1 8 THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



occupation until further provided by law." Thus, for the first 

 time, the Survey was vested with powers of direct adminis- 

 tration with respect to the public domain. 



Immediately upon the enactment of this legislation, the 

 Survey organized a large force, composed principally of topo- 

 graphic engineers, and undertook a vigorous prosecution of 

 the project entrusted to it. Within a little more than a year 

 after its organization this branch of the Survey, which is com- 

 monly referred to as the Powell Irrigation Survey, segregated 

 127 reservoir sites, having an area of over 2,500 square miles, 

 and, in addition, over 30,000,000 acres of irrigable land lo- 

 cated in five distinct basins. 10 



The sweeping action of the Survey provoked a wide-spread 

 protest from persons in the arid region who were adversely 

 affected and as a result a special committee of the Senate was 

 appointed to investigate the entire subject. The report of the 

 majority of the committee, rendered in 1890, severely criti- 

 cized the policy adopted by the Survey. 11 By the act of Au- 

 gust 30, 1890 (26 Stat. L, 391), the whole of the act of 1888 

 was accordingly repealed except as to reservoir sites, the seg- 

 regation and reservation of which was expressly continued. 

 The appropriations made in 1888 and 1889 f° r the survey of 

 the arid lands were also discontinued. 



Though it may be said that the operations of the Powell 

 Irrigation Survey thus met with congressional disapproval, 

 the actual results achieved by it in topographic maps of the 

 arid regions and in stream measurements constituted a work 

 of enduring value and furnished the basis upon which the 

 subsequent work of the Survey in connection with reclama- 

 tion was largely based. 



Whether because of the disfavor with which its operations 



10 The reports on the operations of the Powell Irrigation Survey 

 were published in separate volumes of the annual report of the 

 Director of the Survey for the fiscal years 1889 to 1892, inclusive. 

 Ihe figures are taken from the volume for 1889, page viii. 



J1 The report of the committee together with the record of the 

 hearings held by it was printed as Senate Report No. 928, sist Con- 

 gress, 1st Session. ° 



