June 4, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



869 



adoption of the report bj' the House of 

 Representatives and the signing of the bill 

 by the President being a foregone conclu- 

 sion. That bill contains an amendment 

 (based upon the so-called McEae Bill, the 

 measure advocated by the American For- 

 estry Assocation) under which the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior is authorized to insti- 

 tute a forestry service for the forest reser- 

 vations which had been established prior 

 to the late proclamations by President 

 Cleveland and such as may be made here- 

 after. These latter reservations, made 

 iipon the recommendation of the Committee 

 of the National Academy of Sciences, have 

 by this amendment been suspended, i. e., 

 the operation of the proclamations has 

 been annulled until March 1, 1898, and 

 until that time the lands embraced in these 

 reservations are to be returned to the public 

 lands open to entry and subject to the gen- 

 eral land laws. 



A survey of all the reservations, showing 

 the distribution of the forests, by the Geo- 

 logical Survey is ordered and an appropria- 

 tion of §150,000 made for it, the supposi- 

 tion being, although not definitely expressed 

 in the bill, that such surveys or sufiBcient 

 portions of theni can be accomplished be- 

 fore March 1, 1898, and give information 

 as to existing conditions which will enable 

 the President to entirely revoke or else in- 

 telligently modify the boundaries and ex- 

 tent of the reservations, power to do so be- 

 ing expressly given in the bill. 



This entire legislation is, to be sure, a 

 compromise measure and extremely crude 

 and imperfect, having been precipitated by 

 the strenuous opposition of the Western 

 delegates to the reservations made by Mr. 

 Cleveland's order. These, it is claimed, 

 have been established hastily, without suffi- 

 cient knowledge and discrimination, with- 

 out opportunity for interested parties to be 

 heard, embodying, at least in some cases, 

 large areas that should not reasonably have 



been included. To the last the Western 

 representatives acted as a unit in discredit- 

 ing in every way the hasty action of Presi- 

 dent Cleveland and his advisors, and in in- 

 sisting that the proclamations be uncondi- 

 tionally and forever annulled. 



In spite of the crudities and the emas- 

 culated condition of the legislation which 

 finally saved the reservation policy and se- 

 cures the first beginnings of a forestry ser- 

 vice, it must be welcomed as such a first 

 step, which may gradually be developed 

 into a creditable forest administration. 

 Thus, while it appeared a misfortune that 

 the Committee of the National Academy 

 advocated the extension of forest reserva- 

 tions before having submitted their report 

 on the necessary administration of the same, 

 it may have proved a blessing in disguise. 



There is no specific appropriation with 

 which to inaugurate the forestry service, 

 unless the $90,000 appropriated for Special 

 Timber Agents is construed to be applica- 

 ble. 



The manner in which the Geological Sur- 

 vey will acquit itself of its difficult task of 

 segregating the lands which are properly to 

 be reserved or excluded from reservations 

 which will have to do with allaying the op- 

 position of the Western States and forward- 

 ing the establishment of a sound forest 

 policy. 



B. E. Feenow. 



CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY. 



TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPS OF THE GEOLOGICAL 



SURVEY. 



By recent Congressional enactment, the 

 topographic as well as the geologic maps 

 and atlases of the U. S. Geological Survey 

 may be sold to the public. Heretofore the 

 distribution of the topographic sheets has 

 been somewhat irregular ; and, although a 

 few years ago the statement was authorized 

 that copies of the maps would be distribu- 

 ted to schools for use in teaching geography 



