GOVERNMENT SURVEYS. o 



which the Geographical Society of France proposes to form and which, composed 

 of persons delegated by that society, by the African Association, and by the Soci- 

 ety of Commercial Geography, of Paris, will occupy itself specially with the 

 exploration and commercial development of the region comprised between Al" 

 giers, Tunis, Senegal and Senegambia. 



Bremen, March 10, 1879. 

 Sir: Herewith I have the honor to inform you that on the 15th of March 

 I shall resign my charge as honorary secretary of the Bremen Geographical Soci- 

 ety, and, remaining member of the council of the latter, shall transfer my resi- 

 dence to Gotha. I beg to direct all letters, journals, etc. for our society, from 

 that date, to my successor, A. W. Wolkenhauer, Ph. D., Bremen, Besselstrasse, 

 No. 29. Communications for me, I beg to send to 



Dr. M. Lindeman, 

 Co-editor of Dr. Peterman's Mittheilungen, Gotha, care of Justus Perthes. 



GOVERNMENT SURVEYS. 



The following is a summary of the Congressional action consolidating the 

 several surveys made under direction of the Government, taken at the session 

 which terminated March 4, 1879 : 



The Director of the Geological Survey, which office is established under the 

 Interior Department, shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice 

 and consent of the Senate. This officer shall have the direction of the Geolog- 

 ical Survey and the classification of the public lands and examination of the geo- 

 logical structure, mineral resources and products of the national domain. The 

 Director and members of the Geological Survey shall have no personal or private 

 interests in the lands or mineral wealth of the region under survey, and shall 

 execute no surveys or examinations for private parties or corporations. The Ge- 

 ological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, and the Geographical and 

 Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, under the Department of the 

 Interior, and the Geographical Surveys west of the one hundredth meridian, 

 under the War Department, are discontinued, to take effect on the thirtieth day 

 of June, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine. All collections of rocks, minerals, 

 soils, fossils, and objects of natural history, Archaeology and Ethnology, made by 

 the Coast and Interior Survey, the Geological Survey, or by any other parties for 

 the Government of the United States, when no longer needed for investigations 

 in progress, shall be deposited in the National Museum. 



A commission on the codification of existing laws relating to the survey and 

 disposition of the public domain is appointed, to consist of the Commissioner of 

 the General Land Office, the Director of the United States Geological Survey, and 

 three civilians, to be appointed by the President. Neither the Commissioner of the 

 General Land Office nor the director of the United States Geological Survey shall 



