82 THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



lands under the public land laws, and to give opinion on appli- 

 cations for entry or right of way on such lands. 



In 1908, in consequence of the growth of the Survey's land 

 classification work in volume and importance, the Land Classi- 

 fication Board was organized as a section of the Geologic 

 Branch. Upon this board was laid the duty of systematizing 

 that work more completely and of adopting certain definite 

 principles that might be consistently, uniformly and thor- 

 oughly applied to it. On May 1, 191 2, the importance of the 

 classification work was further recognized by the designation 

 of the Land Classification Board as a separate branch of the 

 Survey, coordinate in rank with the Geologic, Topographic 

 and Water Resources Branches. 



The board maintains no field staff of its own, but bases its 

 reports on the results of field and laboratory investigations 

 made by other branches of the Survey or by the General Land 

 Office. 



The board is in charge of a geologist. It is composed of 

 three divisions, as follows: 



1. Administrative and General 



2. Division of Mineral Classification 



3. Division of Hydrographic Classification 



Of the 934 permanent employees of the Survey on June 30, 

 1917, 42 constituted the personnel of the Land Classification. 

 Board. 



Division of Mineral Classification. The Division of Min- 

 eral Classification is divided into four sections — coal, oil, phos- 

 phate and metalliferous — a committee, with a chairman in 

 charge, being organized for each section. The chief of the 

 division, who is directly responsible to the chief of the branch, 

 is also the geologist in charge of the Metalliferous Section. 



Division of Hydrographic Classification. The Division of 

 Hydrographic Classification is composed of the Section of 

 Utilization, the chairman of which is a hydraulic engineer, 



