162 CLASSIFICATION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



is of a preliminary or tentative character. Examination in the field 

 provides a satisfactory basis for final classification and adjustment.of 

 withdrawals. The following paragraphs relate more particularly 

 to preliminary classification and withdrawal but describe also the 

 routine procedure followed and records prepared in all withdrawals 

 tor power-site purposes. 



The principal steps taken in connection with the making of power- 

 site and reservoir withdrawals are as follows: 



1. Initiation of search for possible power or reservoir sites. The 

 possibility of the existence of valuable power resources is brought 

 to the attention of those charged with the duty of recommending 

 withdrawals through general probability that such sites may exist, 

 through requests for report on the possibility of there being such 

 sites, or through information as to the possible existence of such sites 

 derived from reports of field employees of the Geological Survey or 

 other offices, from news items, from newly published maps, from the 

 filing of applications for rights of way, and from other sources. 



In general the initiative in the premises is taken by the Geological 

 Survey, but it not infrequently occurs that some power company 

 intending to make surveys for a hydro-electric development in 

 new territory requests the withdrawal of the lands likely to be 

 occupied. The purpose served by withdrawal of such lands is two- 

 fold. The valuable power sites that might otherwise be alienated 

 as nonnietalliferous claims, timber and stone entries, agricultural 

 entries, or for some other purpose, are retained in public ownership, 

 and the company or person eventually developing the resource, pre- 

 sumably but by no means necessarily the one who requested the 

 withdrawal, is protected from the intervention of other rights and 

 has merely to acquire the necessary rights from the United States 

 instead of from the United States and a host of persons who might 

 otherwise have succeeded to ownership of the land. 



2. Estimation of character and value of probable development and 

 approximate description of the lands under consideration. This step 

 involves an examination of existing data on stream flow and rainfall, 

 as well as of maps, engineering reports, and all other available sources 

 of information. In some cases information definite and conclusive 

 in character may be brought to light. On the other hand, it fre- 

 quently happens that estimates of stream flow must be based on 

 nothing more reliable than conditions of run-off in basins many miles 

 distant and that estimates of available head for power development 

 must be derived from elevations at scattered points culled from rail- 

 road folders and similar data of doubtful applicability. 



3. Examination of status of lands and definite description of lands 

 to be included in the order of withdrawal. The lands presumed to 

 be valuable for power or resei-voir sites are platted on township plats 



