10 THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [bull. 227. 
Maj. J. W. Powell, covered an area of about 67,000 square miles, in 
Wyoming, Utah, and Arizona. 
Before the creation of these more elaborate Federal surveys explo- 
ration parties, mainly under the War Department, were dispatched 
in various directions over the mountain regions of the Far West, 
where they made topographic and geologic surveys and examinations 
of the natural resources. In these expeditions the parties followed 
the more important Indian trails, river basins, and mountain passes. 
When the United States Geological Survey was created all these 
earlier surveys were discontinued except the Coast and Geodetic 
Survey, which, as a part of the new Department of Commerce and 
Labor, continues to make surveys of the coast, and geodetic and scien- 
tific investigations on lines which have been followed for more than 
half a century. 
The first Director of the Geological Survey was Mr. Clarence King, 
formerly Director of the Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. Mr. 
King held the office until 18S1, when he resigned, and was succeeded 
by Maj. J. W. Powell, formerly Director of the Surve} 7 of the Rocky 
Mountain Region. Major Powell held the office until 1894, when he 
resigned and was succeeded by the present incumbent, Mr. Charles D. 
Walcott, 
The paragraph of the organic act creating the office of the Director 
of the United States Geological Surve}^ reads, in part, as follows: 
* * * this officer shall have the direction of the Geological Survey, and the 
classification of the public lands and examination of the geological structure, mineral 
resources, and products of the national domain. 
The first Director had doubt concerning the precise intention of 
Congress, regarding both the functions of the organization and its 
field of operations. In respect to the first point, he concluded "that 
the intention of Congress was to begin a rigid scientific classification 
of the lands of the national domain, * * * for the general infor- 
mation of the people of the country, and to produce a series of land 
maps which should show all those features upon which intelligent agri- 
culturists, miners, engineers, and timbermen might hereafter base their 
operations and which would obviously be of the highest value to all 
students of the political economy and resources of the United States." 
Doubt arose respecting the field of operations of the new organization 
because of ambiguity in the term " national domain," which might lie 
taken to mean either the land actually owned by the nation, or the area 
within its boundaries. The Director adopted a conservative course 
and planned to survey only areas within the limits of the public lands. 
This limitation, however, was removed b/v an act of Congress approved 
August 7, 1882, which contained a clause reading, in part, "to con- 
tinue the preparation of a geological map of the United States." This 
