RECENT HYDROGRAPHIC WORK 
The work of the Division of Hydrography in the United States 
Geological Survey has been greatly extended, owing to the in- 
creased appropriation made by Congress last spring. The re])orts 
covering the first quarter of the present fiscal year — July to Sep- 
tember, 1896, inclusive — show that a large amount of data of 
more or less value to geographers is being accumulated. This 
relates principally to the rivers of the Rocky Mountain region, 
of the Pacific coast, and of the Atlantic slope. The underground 
waters also are being systematically studied, the problems being 
largely geologic in character. In particular, the work of Mr 
Willard D. Johnson upon the underground waters of western 
Kansas should be noted. Mr Johnson has been carrying on his 
examination mainly in the vicinity of Garden City, Kansas, 
where he has put down a number of test-wells for observing the 
fluctuations of the ground waters. By causing the large steam- 
pumps of the city water works to be operated at various rates of 
«]>eed the ground water has been drawn upon, and he has been 
able to make valuable observations upon the rate of flow and 
general behavior of these percolating waters. The lack of uni- 
formit}'^ in the data shows clearly that the problem of the move- 
ment of ground water is by no means so simple as it apj^eared, 
and that a large amount of detailed work is necessary. J'he 
importance of a correct knowledge of this subject can best be 
appreciated when it is considered that the utilization of a large 
j)art of the most fertile lands of the west is dependent upon the 
l)racticability of })umping water from under ground for irrigation. 
The investigations above mentioned are, however, but a part 
of those of the Division of H}^drography. In eastern Washington 
and adjacent portions of Idaho and Oregon Professor Israel C. 
Russell has carried on a reconnaissance of the artesian condi- 
tions; in North Dakota Professor Earle J. Babcock has been 
making examination of tlie water supply derived from wells and 
springs; in Nebraska Mr N. II. Darton has been making a sys- 
tematic study of the areal geology of the vicinities of Lincoln 
and Grand Island for the ))urposeof obtaining detailed informa- 
tion regarding the underground waters, and Professor Erwin II. 
Barbour has been carrying on a broad study of the wells of the 
