24 REPORT 
other Geological Surveys and Scientific Societies has been taken up. It 
this policy of careful and business-like exchange is maintained and the lists 
increased as opportunity offers, the library of the Survey is certain to be- 
come an important one and of great service to its officers. 
THE SURVEY ‘IN ITS RELATION TO THE PUBLIC. 
The usefulness of the Survey is not limited to the preparation of 
formal reports on important topics. There is a constant and insistent 
desire on the part of the people to use it as a technical bureau for free 
advice in all matters affecting the geology or mineral industries of the 
state. A very considerable correspondence comes in, increasing rather 
than decreasing in amount, and asking specific and particular questions 
on points in local geology. 
The volume of this correspondence has made it necessary to adopt a 
uniform method of dealing with these requests. Not all of them can be 
granted, but some can and should be answered. ‘There is a certain element 
of justice in the people demanding such information, from the fact that the 
geological reports issued in former years were not so distributed as to 
make them accessible to the average man or community to-day. The cases 
commonly covered by correspondence may be classified as follows: 
Ist. Requests for information covered by previous publications. — 
This is furnished where the time required for copying the answer is not 
too large. Where the portion desired cannot be copied, the enquirer is 
told in what volume and page it occurs and advised how to proceed to get 
access to a copy of the report. 
2nd. Requests for identification of minerals and. fossils. —'Vhis is 
done, where possible. As a rule, the minerals and fossils are simple and 
familiar forms, which can be answered at once. In occasional cases, a 
critical knowledge is required and time for investigation is necessary. Each 
assistant is expected to co-operate with the State Geologist in answering 
inquiries concerning his field. 
3rd. Requests from private individuals for analyses of minerals and 
ores, and tests to establish their commercial value. — Such requests are 
frequent. They cannot be granted, however, except in rare instances. 
Such work should be sent to a commercial chemical laboratory. The 
position has been taken that the Geological Survey is in no sense a chemi- 
cal laboratory and testing station, to which the people may turn for free 
analytical work. Whatever work of this sort is done, is done on the initt- 
ative of the Survey and not at the solicitation of an interested party. 
The greatest misapprehension in the public mind regarding the Sur- 
vey is on this point. Requests for State aid in determining the value of 
private mineral resources, ranging from an assay worth a dollar, up to 
drilling a test well costing several thousand dollars, represent extreme 
