REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I917 35 



VI 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



Resurvey of war minerals supplies. Directly upon the entry of 

 the country into the war an active canvass was made through the 

 war minerals committee, organized by the National Research Coun- 

 cil, to ascertain the available stocks of minerals in the country which 

 are essential to war industries, the right of present production of 

 these exigent supplies and the possibility of increasing them. Many 

 minerals were imperatively needed, among them sulphur, manganese, 

 graphite, of all of which our importation was very large and the 

 domestic production relatively small ; moreover, these large importa- 

 tions were using important ship tonnage already gravely needed 

 for other purposes. A general demand was sent out for a resurvey 

 of domestic supplies of these and other minerals and a general speed- 

 ing up of domestic production. Such service, it was found, could 

 most effectively be made through state organizations, and immedi- 

 ately upon the condition becoming evident, work was begun in 

 New York and was extended to cover examinations of all the min- 

 erals required. The pyrite deposits of northwestern New York were 

 carefully studied by A. F. Buddington and the report thereon pub- 

 lished promptly as Bulletin i of the New York State Defense Council, 

 entitled Report on the Pyrite and Pyrrhotite Veins in Jefferson and 

 St Lawrence Counties. The zinc and pyrite deposits of the Edwards 

 district in St Lawrence county were also examined with renewed 

 care and a report on these issued as Bulletin 2 of the State Defense 

 Council, The Zinc-pyrite Deposits of the Edwards District, New 

 York, the work being done by David H. Newland, who had given 

 close study to the important developments of the zinc industry in 

 that region since its inception. The results of these examinations 

 of sources of supply of sulphur and zinc ha^e been of importance 

 as new supplies of large moment were indicated and increased pro- 

 duction has resulted. 



Contemporaneously with these undertakings a study was inaugu- 

 rated of the manganese deposits of Columbia county, regarding 

 which there were only historic records. It was nevertheless 

 thought important to leave no stone unturned to locate any 

 possible deposit of this kind. The early geologists in their reports 

 of 1837-42 indicated the presence of this ore in that region; 

 but the examination made under present auspices by Prof. Nelson 



