laneous laws deserve mention: Colo- | 519) and which gave rise to a storm

X. PUBLIC RESOURCES AND PUBLIC WORKS

PUBLIC LANDS
MORRIS BIEN

Rocky Mountain National Park.During the final session of the Sixtythird Congress several bills of interest were enacted in regard to the public lands. An act of more than usual interest to the country as a whole was that which established the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, approved Jan. 26, 1915. This new park contains approximately 230,000 acres and is of special interest because it is so easily accessible, being within three or four miles of one line of railroad and within 15 miles of several others. It is also within about 40 miles of Denver. The park is placed under the executive control of the Secretary of the Interior, who is to make and publish reasonable rules and regulations for its care, protection, management and improvement. Enlarged Homesteads.-During this session of Congress several acts were passed relative to the Enlarged Homestead Act. This law was originally approved on Feb. 19, 1909, and permits homestead entries of 320 acres on non-mineral lands which have been designated by the Secretary of the Interior as not susceptible of successful irrigation at a reasonable cost from any known source of water supply. The same provisions are made in regard to residence and cultivation as under the usual homestead law, but as the privilege of commutation does not apply, title may not be acquired before the end of the residence period by cash payment. Those who take up these enlarged homesteads are required to cultivate continuously for agricultural crops other than native grasses at least one-six-shall revert to the United States. teenth of the area beginning with the second year of the entry and at least one-eighth of the area beginning with the third year of the entry. This Act s originally passed applied to only a

few of the public-land states of the West but by various amendments it is now applicable to practically all of them. It is impracticable to state the actual net amount of public land which has been designated by the Secretary of the Interior as available for entry under this law, because the lists of lands so designated frequently contain a considerable percentage of lands not subject to entry, it being very difficult to obtain the precise status of all the lands in so large an area. On Aug. 31, 1915, however, the total area designated as available for entry under the law was nearly 240,000,000 acres, of which only a part is in fact subject to entry.

Protection of Water Supply for Towns. Following the policy established a number of years ago, Congress passed several acts under which certain lands are set apart for the protection of the water supply of various cities and towns. During the last session such legislation was passed for the town of Nevadaville, Colo. (Feb. 27), and for the city of Grand Junction, Colo. (March 3). These acts in general designate specific tracts and provide that the city may purchase the lands at the rate of $1.25 per acre. The United States reserves all oil, coal and other mineral deposits that may be found in the lands granted and the necessary use of the lands for extracting the same. The city holds the land subject to the limitation that it will be used only for the purpose of protecting the water supply, and in case the lands shall cease to be so used they

School Lands in Alaska.-By an Act of March 4, 1915, Congress set apart for the territory of Alaska two sections in each township when surveyed, namely sections 16 and 36 and

owned by the United States on July 1, 1915, which are not reserved. About one-fourth of the area is surveyed and available for settlement and entry:

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado

Area, acres 47,940 .378,165,760

36,810.327

also section 33 in certain localities. | areas of lands in the several states These lands are to be reserved from sale or settlement for the purpose of supporting a territorial Agricultural College and School of Mines when established by the legislature of Alaska. Provision is also made that if any of said sections shall be of known mineral character at the date of the survey, they shall not be reserved, but the entire proceeds or income derived by the United States from said lands and the minerals are appropri ated and set apart as separate and permanent funds to be expended for public schools for the Agricultural College and School of Mines as directed by the legislature of the territory. (See also VIII, Alaska.)

