REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director. The appropriations for the work of the United States Geological Survey for the fiscal year 1914-15 comprised items amounting to $1,620,520. The plan of operations was approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and a detailed statement of the work of the several branches and divisions of the Survey is presented on later pages of this report. SPECIAL FEATURES. A LARGER PUBLIC SERVICE. In the last decade the United States Geological Survey has largely increased its return to the public, both in amount and in variety of service rendered. The statement was made in this report a year ago that never before had the general public been in closer touch with this Survey or made larger use of the results of its scientific investigations. The recognition by citizens generally that the Geological Survey is a bureau of information as well as a field service has gradually placed upon it a large burden of work as well as of responsibility. The amount of correspondence involved in performing this public duty may be indicated by the fact that approximately 50,000 letters of inquiry were handled in the different scientific branches of the Survey last year. The scope of these inquiries is not less noteworthy, for they range from requests for information concerning the geology of every part of the United States or the water supply, both underground and surface, of as widely separated regions as Alaska and Florida, or for engineering data on areas in every State in the Union, to inquiries regarding the natural resources of foreign countries, especially those of Central and South America. The changes in the world's trade in metals and other mineral products during the last year brought to the Geological Survey a new opportunity for special service. The inquiries concerning possible sources of this or that mineral product began early in August, and the Secretary of the Interior gave to the public an interview outlining the expected developments in the mineral industry. His statement was followed by special press bulletins issued by the Survey on the more important subjects. In September, however, the demand for authoritative information had become so lively that a bulletin "Our mineral reserves" (Bulletin 599)-was quickly prepared and issued without delay. In this publication the whole subject of the country's ability to meet the emergency demands for minerals was summarized and the Survey offered to serve as an agent in bringing consumer and producer into touch with each other. This new function of acting as "central" to the mineral industry proved popular, a large volume of special correspondence developed, and a gratifying use was made of the Geological Survey's list of mineral producers and of the specific information in the possession of the Federal geologists regarding practically every type of mineral deposit in the country. It is believed that this correspondence has been of material advantage to consumers and producers alike—the users of mineral products who were formerly dependent upon foreign sources of supply and the mine operators who have learned of new markets for their output. The preparation of this special information to meet a new public demand, together with the continued task of replying to requests for specific information, has resulted in placing fresh emphasis on this phase of the work of the Geological Survey. The rendering of such service is in itself instructive to those charged with the duty, and the Survey staff has acquired a keener realization of the need not only of giving the facts to the public, but also of making those facts intelligible and useful to the citizen who lacks professional training in geology or engineering. Two obligations are thus laid upon the Government scientist-first, that of making his investigations more and more exact in method and more definite in result; second, that of transmitting the product of his investigations in a form to meet the needs of not only his professional associates but of the general public. Most scientists in the public service should aspire to the translation of their own reports into the language of the people. The Survey as the center of public information concerning the geology of the United States bears an educational obligation to the public. It has so far, in part, neglected its opportunity as well as its duty as an investigative branch of the Government to furnish popular information of an instructive type regarding this most enlightening science. In recognition of this educational responsibility and of the importance of making its work more generally intelligible and useful to the private citizen who has not been geologically educated, several members of the Survey have of late given more attention both to the simplification of the language of the professional publications and to the preparation of reports that are popularly descriptive and instruc tive, yet also exact and efficient as vehicles for professional discussion or for the announcement of geologic discoveries. Conforming to this growing conviction, the Survey has printed on the backs of several of its topographic maps nontechnical descriptions of the physical features of the area mapped and of their origin. The evident appreciation by the general public of such explanations of the geologic features as shown by the increased demand for the maps has encouraged the extension of the practice. Accordingly, after the publication of such matter for the map of the Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, the Bright Angel area, in the Grand Canyon of Arizona, has similarly been described, and descriptions for other areas, including the Delaware Water Gap, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, are now being prepared. This work is a by-product of the geologic mapping and therefore involves comparatively little expense, but it adds greatly to the general interest and educational value of the topographic maps. Survey geologists have prepared guides covering the points of scenic or unusual geologic interest in the Glacier National Park and in the Mount Rainier National Park, which were published as small brochures for distribution from the office of the Secretary of the Interior, and now the compilation of more elaborate and comprehensive accounts of the geography and the origin of the principal geologic features in several of the national parks has been undertaken for publication as bulletins of the Survey. "The Glacier National Park, a popular guide to its geology and scenery," by M. R. Campbell, has been issued within the year as Bulletin 600. An illustrated guide containing descriptions, with maps, of the geology and of the origin of the striking physical features in the Yosemite Valley of California, with a study of the glaciation, is now being prepared in popular language by F. E. Matthes and F. C. Calkins and will probably be published at an early date as a bulletin. The Mesa Verde National Forest is to be similarly described and illustrated by A. J. Collier, the preparation of whose matter has, however, been necessarily interrupted by work in land classification. A more ambitious project was undertaken this year. Mindful of the great numbers of educated and intelligent tourists, both American and foreign, who were likely to visit the Pacific coast during the exposition year, and painfully aware of the lack of satisfactory guidebook descriptions, with adequate and accurate maps, covering the physical features of the regions traversed by the greater number of the exposition visitors, the Survey determined to give the public the benefit of a portion of the wealth of geographic and geologic information in its possession, through the publication of guidebooks to the geography, geology, mineral wealth and other natural resources, industries, and history of the regions bordering several of the trans |