A tertiary triangulation for topographic and hydrographic purposes has been completed along the entire Atlantic and Gulf coasts and the coasts of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and along practically the whole of the Pacific coast except Alaska, where, however, some progress has also been made. In the Philippines the main triangulation has been practically completed.

Incorporated in the system of triangulation of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and placed as one datum are the triangulation systems executed by the Lake Survey and by the United States Corps of Engineers.

The act of 1871 also authorized the extension of aid to states for the survey of their territory whenever provision was made by them for their own topographical and geological surveys.

Change of Designation to Coast and Geodetic Survey. With the enlargement of its functions the name of the bureau was changed, in the act of June 20, 1878 (20 Stat. L., 206, 215), to "Coast and Geodetic Survey." Its operations, however, had always been conducted in conformity with the requirements of geodesy, at least, while under civilian control. This was provided for both in the original plan of 1807 and in that of 1843. The transcontinental operations were strictly related to the survey of the coasts. They supplied incidentally to the traversed states, accurately located points upon which to base their own topographical or geological surveys for the construction of county and state

maps.

Recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences. By the act of June 20, 1878 (20 Stat. L., 206, 230), the National Academy of Sciences was required by Congress to examine into and make recommendations concerning the surveys that were then being made by the various government bureaus. The act 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 survey 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 the publication and distribution of reports, maps, documents, and other results of said surveys.

In compliance with this requirement the National Academy of Sciences reported to Congress a plan prepared by a special committee of scientists. This report, which was adopted by the academy, grouped all surveys, geodetic, topographic, land parceling, and economic, under two distinct heads; surveys of mensuration and surveys of geology. At that time five independent government organizations in three different departments were carrying on surveys of mensuration, and the academy recommended that all this work be combined under the Coast and Geodetic Survey with the new name Coast and Interior Survey. For the investigation of the natural resources of the public domain and the classification of all the public lands, a new organization was proposed, the United States Geological Survey. In this plan, the proposed functions of these two surveys and of the Land Office were carefully defined and their interrelations were provided for.

The bill which embodied the entire plan of the academy, failed of passage in Congress, although the part relating to the organization of the Geological Survey was adopted as a rider to an appropriation act approved March 3, 1879 (20 Stat. L., 377, 394). Final Attempts to Transfer Survey to the Navy Department. In December, 1882, a last attempt was made to bring about a transfer of the Coast and Geodetic Survey to the Navy Department. The Secretary of the Navy in his annual report, in December, 1882, recommended the transfer of this bureau, together with several others, from the Treasury Department to the Navy Department. The Secretary of the Treasury called for the views of the chiefs of the various bureaus concerned, and when these were published, no further action was taken on the recommendation for the transfers.

Congressional Inquiry of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 18841885. A congressional inquiry of the organization and methods of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and of three other scientific bureaus was begun in 1884, the act of July 7, 1884 (23 Stat. L., 194,

219), having provided for the appointment of a joint commission of three Senators and three members of the House of Representatives to make such an inquiry "with the view to secure greater efficiency and economy of administration of the public service in said bureaus."

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This congressional inquiry was carried on for nearly two years. That portion of its report which related to the Coast and Geodetic Survey included written and oral statements from the National Academy of Sciences, scientific experts, naval officers, and hydrographers. The majority of the joint commission, in whose views both houses of Congress concurred, declared that they do not feel justified in proposing a change in the organization and method of the Survey unless the most urgent reasons therefor can be given, especially in view of the fact that those best qualified to judge who have testified before the commission, including some eminent officers of the navy, uniformly agree that, at least until the Survey of the Coast shall be completed, the work should be continued under the present organization.

Standard Datum. In 1901 the Survey adopted the "United States standard datum." This placed the geodetic work of Survey on one datum for the correct coördination of the geographic latitudes, longitudes, distances, and azimuths. It was later adopted as the standard datum for geodetic operations in Canada and Mexico. Spanish War Activities. During the Spanish War, practically the whole organization of the Survey was engaged in work required by the War Department and the Navy Department.

