ECONOMIC RESULTS OP GEOLOGIC INVESTIGATION 97 



The United States Geological Survey retained its original character for 

 a number of years, the studies being devoted almost wholly to pure 

 science. There were those who looked on the elaborate petrographical 

 work as merely an elaborate waste of public funds ; who, like the mem- 

 ber of the Ohio legislature, regarded fossils only as '" clams and sala- 

 manders " and considered the diagrams of sections as merely bewildering 

 humbug, while they asserted that attention ought to be given to other 

 matters, which, however, they were not always ready to designate. But 

 the outcome of these studies w^as the inevitable. Petrography has its 

 applications now in the investigation of building stones, and it has 

 proved of service in aiding to determine the source of precious metals at 

 more than one important locality. The determination of fossils has led 

 to proper definition of the great coal horizons of the Upper Cretaceous; 

 the close study of stratigraphical relations made possible a wide devel- 

 opment of artesian-well systems in the Dakotas, just as similar work in 

 England led to the same practical result, while the study of climatic and 

 structural conditions was brought to bear on the great problem of our 

 arid lands with no mean results. 



But these illustrations must suffice, not because they exhaust the ma- 

 terial, for every official survey on the continent affords illustrations, but 

 because this is an address, not a history, and already the allotted time 

 has been exceeded. 



It is the old story — the same in geology as in other branches. The 

 kind of work for which this Society stands lies more closely to the wel- 

 fare of the community than is supposed even by men in high position 

 and of far more than average intelligence. This work is responsible in 

 large part for the industrial progress of our continent, which we must 

 regard, in spite of protests from those who lament the dominance of com- 

 mercialism, as the force which has made possible our great advance in 

 physical comfort as well as the equally great advance in literary culture 

 and esthetic taste. Coal, iron, and oil, chief among our products, have 

 been so much the objects of minute study by closet investigators that 

 improvement in processes of manufacture has not been a growth, but 

 rather a series of leaps. 



" We give all honor to applied science, yet we cannot forget that it is 

 but a follower of pure science. The worker in pure science discovers ; 

 his fellow in applied science utilizes ; the former receives little credit 

 outside of a narrow circle ; pecuniary reward is not his object and rarely 

 falls to his lot; the latter has a double possibility as an incentive, large 

 pecuniary reward and popular reputation in case of noteworthy success. 

 The two conditions are well represented by Henry, the investigator, and 

 Morse, the inventor and promoter. 