Sale of Villa Sites at Flathead Lake, Montana.-Flathead Lake, lying near the line of the Great Northern Railway in Montana, was formerly included within an Indian Reservation which has been restored to entry. Provision was made, however, for reserving a strip of land along its shores and on the islands within it for future disposition. These lands were subdivided into lots of convenient size of from two to five acres each and pursuant to law these lots were placed on sale on July 26, 1915. There were 21 groups of villa sites fronting on the lake and 889 lots were surveyed. The lake is a beautiful one, the surroundings very attractive and the climate corresponds to that of Pennsylvania or southern New York. The lots were disposed of at public sale to the highest bidder. No lot was to be sold for less than $10 per acre and payment of at least 25 per cent. of the price bid was required on the date of the sale. The remainder was payable in one to three payments according to the total amount bid for the lot. All the lots were sold for a total of $129,578.80. Vacant Public Lands.-The following table shows approximately the

Florida
Idaho

Kansas
Louisiana
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri

Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Mexico
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Dakota
Utah
Washington
Wyoming

Wisconsin

278,155 20,635.923 17.236,114 268,484 16,212.273 75.214 101.016 76,030 943.831

36,882

923

19,065,121

192.358

55.417.746

27,788.357

493.667 42,177

15.442,178

2.934,609

33.363.837

1,144,605

6.758

30,929,969

657,710,254

Disposition of Public Lands.-The total area of public lands entered during the year ending June 30, 1915, was 16,861,214 acres, an increase of 338,362 acres as compared with the area entered during the preceding year. The total cash receipts from the sale of public lands during that year were $3,786,319.54; from the sale of Indian lands there were received in addition $1,556,630.97. These figures represent a decrease of $797,955.22 as compared with the receipts for the preceding year. The area of lands patented during the year was 13,025,428 acres, a decrease from the preceding year of 1,365,643 acres. Of the area patented 9,594,973 acres were taken under the Homestead Law, a decrease from the preceding year of 405,662 acres.

MINERAL RESOURCES

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEORGE OTIS SMITH Activities of the Year.-Never in its history has the extent and breadth of the work of the U. S. Geological

Survey, both scientific and economic, been as great as during the year 1915. The personnel of the organization now numbers 900, besides a large number of temporary field workers during the open seasons. The aggregate of

The year's output in topographic maps published contributes materially to the total of more than 40 per cent. of the area of the United States shown on printed maps, besides considerable areas in Alaska. The present topographic surveys find expression in maps that have no rivals in the world (see also XXIII, Cartogra

accomplishment is large. Within the continuing active explorations of lityear 76,000 sq. miles of American tle known regions and detailed interritory were investigated geologi- vestigations of known mineralized cally, 35,000 sq. miles were topo- areas. Active work is in progress on graphically surveyed, the volumes of the new $2,500,000 building at Washrivers were measured at 1,350 gaugington in which the Survey will be ing stations, and 36,000 sq. miles were housed, the contract having been let classified as to their character and for its completion by Jan. 1, 1917. value as concerns coal, oil, gas, phos- Publications.-Since the statement phates and other minerals, water pow- in the YEAR BOOK for 1914 (p. 267), er and other water resources, or des- the Geological Survey has published ignated as available for entry under 187 books and distributed 596,649 the enlarged or 320-acre homestead copies of its many hundreds of relaw (see also Public Lands, supra). ports. These reports are sought by The major portion of this work was as diverse a class of citizens as is carried on by the Survey independ- indicated by the correspondence of the ently, but much of it was done in co- office, the illiterate prospector, the operation with other Federal bureaus, large mine operator, the manufacsuch as the Office of Indian Affairs, turer who finishes the mine product, the General Land Office, the Reclama- the college professor and the publicist. tion Service, the Bureau of Mines, and also with many of the states, the U. S. Geological Survey being recognized as best equipped and possessed of the men best trained to carry the surveys forward promptly and economically. Thus 16 states met the Survey allotments of money with equal amounts, some with even more, the sums allotted aggregating hun-phy). They are coming into more dreds of thousands of dollars for geologic and topographic surveys and for investigations of water resources (see also State Geological Surveys, infra). The vast fund of scientific and economic information acquired during the past third of a century is being heavily augmented each year through field, laboratory and office work, and the large and growing correspondence with the public ranges in character from discussions of matters of pure science to letters from manufacturers of articles of everyday use asking for the addresses of producers of raw minerals. Wider field investigation brings to light constantly accumulating information of the vastness of American mineral resources. The work of the past five or six years, for example, has increased the known rock phosphate reserves in the western states from an approximate 250 million tons to more than five billion tons and has increased the known coal reserve of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, by some 400 billion tons. In Alaska the Geological Survey has made its usual important contributions in geology and geography,

and more extensive use by all classes, great numbers, for instance, being sold to automobilists. The Survey distributed more than half a million of these maps during the year.