Transfer of Survey to Department of Commerce. On July 1, 1903, when the Department of Commerce and Labor was created by the act approved February 14, 1903 (32 Stat. L., 826), the Coast and Geodetic Survey was transferred from the Treasury Department to this new department. When the Department of Labor was created by the act of March 4, 1913 (37 Stat. L., 236), the Coast and Geodetic Survey remained in what was thenceforth designated as the Department of Commerce.

World War Activities. An act approved May 22, 1917 (40 Stat. L., 87), empowered the President, in time of national emergency,

49 Cong. I Sess., S. Rep. 1284.

to transfer to the service and jurisdiction of the War Department and the Navy Department such vessels, equipment, stations, and personnel of the Coast and Geodetic Survey as he might deem for the best interests of the country, and provision was made for their return to the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce after such emergency had ceased.

Under this authority five of the vessels of the Survey, with their complement of commissioned and other officers and enlisted men were transferred to the Navy Department by executive order of September 24, 1917, and a number of commissioned officers and others were transferred to the army. The commissioned officers were commissioned as officers in the army or navy in grades corresponding to the positions held by them in the Survey. At the close of hostilities these men and vessels were returned to the Survey.*

Changes in Personnel System. From the beginning of the Survey of the Coast, army and naval officers have participated, with the civilians, in the field work. Under the plan adopted in 1843, the work on shore was divided between civilian assistants and officers of the army, and the hydrographic work was almost entirely in charge of officers of the navy. In 1861 the officers of the army and navy were withdrawn from the Coast Survey on account of the Civil War, and since then no officers of the army have been assigned to duty on the Survey. After the Civil War the assignments of officers of the navy gradually increased in number, so that the hydrographic work was about equally divided between them and the civilian assistants of the Survey. In 1898 the officers of the navy, on account of the war with Spain, were all relieved from duty with the Survey, and in 1900 (31 Stat. L., 588, 600), Congress made provision for the establishment of the Survey on a purely civil basis, resulting in a complete reorganization.

By the act of May 18, 1920 (41 Stat. L., 603), the commissioned officers of the Survey were given a pay status equal to the other commissioned forces of the federal government, holding relative rank with officers of the navy. The act of June 4, 1920 (41 Stat.

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See Coast and Geodetic Survey, Special Publication No. 82.

L., 929), changed the title of the chief executive from superintendent to Director.

International Activities. In the work of establishing the boundaries between the United States and Canada, and between Alaska and Canada, the Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, in coöperation with a representative of the British Government, performed the task of mapping the territory contiguous to the boundaries for the boundary commission, and of subsequently demarcating the boundaries and erecting boundary monuments. These tasks were performed at various times between 1857 and the present.

When Russia ceded Alaska to the United States the Coast Survey put its expert cartographers at work to compile an official map of the newly acquired territory for the use of the Department of State. This map bears the date 1867.

Between 1891 and 1895, when the United States and Mexico were engaged in remonumenting their common boundary line, a representative of the Coast and Geodetic Survey was one of the three commissioners appointed to perform the work, and the Survey further coöperated by making determinations of geographical positions for the international commission.

In this work of demarcating boundaries the geodetic surveys of Canada, Mexico, and the United States agreed informally to compute their geographical positions on the same reference spheroid, and to use the Coast and Geodetic Survey datum, the designation of the latter having consequently been changed to "North American datum."

In 1889 the United States became a member of the International Geodetic Association, which was founded in Europe in 1861 and was made international in character in 1886. As early as 1878, however, the Coast and Geodetic Survey had sent one of its officers to a conference of the association. As a member of that association the Coast and Geodetic Survey coöperated with similar services in other countries in the establishment of a chain of small observatories around the world, with the object of obtaining a continuous series of observations on the variation of latitude.

Many other activities have been undertaken by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, jointly and under formal agreements with other