The Government is the largest holder of coal lands in the world. These lands have up to the present been on the market, yet the Government has spent less in determining the value of its property than many private companies. It has been demonstrated that many millions of dollars can be saved to the Government by a geologic examination of its coal lands at a cost of less than 1 per cent of the amount saved. In view of the rapid development of western coal mining and the proposition to withdraw coal lands from sale in order to sell the coal itself on a royalty basis, there is an urgent demand for immediate accurate information, which the present appropriation is wholly inadequate to provide without sacrificing other important work in progress elsewhere. Requests for information regarding the extent, location, and value of coal on public lands have been received from the President and from the Senate (Senate resolution of June 29, 1906), which can not be adequately complied with, since the information requested is not in existence.

Topography. No increase in appropriations for topographic surveys has been asked for the last two years, altho an increase was made by Congress for 1905-6 to meet pressing demands. These demands have been growing with such urgency that it is no longer possible to ignore them, and it is therefore recommended that an appropriation of $400,000 for such surveys be requested for the fiscal year 1907-8, this sum being $50,000 in excess of the amount appropriated for 1906-7.

The demand for topographic surveys on which this request for increase in appropriation is based comes from people living in many States and Territories, who are engaged in various kinds of work that depend upon or are related to the topography and economic resources of the country. The requests are received thru representatives in Congress, thru the Secretary of the Interior, thru State geologists, commissioners of agriculture, State engineers, and other State officials, and thru the War Department on behalf of the Army of the United States. For two years past these requests for topographic surveys have so far exceeded the ability of the Survey to comply with them, because of lack of funds, that the plans approved for the fiscal year 1906-7 are more than half a million dollars short on work urgently called for.

Requests are on file for topographic mapping in 62 localities in which work is considered urgent, but for lack of available funds none of these requests can be complied with. Twenty-eight of these localities are mining districts, containing precious metals, coal, oil, and iron; 5 are areas of which the Reclamation Service requested maps; 5 are areas of which maps are especially wanted for the administration of the Forest Service; 2 are areas for the proposed forest reserves in the Eastern States; 18 are areas for which there are petitions indorsed by Senators and Members of Congress, and 4 are areas for the survey

of which requests have been received thru the Secretary of War on behalf of the General Staff of the Army.

Hydrography. The amount appropriated annually by Congress since 1902 for the investigation of water resources of the United States had been $200,000 until Congress at its last session reduced the amount to $150,000 for the fiscal year 1906-7. This action will cause a corresponding reduction of work during the present year.

uses.

In adjusting the work to meet the decreased appropriation, it has been the aim to discontinue the investigations that are of the least importance in each locality rather than to make a uniform reduction thruout. The investigations relate principally to (1) occurrence and availability of ground waters, (2) measurement of stream flow, and (3) the quality of water and its application to domestic and industrial In some regions large numbers of stream-measurement stations that had been established as a result of urgent demands and local needs have been discontinued; in other regions valuable ground-water investigations have been given up. In each locality the work for which there seems to be greatest economic need has been continued. While this is apparently the best solution of the difficulty, there result loss of valuable records, which by reason of their suspension will become practically useless, and retardation of the industrial growth of many localities dependent upon the development of water supplies and water power. It will be impossible for private parties or the States to undertake these investigations, for they involve in most cases interstate studies and continuous gagings for a considerable period.

Water is the most valuable of all the mineral resources of the United States. Upon no other single resource or group of resources is social and economic welfare so dependent, and to teach people how to utilize water resources is to promote their prosperity as it can be promoted perhaps in no other way. Investigations that furnish data concerning the amount, availability, and character of water, whether from ground or surface sources, should, therefore, be maintained and encouraged by the General Government.

The benefit derived from the hydrographic work in the United States is thoroly demonstrated. As an investment it has produced large returns. The results obtained under the former appropriation justify the restoration of the $50,000 at the next session of Congress. By reason of the wide extent of country involved, the lessened appropriation of $150,000 must be distributed in allotments so small that many of the investigations can not in any single year be made sufficiently thoro to permit the preparation of final reports, but with the $50,000 restored the allotment for each piece of work would be sufficient to produce results which the Survey would be warranted in publishing annually.

RECLAMATION SERVICE.

The Director of the Geological Survey acted as Director of the Reclamation Service during the year, and the chief disbursing clerk of the Survey as the chief disbursing officer of the Reclamation Service.

The more or less intimate relations that existed between the Reclamation Service and the Geological Survey from 1902 to 1905 were gradually changed, so that by June 30, 1906, connection was practically abolished, except the directorship and the disbursing. As the result of the appropriation made by Congress for additional rental for the Reclamation Service, a large proportion of its force and all of its archives were moved to another building near the Survey, and it is expected that in the early future the dissociation of the Survey and the Reclamation Service will be complete. With this in view, in the estimates it is recommended that Congress be asked to appropriate $3,000 additional rental for the Survey, and also to authorize the expenditure of $3,000 by the Reclamation Service for rental.

WORK OF THE YEAR.

FIELD AND OFFICE WORK BY THE DIRECTOR.

