436 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
GEOLOGY- 
THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 1883. 
Secretary Teller has just received the annual report of Major J. W. Powell, 
Director of the geological survey for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1883. The 
report states that the principal work accomplished by the bureau during the year 
was in the preparation of the large geological map of the United States author- 
ized by a recent act of Congress. It is estimated that a scale of four miles to the 
inch will be necessary for this map, which it is proposed to publish in atlas sheets, 
each comprising one degree of longitude by one of latitude, in areas bounded by 
parallels and meridians. In the progress of this work the bureau has necessarily 
availed itself of the results of all surveys accurate enough to fulfill the require- 
ments of the map, and during the past fiscal year has been engaged in collecting, 
compiling, and adjusting the materials. Field operations have been carried on 
to a limited extent. An area of 8,700 square miles was surveyed in the southern 
Atlantic region, and good progress was made in the Rocky Mountain district by 
surveys in the plateau region of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. In the Pacific 
district the work outlined includes the survey of the Cascade Mountain^ in Ore- 
gon, northern California, and probably in Washington Territory. 
Director Powell says that this region is believed to contain the grandest and 
most extensive display of natural phenomena now known in any part of the 
world, and the investigation of it promises to supply matter of great importance 
to geologic science. In California about 2,000 square miles of country have 
been surveyed, a work of great difficulty. A large part of the report is devoted 
to subsidiary reports of special investigations, which may be briefly summarized 
as follows : The study of glacial phenomena, which are described as among the 
most important and interesting subjects for investigation in the geology of this 
county, was intrusted to Mr. Chamberlain, and hs has been engaged in collect- 
ing and grouping evidences of the former existence of a continental placier similar 
to that which is believed to cover the greater part of Greenland. His purpose 
was to ascertain its former extent and distribution of its lines of movement, and 
the part it has played in shaped the physical features of the country. 
Prof. Irving has been laboring with great energy in the study of the meta- 
morphic rocks in the Lake Superior region, and has made satisfactory progress. 
Mr. G. K. Gilbert has investigated the traces of the former existence of a 
large fresh water lake in western Nevada; its relations to changes in chmate, its 
former extent, and its general history. His study has brought to light many 
interesting and instructive facts. 
The geologic work in the Cascade range was not begun during the last fiscal 
