continental routes. The small amount of money that could be devoted to this project without sacrifice to the public welfare in other lines of Survey work of more importance though of less popular interest made it practicable this year to undertake the preparation of only four such guides, as follows:

The Northern Pacific Route, from St. Paul to Seattle, with a side trip to the Yellowstone National Park (Bulletin 611).

The Overland Route, from Omaha to San Francisco, with a side trip to the Yellowstone National Park (Bulletin 612).

The Santa Fe Route, from Kansas City to Los Angeles, with a side trip to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado (Bulletin 613).

The Shasta Route and Coast Line, from Seattle and Los Angeles to San Francisco (Bulletin 614).

The first of these books, that describing the Overland Route, was issued in June, and the others followed in July, August, and September. These books inform the traveler concerning the great West, its features and its resources, as well as unfold to him in attractive form its fascinating geology. The method adopted is to entertain the traveler by making more interesting what he sees from the car window, to guide his eyes toward the more important or essential things within his field of vision, and then to have much that he sees explained by what is unseen in the swift passage of the train. The magnificent illustrations of the great principles of earth evolution seen along the route are used to teach some of the principles of geology; and fragments of the story of the past are narrated to enable him to interpret the present. As stated in the preface of these volumes

The plan of the series is to present authoritative information that may enable the reader to realize adequately the scenic and material resources of the region he is traversing, to comprehend correctly the basis of its development, and above all to appreciate keenly the real value of the country he looks out upon, not as so many square miles of territory represented on the map in a railroad folder by meaningless spaces, but rather as land-real estate, if you please-varying widely in present appearance because differing largely in its history and characterized by even greater variation in values because possessing diversified natural resources. One region may be such as to afford a livelihood for only a pastoral people; another may present opportunity for intensive agriculture; still another may contain hidden stores of mineral wealth that may attract large industrial development; and taken together these varied resources afford the promise of long-continued prosperity for this or that State.

Items of interest in civic development or references to significant epochs in the record of discovery and settlement may be interspersed with explanations of mountain and valley or statements of geologic history. In a broad way, the story of the West is a unit, and every chapter should be told in order to meet fully the needs of the tourist who aims to understand all that he sees. To such a traveler-reader this series of guidebooks is addressed.

Somewhat related to the more distinctly educational reports already described are two bulletins-"The data of geochemistry" (Bulletin 491), by F. W. Clarke, and "Useful minerals of the United

States" (Bulletin 585), compiled by Samuel Sanford and R. W. Stone. A third edition of the former (Bulletin 616) and a revision of the latter, much enlarged by F. C. Schrader, with a glossary showing the composition and character of each mineral (Bulletin 624), are now in course of publication. The editions of these handbooks of general information on broad subjects are rapidly exhausted.

The special efforts of the last year to reach the public with these more popular publications are intended as the beginning of a movement to popularize further the results of scientific investigations. Both the opportunity and the duty of the United States Geological Survey to furnish scientific information in popular form are appreciated.

DEMAND FOR GEOLOGIC WORK.

Especially noteworthy among the features of the year's work is the great increase in the demands made on the Federal geologists for specific investigations of an economic nature. The requests have touched all lines in the geologic province, but most of them ask for the examination of reported discoveries of potash or nitrate salts; for the study of the ore deposits in metal-mining districts, newly discovered or old; or for the investigation of the geologic structure in many regions, with a view to the discovery of areas that may be regarded as structurally favorable for the occurrence of oil or gas pools.

The calls from many States for examinations as to the possibilities of finding oil in untested regions have been nearly as numerous as all others combined, applications for classification of public lands excepted. In this field of applied geology especially the Geological Survey is coming more and more to be regarded as the consulting geologist for the public. Many of the great oil companies, recognizing the paramount value of a knowledge of the geologic structure in the guidance of oil exploration and development, have secured the exclusive services of geologists trained in oil geology. These strong corporations, most of which have lured away from the Survey a number of its best men, are able to organize geologic corps for themselves and to examine geologically great areas of unleased and untested lands in order more certainly to select the sections in which, other things being equal, the prospects for pools are most favorable and the hazards of dry holes the least. But these corporations rarely publish the original information gained by their geologists, and, whether or not the company is able to obtain all the lands it desires, the public is seldom much the wiser for these investigations at private

expense.

The appeals to the Survey come mainly from citizens and landowners singly and in groups, from chambers of commerce, and from delegations and communities. The Geological Survey is, by its

8161°-INT 1915-VOL 1-28

organic act, forbidden to make and therefore does not make examinations of private lands primarily in behalf of their owners, whether the owners are individuals or corporations. Its examinations are regional in extent, without regard to ownership, and when confined to small areas they are conducted without reference to property lines and with regard only to the geologic problems in hand and to the interests of the community and the Nation in the development of the mineral resources in the vicinity or district. In strict conformity with this principle, the results of all examinations and investigations are withheld until they are printed, either as press notices or as more formal reports, and in these forms they are simultaneously given out to all who ask for them.