During the summer of 1905 the Director made a detailed study of the great series of rocks between the "Rocky Mountain front," facing the Great Plains, and Ravalli, Mont. The object of this was to work out a reference section for an extensive area of strata in northwestern Montana and northern Idaho. A detailed section of the Cambrian rocks of the House Range, Utah, was completed and large collections of fossils were made. In September the Director examined the country affected by the Strawberry irrigation project in Utah and the Gunnison tunnel or Uncompahgre project in Colorado, and late in that month he made a visit to the fuel-testing plant at St. Louis. Administrative duties pertaining to the Survey and to the Reclamation Service prevented him from doing any considerable amount of personal scientific work in the Survey, except to prepare for publication the Montana geologic section and to advance the study of the Cambrian faunas.

GEOLOGIC BRANCH.

Administration. The geologic branch comprises four divisions, viz, the division of geology and paleontology, the division of Alaskan mineral resources, the division of mining and mineral resources, and the division of chemical and physical research. The chiefs of these four divisions formerly reported directly to the Director, but last year they were combined into a single administrative unit under the geologist in charge of geology. The purpose of this concentration of

administrative authority was to secure proper cooperation and coordination in the various lines of work.

State cooperation.-Three States made appropriations for cooperative geologic work, viz, Maine, $1,500; Pennsylvania, $4,000, and North Carolina, $1,000.

Publications.-The official publications of the geologic branch during the year included 13 geologic folios, 1 monograph and the atlas accompanying another (XXXII), 12 professional papers, 16 bulletins, and the annual volume on mineral resources. These embody the economic results of the work and the principal contributions to science resulting from the various investigations. In addition there were published, with the permission of the Director, in scientific journals and the transactions of scientific societies, a large number of papers based in whole or in part on the work of this branch.

DIVISION OF GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY.

Organization. As during the last several years, the administrative control of the division was in the hands of the geologist in charge of geology, while scientific supervision was exercised by the section chiefs. The latter are responsible for the methods employed in the various lines of investigation and for the quality of the results presented in Survey publications. The form of organization, altho somewhat complex, is thoroly satisfactory, and is necessitated by the diversity and complexity of the problems under investigation.

Personnel. The scientific force of the division at the beginning of the fiscal year consisted of 47 geologists, 6 paleontologists, 40 assistant geologists, and 16 geologic aids. Of these, 31 geologists, 15 assistant geologists, and 10 aids were occupied continuously thruout the year; the remainder, being on the per diem roll, gave only a portion of their time or none at all to Survey work. During the year resignations and appointments resulted in a net gain of 4 in the force. In addition to the above regular force 5 field assistants were employed for a portion of the year.

GEOLOGIC WORK IN NEW ENGLAND AND NORTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION.

During the year cooperative work in Maine was continued. The mapping of the Rockland quadrangle was finished and the geologic folio prepared, and work on the Mount Desert area was continued. The text for the Penobscot Bay folio, previously surveyed, was completed and submitted for publication. Brief reports on the limestone and clay of the Rockland area and on new occurrences of slate and graphite in the State were prepared for the annual economic bulletin. A special examination of the granite quarries was made, and

the detailed report, which will be issued as a bulletin of the Survey, is nearly ready for publication.

The maps and manuscripts for the Quinsigamond and Ware folios, covering several quadrangles in Massachusetts, were completed with the exception of the Pleistocene geology, on which considerable progress was made, the mapping of the Quaternary deposits of the Brookfield quadrangle being finished. Considerable progress was also made in the study of the Pleistocene geology of the areas covered by the Housatonic and adjacent folios in Massachusetts.

A special investigation was made of the several drift sheets and Pleistocene formations of Rhode Island and the southern part of Massachusetts for the purpose of differentiating them and correlating them with the pre-Wisconsin deposits of Long Island. In connection with this investigation a study was made of the clays of Cape Cod, a brief report of which was prepared for the annual economic bulletin.

In cooperation with the New Jersey State Survey the Franklin Furnace folio was completed. In connection with this work a general study of the iron-ore deposits of the pre-Cambrian region of New Jersey and southeastern New York was made for the purpose of determining the mode of origin of these ores, the study having a direct bearing on the investigation of the zinc and manganese-bearing ores in the Franklin Furnace area. As a result of this investigation a special report on the zinc-ore deposits of the Franklin Furnace and Stirling Hill regions is in preparation. It will contain a chapter on the interesting minerals of this portion of New Jersey, which has long been classical collecting ground for the mineralogist.

The mapping of the crystalline rocks of the Raritan and Passaic quadrangles and of portions of the Greenwood Lake and Easton quadrangles of New Jersey was also completed.

Special attention was given to the critical examination of type localities of crystalline rocks in New England, the New Jersey Highlands, and the Pennsylvania Piedmont Plateau region, with a view to clarifying the relations of the various crystalline rocks, a problem which is directly connected with the economic resources of the East. Additional field work was done in the Mercersburg and Chambersburg quadrangles, in Pennsylvania, with a view to mapping the Ordovician formations on a partially paleontologic basis, and in the West Chester, Norristown, and Philadelphia quadrangles, for the purpose of elucidating certain complicated structural problems. Considerable progress was also made in the areal and economic surveys of the Coatesville and Phoenixville quadrangles, Pennsylvania, but additional field work will be necessary before the results can be prepared for publication.