182 The American Geologist. September, ly. 7 
low, Ilag.-ir, Norwood, ruiupelly, Broadhead, Williams (C.P.) 
Winslow, Keyes. It is plain that, witli much that is incomplete 
and lost on the change from one administration to another, 
much is also done in duplicate. Indeed in several instances 
the same areas have been twice examined and reported, and 
in some cases twice mapped. It is not apparent that, up to 
the present, politics has had an3'tliing to do with this broken 
and discouraging history ; but the present board of control, 
which is a creature of the governor f)f the state, has fallen 
under the bane of partisan political intrigue and has given 
the Missouri survey the worst adverse blow it has yet suffered. 
In all the country no state survey has surpassed the Mis- 
souri survey in energy, and in important and valuable results 
while under the management of Dr. Keyes. Since 1894, at 
which date the survey devolved on him, more has been printed 
and desseminated concerning the geology of Missouri than in 
all the previous years of its history. No citizen of the state 
nor any geologist outside of the state, could find an}' fault with 
it. It worked smoothly, continuoush' and fruitfully. But it 
has been brought to a sudden close. In name the organiza- 
tion continues, and the usual salaries will be paid from the 
State's treasury. As an organ for the development of the ge- 
ology of the state, it has met the withering hand of politics 
with fatal results. At a recent meeting of the board of man- 
agers, the state geologist was removed and there was elected 
in his place a man whose name was never pronounced as that 
of a geologist, and whose only qualification for the position 
consists, as reported in the state press, in having efficiently 
intrigued with the governor in re-forming the board of man- 
agers, and in having served once as a guard at the peniten- 
tiary. These qualifications stand very low in the geological 
scale. The records and cabinet which have been accumulat- 
ing for the past eight 3'ears under the present law, were im- 
mediatelj' consigned to the attic of an old building, all field- 
work was ordered abandoned at once, and several imjiortant 
pieces of work which were almost ready for publication were 
"not needed." The only reason urged for such unprecedented 
change of policy was that the geologist heretofore in charge 
of the work "was not active enough in practical politics.'' 
Prof. E. M. Shepard, of Drury College, Springfield, the only 
