Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/512

496 resources and products. To accomplish, this successfully, unity of thought and purpose is essential among those engaged in the work; and the survey should be carried on as a strictly scientific investigation, with the view of aiding in every possible manner the development of such material industries as are affected by its operations. These industries include mining, hydrographic and engineering work, and any practical object that can be advanced by a knowledge of the surface and interior of the earth and its resources.

The immensity of the work which is now before the Geological Survey would be sufficient to discourage the attempt to complete it, if the review of the past and the importance of the results to be attained, both to science and to the people of the country, were not kept constantly in view. The results of the past, however, are not a true index of the character and progress of work for the future, as a great amount of energy and time has been spent in preliminary studies and experimentation as to the best methods to be pursued and in obtaining a large amount of data necessary to the satisfactory prosecution of areal geologic work. These will not have to be repeated in the future.

The plan for the immediate future is to continue topographic work in areas of primary geologic importance, and to do such other topographic work as will be of service to the people and aid in the development of the areas mapped. In areal geology it is proposed to continue work in the following provinces: 1. The coal and iron region of the Appalachians from Alabama to the Pennsylvania line, which is considered especially important, as there is a large area of the Mississippi Valley and Atlantic coast which draws its coal and iron supplies from this region. 2. The crystalline areas of the eastern Appalachian region, in which gold, corundum, mica, etc., occur. 3. The phosphate deposits of Florida, extending the inquiry northward into Georgia and South Carolina and possibly into the areas of southwest Tennessee. 4. The marls, etc., of New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia, working southward as rapidly as topographic maps are completed and the areal geology can be surveyed. 5. The northeastern section, where the mapping and study of the roofing-slate region of New York and Vermont, and the mapping of the areal geology of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, are to be completed; and surveys will be extended to such areas of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine as the available means will permit. 6. The Lake Superior iron region, where areal and structural work will be carried forward systematically for the purpose of mapping the extent of the known mineral deposits and of determining the existence of other deposits not now known. 7. The Rocky Mountain area, where it is proposed to continue the investigation