276 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 164 



no desire to colonize other regions than those 

 taken from Turkey. 



The following tables are of much interest. 

 They show that eighty per cent of the colonial 

 territory held by Europe belongs to Great Britain, 

 that over eighty per cent of the entire commerce 

 is with Great Britain, while the territory of its 

 colonies is sixty times as large as that of Great 

 Britain itself. 



Territory. 



Countries. 



Surface in square kilometres. 



Per- 

 centages. 



Mother- 

 country. 



Colonies. 



Total. 



Moth, 

 coun. 



Col's. 



England . . . 

 Portugal . . 

 Netherl'ds. 

 France , . . . 



Denmark. . 



Total.... 



312,639 

 89,297 

 32,745 

 528,393 

 499,570 

 35,686 



20,552,574 

 1,827,259 

 1,767,748 

 990,825 

 429,085 

 225,564 



20,865,213 

 1,916,556 

 1,800,493 

 1,519,218 

 928,655 

 261,250 



1.5 

 4.7 

 1.8 

 34.8 

 53.3 

 13.7 



98.5 

 95.3 

 98.2 

 65 2 

 46.2 

 86.3 



1,498,330 



25,793,055 



27,291,385 



5.5 



94.5 



Population. 



Countries. 



Population in 1831. 



Per- 

 centages. 



Mother- 

 country. 



Colonies. 



Total. 



Moth, 

 coun. 



Col's. 



England ... 

 Netherl'ds. 

 France 



Portugal.. . 

 Denmark. . 



Total.... 



35,153,780 

 4,172.991 

 37.672,048 

 16.310,874 

 4,160,315 

 1.969,045 



213,918,000 

 26,841,597 

 8,722,857 

 8,175,467 

 3,723,967 

 127,122 



249,071,000 

 31,014,588 

 46,394,905 

 24,526.341 

 7,884^82 

 2,096,167 



14.1 

 13.5 

 81.2 

 66.7 

 52.8 

 91.8 



85.9 

 86.5 

 18.9 

 33.3 

 47.2 

 8.2 



99,479,053 j 281,509,010 



360,988,063 



27.6 



72.4 



Trade. 



Countries. 



Commerce 

 of the 

 mother-coun- 

 try. 



Commerce of 

 the colonies 

 with the 

 moth. -country. 



Colonial com- 

 merce compared 

 to the commerce 

 of the mother- 

 country in per- 

 centages. 



England 



France 



Netherlands. . . 



Total 



17,884.275,000 

 10,686.500.000 

 4,428,450,000 

 1,871,160,000 

 598,950 000 

 391,950,000 



4,658,950.000 

 526,400,000 

 200,200,000 

 128,800,000 

 22,500,000 

 7,925.000 



26.00 

 4 95 

 4.50 

 9.39 

 2.46 

 2.02 



35,311,275,000 



5,544,775,000 



15.70 



Gardiner G. Hubbard. 



THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



As a part of the evidence before the commis- 

 sion considering the organization of the govern- 

 ment scientific bureaus, there was recently pre- 

 sented a letter from Mr. Alexander Agassiz, in 

 which he took occasion to censure the work of 

 the geological survey, and to condemn to some 

 extent its existence as a government institution. 



One question raised by Mr. Agassiz is whether 

 the work carried on by the survey should not be 

 left to individual enterprise. In answer to this, 

 Major Powell, in a reply addressed to the com- 

 mission, calls attention to the large expenditures 

 required for such work, and adds, that he has no 

 knowledge of any case where private institutions, 

 such as colleges or societies, have undertaken to 

 do field-work in topography and geology. To 

 some extent individuals, notably a few college 

 professors, have made geological excursions in the 

 field, and have accumulated valuable material. 



The principal publications in this country on 

 geology and paleontology, however, have con- 

 tained the results of investigations carried on at 

 the expense of the general or state governments ; 

 and the publication of such results, on account of 

 the cost of the plates required, is far beyond the 

 resources of private institutions. To show the 

 relation between the official publications and 

 those at private expense, Major Powell presents 

 some figures collected from the material in the 

 library of the geological survey. They do not 

 represent the entire body of publication, but it is 

 believed that they fairly give the ratio of official 

 to private matter. These figures show 105,775 

 pages on general geology published by the govern- 

 ment, to 15,139 pages published by private parties. 

 The ratio of geological maps is about the same ; 

 and, comparing the amount of governmental 

 with the amount of private publications in pale- 

 ontology, the ratio of number of pages is 18,151 

 to 13,916 ; the number of plates being as 2,858 

 to 769. 



The publications of the survey contain the 

 writings of nearly all our best geologists ; and it 

 is thought by Major Powell that a wide distribu- 

 tion of its scientific reports, placing them at the 

 disposal of one or two libraries in each county in 

 the country, would tend to make the results of the 

 investigations as available as they should 



It has been especially fortunate for the survey 

 that there t xists in the Comstock, Eureka, and 

 Leadville mining districts vast shafts and galleries 

 which have allowed of an unparalleled study of 

 problems in economic geology ; and great credit is 

 due to the survey for having taken advantage of 

 these opportunities. As the law establishing the 



