Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/52

 corps of geologists have been constituted special agents of the census without pay from the census appropriation, and in addition to this small staff experts, duly appointed by the superintendent of the census, have been detailed from the census bureau and ordered to report to the geological director. By this combination of forces the census with the survey, the director will furnish the census bureau and Congress with a thorough exposition of the production of metals, coal and petroleum, and the most important branches of the mineral industry. In this combined labor care has been exercised that only census employés should be detailed to work in the region east of the one-hundredth meridian. The work of gathering the statistics proper is fast approaching completion.

The report of the Director contains preliminary statements of the several geologists, presenting highly interesting accounts of their operation in the field, their various investigations, and the methods followed in collecting statistics for the census. As to the forthcoming publications giving the results of these labors, the Director remarks: “The organization of the survey immediately followed the date at which the first appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars became legally available, and, as that fell in midsummer, only half the ordinary time which the seasons permit was left for field operations. At the close of the present summer, therefore, the scientific staff will have labored only one and a half field seasons—a very short time to bring their special works to completion. Realizing very fully, however, the natural desire of Congress and the administration to see actual results and apply the test of a critical examination to the fruits of the new bureau, I have called upon the members of the corps for an energy and intensity of labor which should not be greatly prolonged, and which affords no measure of the rate of progress on small appropriations hereafter. The gentlemen of the corps have responded with such cheerfulness and enthusiasm that I am able to promise between the close of field work this autumn and the opening of next spring's campaign the completion of twelve volumes of practical and general geology and palaeontology.”

The range of the investigations carried on by the geological survey is indicated by the subjects treated in the volumes promised. They are the following: “Geology and mining industry of Leadville, Col.,” by S. F. Emmons. “Geology of The Eureka mining district in Nevada,” by Arnold Hague, geologist in charge. “The copper rocks of Lake Superior, and their continuation through Minnesota,” by Prof. Rowland D. Irving. “The Comstock Mines,” by Eliot Lord. “The Comstock Lode,” by George F. Becker, geologist in charge. “The mechanical appliances used in mining and milling on the Comstock lode,” by W. R. Eckart, chief engineer. “The coal of the United States,” by Raphael Pumpelly, geologist in charge. “The iron in the United States,” by Raphael Pumpelly. “The precious metals,” by Clarence King, director. “Lesser metals and general mineral resources,” by Raphael Pumpelly. “The Uinkaret Plateau,” by Capt. C. E. Dutton, geologist in charge. “Lake Bonneville,”