While as early as 1820 General Cass had taken a mineralogist with him, it was not until 1834 that Congress made a specific appropriation for geological surveys. The act of June 28, 1834, appropriated $5,000 "to be applied to geological and mineralogical survey and researches." This appropriation was used in making a geological survey of the country between the Missouri River and the Red River, and the resulting report contained, in addition to an account of the geology and mineralogy of the areas covered, a geologic section of the country from the New Jersey coast to the Red River in Texas.

In the period from 1835 to 1850 the surveys and explorations made in the western country under Army auspices rapidly increased in number. Of these perhaps the most noteworthy were those of Captain, later General Fremont. Of the civilian surveys of the period, those made by David Dale Owen, beginning in 1839, under the auspices of the General Land Office, were of great importance, embracing as they did the geology of the region now included in the states of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

During 1853-1861 the War Department, under authority of the act of March 3, 1853 (10 Stat. L., 219) and supplementary acts, made surveys for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, geologists accompanying each of the field parties. The investigations made were reported in thirteen quarto volumes, published in 1855-1860 under the title, "Reports of explorations and surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.”

During the Civil War and for a year or more thereafter no government survey of note appears to have been undertaken.

Geographical and Geological Surveys: 1867-1879. With the close of the war the work of surveying and mapping the western country was renewed with increased vigor. Between 1867 and 1869 four surveying expeditions were put in the

field, two by the War Department and two by the Department of the Interior, as follows:

1. Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. The act of March 2, 1867 (14 Stat. L., 457) provided for "a geological and topographical exploration of the territory between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, including the route or routes of the Pacific Railroad." This survey was made under the jurisdiction of the War Department but its director, Clarence King, was a civilian, as were also all his scientific assistants. The territory surveyed comprised a belt 105 miles in width extending from longitude 104° 30' to longitude 120°,—that is, from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to the eastern boundary of California. The survey was primarily geological in character but included also the topography of the region. The results of the survey were published in 1870-1880 in seven volumes and an atlas. The total cost of the survey and its publications was $383,711.

2. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. The act of March 2, 1867 (14 Stat. L., 471, sec. 2) called for "a geological survey of Nebraska, said survey to be prosecuted under the direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office." F. V. Hayden was assigned to this work and was subsequently designated United States geologist for the territories of Colorado and New Mexico. As the work progressed, its scope was by authority of Congress extended over all the territories and work was done in Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Colorado, the total area embraced in systematic surveys reaching about 100,000 square miles. This survey was primarily geological, but its activities included work on topography, geology, paleontology, ethnology, philology, botany and kindred sciences. The results were pub lished in a series of volumes which were issued from 1867 to 1883.1

'The titles of the reports for 1867-1872 do not contain the word "geographical;" those for 1873-1878 do contain that word. The titles of the bulletins read: Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories.

The original appropriation for this survey was only $5,000, but this was increased by successive annual appropriations of $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $75,000, $115,000, $110,000, $95,000, $65,000, $75,000 and $75,000, as well as by a specific appropriation of $30,000 to complete maps and office work; so that the total cost of the survey amounted to $735,000 exclusive of the cost of printing and engraving and of the services of several officers detailed from the Army.

3. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Moun tain Region. In 1867 the Smithsonian Institution began an exploration of the Colorado River. This survey was later recognized by Congress in a joint resolution, approved July 11, 1868 (15 Stat. L., 253), authorizing the Secretary of War "to issue rations for twenty-five men of the expedition engaged in the exploration of the river Colorado under direction of Professor Powell, while engaged in that work." Additional appropriations, $54,000 in all, were granted in 1870-73, the expedition still remaining under the control of the Smithsonian. Institution. On the completion of the survey of the Colorado River, Powell was, by act of June 23, 1874 (18 Stat. L., 207), authorized to continue the survey in Utah under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior; and subsequent acts of appropriation authorized the extension of the field of survey to the "Rocky Mountain region." In all, the area surveyed was 67,000 square miles, embracing southern Wyoming, central and southern Utah and adjacent portions of Nevada and Arizona. This survey was primarily exploratory and geographical but, in addition to the triangulation of the whole region and the establishment of the geodetic points, it included work in topography, ethnology, geology, botany, paleontology and kindred sciences.

The results of the survey were not published in full, the only printed documents produced being two brief reports in 1877 and 1878 by Powell.

Though the appropriations for the survey amounted only

to $244,000, the total cost, not including engraving and printing, as stated by Powell in a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, was $279,000.

4. Geographical Survey West of the One Hundredth Meridian. An act approved June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. L., 367) authorized a "continuance of military and geographical surveys and explorations west of the one hundredth meridian of longitude." The survey was made under the jurisdiction of the War Department, Lieutenant George M. Wheeler, of the Engineer Corps, being placed in charge. This survey, as its name implies, covered all the territory west of the one hundredth meridian, which includes the western parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas, the Rocky Mountain states, and the Pacific Coast states. This survey was primarily geographical or topographical, but, as was stated in the report of the Chief of Engineers to the Secretary of War on May 10, 1878 (House Executive Document No. 88, 45th Congress, 2d Session), was so made as to obtain "at the same time and as far as practicable without greatly increasing the cost, all the information necessary before the settlement of the country, concerning the branches of mineralogy and mining, geology, paleontology, zoology, botany, archæology, ethnology, philology, and ruins."

The survey was brought to a close in 1879 and its results were published in 1875-1889 under varying titles.2

The original appropriation for this survey was $75,000, but a series of additional appropriations for continuing the survey, for engraving and printing, and for completing the office work of the survey brought the total direct appropriations for the survey up to the sum of $618,644. If to this sum is added the value of the aid and supplies received from the War Department and the salaries of regular Army officers detailed

2 The titles of these reports and of the papers they contain are given in Bulletin 222 of the U. S. Geological Survey.

to the survey, the cost of the survey appears to have been $805,340.3

It

Establishment of the U. S. Geological Survey, 1879. will thus be seen that in the early seventies four surveys were simultaneously in progress under specific appropriations made by Congress, two under the Interior Department and two under the War Department, each having a method of its own and in several places two covering the same area.

In addition, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, after having executed a triangulation and detailed survey of part of the coast of the United States, had, under authority granted by Congress in the act of March 3, 1871, extended its work into the interior in order to provide, by means of primary triangulation carried across the continent, geodetic connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts.

The feeling became very strong, both in Congress and outside, that this condition of affairs was unsatisfactory, for there was evidently not only loss of efficiency and unnecessary expense by having five separate organizations working in the same general field, but duplication and overlap of work.1

As a result, in 1878, Congress in making further appropriations for the existing surveys (act of June 20, 1878, 20 Stat. L., 230) provided that:

The National Academy of Sciences is hereby required, at their next meeting, to take into consideration the methods and expenses of conducting all surveys of a scientific character under the War or Interior Department, and the surveys of the Land Office, and to report to Congress as soon thereafter as may be practicable a plan for surveying and mapping the Territories of the United States on such general system as will, in their judgment, secure the best results at the least possible cost; and also to recommend to Congress a suitable plan for

3 A full discussion of the indirect cost of this survey may be found in the report of the commission to consider the organization of the Signal Service, Geological Survey, etc., 1886. (Senate Report No. 1285, 49th Congress, 1st Session.)

* See H. R. Report No. 612, 43d Congress, Ist Session.