Geological Guidebooks.-Something of an innovation in reaching the people with Survey information found expression during the summer in the issuance of four transcontinental guidebooks, prepared expressly for the great traveling and reading public and sold by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, at $1 a copy (see also XXIII, Dynamical and Structural Geology). The routes covered are the Northern Pacific, the Overland, the Santa Fe, and the Coast Line and Shasta. The volumes are wholly popular in style, although the traveler, as he turns their pages to keep pace with the plains, the mountains, the valleys and the towns which he sees through the car window, may read interesting features of their geologic as well as of their human history. Here and there he is carried back in time to a strange early world, when the Great Plains country was a huge island sea, or, later, a dense

provement, and natural history study. În 1915 the state surveys expended approximately $430,000 and received the benefits of about $100,000 additional expenditure from funds of cooperating Federal and state departments. About 95 scientists were employed throughout the year by the states, besides 25 others furnished by coöperating bureaus. In addition a large force of topographers and soil experts were engaged in making cooperative maps.

semitropical swamp in which dwelt | surveys continues to be the collection strange and monstrous beasts, or to and dissemination of information a still later time when the region was about mineral resources and geologinhabited by a higher order of ani- ical structure; but many have charge mals-the saber-toothed tiger, the also of road building, forestation, three-toed horse, and the mammoth-water-power development, soil imand then by the buffalo and the Indian, and finally by the white pioneer. To travel through our great West in company with a geologist gifted with the power of expression and explanation is an unusual privilege. The pages of the Geological Survey's guidebooks offer an even more unusual privilege, for the information they contain is the composite product of many minds and comprises a vast amount of geologic, botanical, and general information, presented in a simple and interesting way. The volumes are well illustrated photographically and contain topographic maps covering the entire routes so placed that the reader can unfold them one by one and keep each in view while he is reading the text relating to it, at the same time identifying the mountain peaks, streams, and mineral-producing areas from the car window. The special efforts of the year to reach the public with these more popular publications are intended as the beginning of a movement to popularize the results of scientific investigations.

STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS

FRANK W. DEWOLF

Topographic

Maps.-Topographic maps were prepared in twelve or more states under coöperation between the state and the Federal Survey (see also U. S. Geological Survey, supra). Topographic maps are of broad public value in building roads and draining swamps, besides serving as a basis for detailed surveys of buried mineral wealth. Of especial interest was the survey of more than 2,600 sq. miles in Ohio, which practically completed work for the entire state. A vigorous programme was adopted for a rapid survey of Michigan, and lines of control were extended over 200 miles.

Economic Geology. The expenditure of state funds for geological surveys continues to be directed chiefly to the discovery and development of materials of commercial value. As a foundation for this result, however, and to a considerable extent for pure

Activities and Resources.-Thirtythree states maintained geological surveys during 1915, but there was general decrease in activity due to curtailment of funds. Adverse ap-ly scientific purposes alone, many propriations or vetoes caused especial embarrassment in Missouri, New York and Pennsylvania. State geologists with nominal functions were continued in Arkansas and New Mexico. Erasmus Haworth retired as state geologist in Kansas and was succeeded by W. H. Twenhofel and Freeman Ward succeeded E. C. Perisho as state geologist of South Dakota. The Association of American State Geologists met in Washington on April 21, and again on Dec. 27-31 for exchange of plans and for conference with coöperating Federal officials. The chief function of state

theoretical and educational problems are undertaken. Practically all state surveys published mineral statistics for 1914 and were collecting those for 1915 at the end of the year. Most of this work is directed by the U. S. Geological Survey, and constitutes the most reliable index to activities in mining and metallurgy. Other economic investigations of the year are summarized in the following paragraphs.

Stones and Minerals for Building Purposes and the Arts.-Examination and testing of brick clays, stones for building, and especially of stone,