138 . The American Geologist. March, 1904. 
far this material has moved upward in the fissures, but a rough 
estimate would put the bed of conglomerate at a depth of 200 
or 300 feet in the locality south of Saddle mountain, and prob- 
ably 500 feet at the dike showing on Ash creek. 
REGULATION OF NOMENCLATURE IN THE WORK 
OF THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
By G. K. Gilbert, WashiriKton, D. C. 
The growth of language is in large part unconscious and 
spontaneous. Spontaneous growth responds to diverse stimuli, 
and lacks symmetry and uniformity. The resulting irregularity 
is always a disadvantage, and it sometimes becomes, as in the 
case of the spelling of English, an enormously expensive bur- 
den. The remedy for such evils is regulation, but regulation al- 
so has its disadvantages, for it interferes with adjustment to 
new conditions, and thus hampers normal growth. In literary 
economy, as in political economy, every law is a restriction of 
freedom. If wisely framed its general effect is beneficent, but no 
law is so wise that all of its applications are free from harm. And 
if a law is too specific and detailed, the advantages it confers 
by uniformity are outweighed by the disadvantages it entails 
by restriction of liberty. 
These general principles are applicable not only to lan- 
guage at large, but to technical terminology ; and the problems 
of regulation are more keenly felt in technical fields, because 
there the accession of new ideas is comparatively rapid and the 
demand for new terms constant and imperative. 
The administrative officers of the United States Geological 
Survey, supervising the work of a large corps and responsible 
for a large body of technical publication, have been so im- 
pressed by the advantages of freedom in the prosecution of 
research, that they have been slow to impose restriction even on 
systematic terminology. When, however, the publication of 
the geologic atlas of the United States was commenced, it be- 
came necessary to formulate a comprehensive and far-seeing 
