HISTORY 7 



the publication and distribution of the reports, maps, and docu- 

 ments, and other results of said surveys. 



The National Academy submitted its report to the House 

 of Representatives on December 3, 1878 (House Executive 

 Document No. 5, 45th Congress, 3d Session). In this report 

 the academy, after briefly discussing the systems of survey 

 then existing, recommended that the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey be transferred from the Treasury to the Interior Depart- 

 ment and there take over all surveys of mensuration, includ- 

 ing those being performed by the four surveys heretofore 

 enumerated, as well as the work performed by the surveyors 

 of the General Land Office. The report proceeds to state 

 that: 



The best interests of the public domain require, for the pur- 

 poses of intelligent administration, a thorough knowledge of 

 its geological structure, natural resources, and products. The 

 domain embraces a vast mineral wealth in its soils, metals, 

 salines, stones, clays, etc. To meet the requirements of exist- 

 ing laws in the disposition of the agricultural, mineral, pas- 

 toral, timber, desert, and swamp lands, a thorough investiga- 

 tion and classification of the acreage of the public domain is 

 imperatively demanded. The committee, therefore, recom- 

 mend that Congress establish, under the Department of the In- 

 terior, an independent organization, to be known as the 

 United States Geological Survey, to be charged with the study 

 of the geological structure and economical resources of the 

 public domain, such survey to be placed under a Director, who 

 shall be appointed by the President, and who shall report di- 

 rectly to the Secretary of the Interior. 



The recommendations of this report were incorporated in 

 the legislative, executive and judicial appropriation bill, and 

 in this form favorably acted upon by the House, but in the 

 Senate, owing to the congestion of business at the close of the 

 session, and for other reasons not connected with the merits 

 of the matter, these provisions failed of passage. In the re- 

 sulting conference committee the provisions intended to con- 



