Editorial Cotntnent. 189 
EDITORIAL COMMENT. 
During the spring of 1900 the Director of the U. S. Geo- 
logical Survey has planned, with the approval of the Secre- 
tary of the Interior, an important reorganization of the geo- 
logic branch. In order that the significance of this step 
should be appreciated in all its bearings, it is desirable briefly 
to review the history of the administration and scientific con- 
trol within the survey. 
In the first annual report, Mr, King set forth a plan of 
organization based on grand geographic and geologic 
provinces. The work being then restricted to the national 
domain west of the loist meridian, four divisions were estab- 
lished, that of the Rocky mountains under Emmons, that of 
the Colorado under Dutton, that of the Great Basin under 
Gilbert, and of the Pacific under Hague. Each of these di- 
visions corresponded to a province within which the geologic 
phenomena had a certain unity of history and character, and 
it was wisely argued that the work in each should be directed 
by a geologist familiar with the special problems of the area 
entrusted to him. At the same time, the limited appropria- 
tions of the survey and the adopted policy of surveying the 
most important mining districts led to a concentration of 
effort upon Leadville, Eureka, and the Comstock lode, so that 
initially comparatively little progress was made in solving the 
broad geologic problems presented to each division. The 
principal contributions which the West yielded to the philoso- 
phy of the "science were made by the surveys through whose 
consolidation the Geological Survey was created. With the 
growth of the survey and the addition to its corps of many 
of the leading minds in American geology, more numerous 
geographic divisions were established and their limits became 
more artificial. Thus, in the sixth annual report we find 
enumerated, in addition to the ones first established, the di- 
vision of Glacial Geology (Chamberlin), the division of Vol- 
canic Geology (Dutton), the division of the Cr\'stalline Schists 
of the Appalachian and Lake Superior Regions (Pumpelly and 
Irving respectively), the Appalachian Region (Gilbert), and 
the Yellowstone Park (Hague). As divisions became more 
numerous and restricted, the administrative machinery became 
