Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/722

704 believes that the net return would be greater. Many of our raw materials come from countries where industry is irregular and ineffective, and Prof. Patten argues that we should make ourselves independent of such sources of supply. He says that skill and capital employed in an orderly community will generally outweigh climatic and other natural advantages in an uncivilized country. As an instance he mentions the production of sugar in Germany from beets in competition with the cane-sugar of Cuba. Wool, he says, will be high in price while it remains the exclusive product of regions distant from the markets, and can only become cheaper when farmers in highly civilized communities take to raising sheep in connection with their agriculture. Prof. Patten maintains that trade between merchants of different countries which is profitable to the individuals is not necessarily profitable to the countries. Supposing a pound of coffee in Brazil would buy three pounds of sugar, while if taken to Cuba it would buy four pounds. In this case a trade profitable to dealers would spring up, and Prof. Patten asks whether such a commerce is so beneficial that the loss of it would work permanent injury to both nations. This, he says, is a matter of dispute. There are many other things in the book that friends of free trade will regard as matters of dispute, which are not so designated by the author. The volume is adapted to provoke discussion, and perhaps the more so because its small size prevents the insertion of facts and figures in support of the author's positions.

this report the director gives a full description of the business organization of the Survey, comprising the division of disbursements and accounts, the division of illustrations, the division of library and documents, and the editorial and miscellaneous division. During the year covered by the report, an aggregate area of 55,684 square miles had been surveyed during the field season and mapped during the office season. Topographic work was pushed forward vigorously in Massachusetts, at the joint expense of the State and Federal Governments, and the surveys of that State and of New Jersey are now practically completed. The survey of the District of Columbia and contiguous parts of Virginia and Maryland was finished, work was prosecuted in the southern Appalachian region with a large force, and extensive tracts were surveyed in the Western States and Territories. During the year geologic investigations were carried on by Prof. Pumpelly on the Archæan rocks of New England, by Prof. Irving among the iron-bearing and copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior, by Prof. Shaler on the tide-marshes of the Atlantic coast, and by Mr. Gilbert on the structure of the Appalachian Mountains. Mr. Woodward made a careful resurvev of Niagara Falls, and investigations in glacial geology were carried on under Prof. Chamberlin. The combined investigations of the general geologic structure, and of the coal, oil, gas, etc., of Montana were somewhat crippled by the long illness and finally by the consequent resignation of the veteran geologist, Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden, but during the latter part of the year the work was carried on by Dr. Peale. Other fields in which work was prosecuted are the Yellowstone National Park by Mr. Hague, the structural and mining geology of Colorado by Mr. Emmons, the volcanic deposits of California and Oregon by Captain Dutton, the iron-ore and marl beds of northern Mississippi and Louisiana by Mr. Johnson, and the Quaternary deposits of the coastal plain between North Carolina and New York under Mr. McGee. The area affected by the Charleston earthquake was also examined, and Mr. Becker completed his report on the quicksilver mines of the United States. Work in paleontology was carried on by Prof. Marsh, Mr. Walcott, Dr. Dall, Prof. Ward, and Mr. Scudder. One of the most important events of the year in systematic geology was the discovery by Dr. White and Mr. Hill of a great series of Cretaceous strata in Texas underlying the rocks hitherto regarded as the base of the American Cretaceous, and corresponding in many respects with the Lower Cretaceous deposits of Europe. Chemical work was carried on by Prof. Clarke, Mr. Chatard, and Messrs. Gooch and Whitfield. Mr. Day continued the collection of mining statistics. Several miscellaneous researches were also in progress. The report of the director is