Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/48

 44 remains geologically unmapped, there will be a hiatus in our knowledge, which may prevent broad generalizations.

In Alaska special attention has been given to the second field of activity, namely, the application of geology to the needs of the miner. This is in part the influence of the growth of economic work in both state and federal surveys during the last decade, but more specially because the appropriation is specifically made for the investigation of the mineral resources of Alaska. With this end in view, a score of publications dealing with the occurrence and distribution of the mineral deposits of the territory have been issued. It has been the policy to make public the results attained while yet the investigation is in progress, in the belief that even an incomplete knowledge of the geology would be of value to the miner. With this end in view, bulletins treating of the occurrence of coal, petroleum, tin and copper have been issued, as well as many which are devoted to the gold deposits. These preliminary reports have found favor with the mining public because of their timely appearance, and have forestalled criticism of delay in issuing the more elaborate treatises.

The danger in issuing such reports is that the less intelligent miner may accept tentative statements as final conclusions, and this may lead to losses. It is impossible to escape this danger entirely, for to avoid all opinions which are not definitely established by the facts in hand, shears a geologic report of much of its usefulness to the practical man, who wants the expert who has visited the field to prophesy what the conditions of occurrence of the ore bodies are likely to be.

While applied geology has been kept constantly to the front in the Alaskan investigations, the study of the broader problems, be they stratigraphic, physiographic or paleontologic, has by no means been lost sight of. The purpose of every geologist sent to the north has been twofold: first, the gathering of information which will directly advance the mining interests, and, secondly, the study of the purely geologic problems. It has been the policy to defer the publication of purely scientific results until a larger number of facts have been accumulated, and the theoretic discussion can be supported by the knowledge of a wider field. Thus only the salient outline of the stratigraphic succession has been put in print, but meanwhile a number of specialists have been carrying on paleontologic and stratigraphic studies to determine definitely certain geologic horizons to which all future work can be referred. In the same way, though a large petrographic collection has been amassed, its detailed study has been deferred until a broader knowledge of the field relations can be secured. Other branches of geologic science have been treated in a similar way. It is hoped that in this way a basal knowledge of the larger problems will be available in a few years, on which to found detailed studies with more assurance.