ACTION UNDER NATIONAL DEFENSE ACT 403 



On March 26, 1917, a program for military mapping in the United States, 

 drawn up by the General Staff of the Army, was submitted to the Geo- 

 logical Survey; three days later the fieldwork requested was under way, 

 and within the week fifteen topographers were at work in three States, 

 followed by a large number in the first few days of April. These facts 

 are mentioned as evidence that the reserve engineer officers were in fact 

 available to meet the call for special service without delay. The utiliza- 

 tion of this civilian organization for the highly specialized service of 

 military mapping in the United States has continued since March, 1917, 

 and at the end of November, 1918, the area covered, both under the 

 original program and under subsequent requests by the Chief of Engi- 

 neers, amounted to nearly 35,000 square miles, 624 square miles of which 

 have been mapped on exceptionally large scales and the remainder on the 

 scale of 1 : 62,500. The work comprised under special requests has in- 

 cluded mapping of areas involving great detail, such as balloon fields, 

 cantonment sites, and artillery proving grounds. The force employed has 

 included civilian members of the United States Geological Survey as well 

 as engineer officers detailed to the Director of the Geological Survey for 

 this purpose, and the whole project of military mapping in the United 

 States has served a double function, furnishing the maps required by the 

 army and training engineer officers and assistants for service overseas. 



Not to mention all the other contributions of the many technical or- 

 ganizations, both private and connected with the Government, the mili- 

 tary contribution overseas of this one scientific bureau may be briefly 

 stated. On November 11, 1918, sixty-six topographic engineers from the 

 United Slates Geological Survey were serving as engineer officers in the 

 American Expeditionary Forces; Lieutenant Colonel Brooks and three 

 other geologists from the Survey were serving as geologists and three 

 other members of the Survey staff had been selected for geologic work in 

 France and were awaiting embarkation orders ; another per diem member 

 of the Survey was in France on important staff duty; and still another 

 of the Survey engineer officers was engaged in railroad construction in 

 France, while scores of the younger men trained as field assistants were 

 performing similar service with the surveying regiments officered by the 

 engineer officers from the United States Geological Survey. 



John Duer Irving's Service 



The spirit that made most effective all this service of the civilian engi- 

 neer to his country has nowhere been better exemplified than in the con- 

 tribution of one American geologist, John Duer Irving, a former associate 



XXVIII — Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 30, 1918 



