TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

CHARLES D. WALCOTT, Director.

INTRODUCTION.

During the last fiscal year the character of the work and the organization of the force remained substantially the same as described in the Twenty-sixth Annual Report. Accounts of the. work performed in geology and paleontology, chemistry and physics, topography and geography, and hydrography, hydrology, and hydro-economics, as well as in the lines of publication and administration, will be found on later pages.

Appropriations and allotments.-A plan of operations, including an itemized statement of the appropriations, amounting to $1,513,482.30, and the allotments thereof, was approved by the Secretary of the Interior on May 15, 1905. The work of the year conformed to this plan, copies of which are on file at the Department and the Survey.

State cooperation.-Many of the States, following a well-established policy, cooperated with the National Survey in geologic, topographic, and hydrographic work; details are given on pages 12, 29, 72, and 74.

INVESTIGATION OF FUELS AND STRUCTURAL MATERIALS.

The special investigation of the fuel resources of the United States, authorized by Congress in 1904, was continued during the last fiscal year on the same site in Forest Park, at St. Louis, with an allotment of $202,000. The general purpose of these investigations is the making of a series of comparative tests of representative coals and lignites from the important fields of the United States, the same equipment and methods of procedure being used in all cases except when modifications seem necessary in order to ascertain the highest efficiency in the utilization of special fuels. The equipment includes 2 boilers, 1 steam engine, 2 electric generators, 2 gas producers, 1 gas engine, all

on an approximated 250-horsepower basis; a coal-washing and briquetting plant, a drier, a battery of 3 beehive coke ovens, and a wellequipped chemical laboratory. The samples of coal and lignite are collected by trained men employed for this work and are brought to the testing plant in lots of from 50 to 100 tons. The larger tests are supplemented by an elaborate series of chemical examinations of smaller samples from both the car shipments and the coal beds in the mine, the complete history of each of these samples being known. To June 30, 1906, the number of coals, lignites, and peats examined was 2,400; the number of boiler tests, 401; producer-gas tests, 119; coking tests, 218; washing tests, 102; briquetting tests, 54; chemical determinations, 12,878; miscellaneous tests, a considerable number.

The investigation of structural materials was conducted under the same supervision and at the same location as the fuel testing, the station supplying the necessary heat, light, and power for both. The allotment being small ($12,500), the work was necessarily confined to the completion of tests already begun and the beginning of limited additional tests of cement, concrete, and other constituent materials. In addition to this testing work, a general inquiry was instituted, at the request of a number of architects and engineers, into the present state of knowledge relative to the strength and other properties of building materials available for use in the United States. During May and June, with the cooperation of the War Department and the committee of engineers representing the American Society of Civil Engineers and associated organizations, an investigation was made of the effect of the earthquake and fire at San Francisco on buildings and building material. A report on these investigations will be published soon.

NEED FOR INCREASE OF APPROPRIATIONS.

Geology. While the demands for geologic work in many localities and along many lines are increasing more rapidly than they can be met with present appropriations, they are specially urgent in two directions, for which an increase in the appropriation for geology of $50,000 is recommended.

The known iron-ore deposits in the United States are being rapidly absorbed, and there is keen competition on the part of the large iron companies in increasing their ore reserves. Such companies are fully aware of the value of expert geologic advice and are able to pay for it, but in order that any fair return may be received by present owners of ore lands reliable information regarding the occurrence and value of iron-ore deposits should be acquired and disseminated. The Government itself is directly interested, since extensive deposits of iron ore occur upon the public lands. These are being investigated as rapidly as possible, but the force employed for this purpose should be at least doubled.

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.

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 uses. 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 perso onal scientific work in the Survey, except to prepare for publication the Mo.. tana geologic section and to advance the study of the Cambrian faunas.

GEOLOG BRANCH.

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Administration. The geologic inch comprises four divisions, viz, the division of geology and pantology, the division of Alaskan mineral resources, the division of ming and mineral resources, and the division of chemical and physic research. The chiefs of these four divisions formerly reported dictly to the Director, but last year they were combined into a single administrative unit under the geologist in charge of geology. Th pose of this concentration of