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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII, No. 1115 



tional Academy plan would be indorsed by 

 most of us as eminently practical, and I 

 believe the report stands as a splendid ex- 

 ample of public service rendered by Amer- 

 ica's leading scientists. The bill which 

 embodied the entire plan, however, failed 

 of passage in Congress, although the part 

 relating to the organization of the new Geo- 

 logical Survey was carried as a rider on 

 the Sundry Civil Appropriation Act of 

 March 3, 1879. 



The newly organized United States Geo- 

 logical Survey began topographic surveys 

 of the type that the National Academy had 

 believed could best be executed by the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the 

 younger Survey has continued this kind of 

 mensuration surveying until it has covered 

 more than 40 per cent, of the country and 

 become the principal map-making bureau of 

 the government. In course of time also 

 more or less legislative authority has been 

 given for the control work, vertical and 

 horizontal, needed for these topographic 

 surveys, so that there has been evolved ex- 

 actly the opportunity for duplication of 

 work that the National Academy sought to 

 prevent. The invitation to speak this after- 

 noon on the subject of the relation of the 

 United States Geological Survey to the 

 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey 

 is a privilege that I value highly because it 

 gives me the opportunity to point out that 

 the result that Congress failed to insure by 

 legislation has been attained by voluntary 

 scientific cooperation. 



In topographic mapping the activities of 

 the older bureau stop at the coast, as its 

 name suggests; its mensuration surveys 

 elsewhere are purely geodetic and represent 

 a refinement of method and an accuracy of 

 result that is not necessary in the ordinary 

 mapping of the country as a whole, al- 

 though these engineering results are abso- 

 lutely essential. Members of the Geological 



Survey most familiar with these large con- 

 tributions by the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey have estimated that the value of the 

 geodetic work done by the older organiza-. 

 tion that would otherwise have necessarily 

 been done by the Geological Survey has 

 aggregated not less than a million dollars, 

 and if the future engineering work of the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey as now planned 

 is carried to completion another million 

 dollars should be included in our total in- 

 debtedness to the older Survey. 



The United States Geological Survey is 

 proud of its pioneer work in aid of the 

 development of the resources of Alaska, yet 

 we are not forgetful of the fact that the 

 real pioneer in Alaska was the United 

 States Coast and Geodetic Survey, which 

 started its work in Alaska thirty years 

 earlier than our own Survey. 



It has been the custom of each of these 

 Surveys to supply the other with photo- 

 graphic copies of field sheets of current 

 work, and I am glad to record the fact that 

 cooperation of this type has not been one- 

 sided. Our topographic survey of the 

 Bering River coal fields, for instance, yielded 

 data that were incorporated in the impor- 

 tant Coast Survey chart of Controller Bay, 

 which was published before the Geological 

 Survey issued its topographic map of the 

 larger area. In this way the public was 

 served by receiving the information earlier 

 than if the Geological Survey had insisted 

 upon first publishing its own results. The 

 testimony of the members of the Alaskan 

 division of the Geological Survey is that 

 the cooperation in Alaska has been as 

 hearty and close as if the Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey men and the Geological Sur- 

 vey men belonged to the same bureau. 



In this connection too should be men- 

 tioned the earlier geologic observations 

 made in Alaska by members of the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey, and chief among 



