4 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA. 



The present writer has had charge of this branch of the in- 

 vestigation, and his report on the Artesian and other under- 

 ground Water Systems of the State is now in manuscript, 

 and practically ready for the printers. 



Most of the material for this report has been collected by 

 the Alabama Geological Survey. 



The run-off, on the other hand, is utilized for transporta- 

 tion, for domestic and municipal water supply, and for 

 power, and this branch of the subject ha-s been in charge of 

 Mr. Hall, who has for some years been employed by the 

 United States Geological Survey in collecting records of the 

 gage heights, and in making surveys and discharge measure- 

 ments of the principal streams of Alabama (and adjacent 

 States), from which the values of these streams for the vari- 

 ous purposes above enumerated may be closely estimated. 

 In the collection of these data, the Alabama Geological Sur- 

 vey has contributed to the extent of paying the observers of 

 the gage heights at seven stations along Alabama streams, 

 but with this exception and apart from the map, the present 

 Report has been prepared without cost to the State of Ala- 

 bama. We are also indebted to the United States Geological 

 Survey for most of the illustrations which appear in the body 

 of the Report, and these cuts, as well as most of the data from 

 which this Report has been compiled by Mr. Hall, have been 

 published in the Annual Reports of the Director of the Nation- 

 al Geological Survey. 



While the present report deals with only one of the many 

 uses to which the run-off of our streams may be rut, viz., 

 for the production of power, this is in many respects, v_ pecially 

 in Alabama, the most important of these uses, for the great in- 

 crease in the applications of electricity has of late turned at- 

 tention to the utilization for its production, of water powers 

 which have heretofore been a 1 lowed to run to waste, and there 

 can be little doubt but that r .i comparatively short time, all the 

 available water power of the State will be turned to account. 



Very respectfully, 



EUGENE: A. SMITH, 



University of Alabama, State Geologist, 



Dec. i, 1902. 



