he always drew about him the best ability 

 he could command, his assistants were not 