Both through its own resources and through the cooperation of State surveys, the Federal Survey greatly extended its examination of oil structure during the year, and the results will be found in its current economic bulletins and in State reports. Yet in this field, as well as in others, the increase in extent and efficiency of the work made possible by the larger funds provided by Congress for this year has been insufficient to warrant attention to any except the most urgent calls on this national bureau for information regarding the geology of the country and for guidance in the discovery and development of its mineral resources. The increase both in the number and in the range of these calls is, in effect, proof of the public's growing appreciation of the value of the Survey work.

A CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLIC HEALTH.

The geologic resource of greatest value to the health of communities is a supply of pure drinking water. It is generally recognized that a number of diseases, prominent among which are typhoid fever and amoebic dysentery-a disease more common in tropical climates but found also in the United States-are contracted through contaminated water or contaminated food. Therefore a supply of pure water will eliminate one of the sources of such infection.

It is highly desirable to obtain supplies of domestic water from sources other than the shallow wells, some of them open, that are found near many houses. The water obtained from deep wells has percolated through sands and other material for so great a distance that its impurities have been removed by filtration, and it possesses a sanitary value that can not well be overestimated, for such water is free from the bacteria causing typhoid fever and the protozoa causing amoebic dysentery, and its use obviates the necessity for shallow wells that may serve as a breeding place for Anopheles, the mosquito to which malarial infection is due.

The United States Geological Survey for a number of years has been prosecuting, largely in cooperation with the State surveys, a

systematic study of the ground-water resources of all the Coastal Plain States. Reports have been issued, either by the Federal Survey or by cooperating State geological surveys, for Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, eastern Tennessee, Kentucky and southern Illinois, southeastern Missouri, southeastern Arkansas and Louisiana, northeastern Texas, the Black and Grand Prairie areas of Texas, and the area underlain by Tertiary formations in Texas south of the latitude of Jefferson and east of Brazos River. The manuscripts of papers on the ground-water resources of Delaware and Maryland, on the ground waters of northeastern Arkansas, and on the ground waters of Lasalle and McMullen counties, Tex., have been completed and will be published during the next fiscal year. Additional studies of the ground waters of Mississippi are in progress and it is hoped that within the next year the manuscript will be transmitted for publication. Comprehensive studies of the ground-water resources of the Coastal Plain of Texas west of Brazos River are approaching completion, and the manuscript of a report will be submitted for publication within a year.

With good health recognized as one of the great national assets, the extent of this study of underground-water resources furnishes a measure of its value to the public. Reports have been published covering 376,000 square miles in the Atlantic and Gulf States, reports on 27,000 square miles are completed though not yet published, field work has been completed on 50,000 square miles, and work is contemplated to cover 16,000 square miles. These areas of nearly half a million square miles include the parts of the United States in which impure water supplies involve the greatest danger. The value of such surveys in conserving public health has already been demonstrated, for it has been noted that wherever an adequate supply of deep-well water has been obtained, typhoid fever, amoebic dysentery, and malaria have abated.

The methods used by geologists in working out the distribution of ground waters are complex, but it is noteworthy that among the more significant criteria used are the fossil remains occurring in the different beds. Each one of the geologic horizons usually has its distinctive fossils, and by an accurate knowledge of these vestiges of organisms the geologist is aided in recognizing particular geologic formations. In this way he may be able to determine by means of the samples taken from the bore the depth to a certain water horizon.

That paleontology, so generally regarded as a purely scientific study, has a great value in the investigation of economic resources may not be generally recognized. In order, however, to understand the conditions controlling the occurrence of any one of three of the most important mineral resources-ground waters, coal, and oil and gas-an accurate knowledge of the succession of the different

rock sheets and their geologic structure is essential, and the determination of that order of succession depends upon the study of fossil remains included in these rocks. The value of the work of the paleontologists who have studied the geologic formations in the Coastal Plain area is therefore inestimable. Among the men who have aided in the paleontologic characterization of horizons and thereby assisted in the development of the ground water and oil and gas resources of the Coastal Plain, W. H. Dall, G. D. Harris, and R. T. Hill should be specially mentioned. The excellent work of these scientists has been continued either by themselves or by others who have entered the same fields, and it is hoped that within a few years there may be available biologic characterizations of all the Tertiary and Cretaceous formations of the Coastal Plain. Additional accurate information will assist in the further development of many of the natural resources of the Coastal Plain region.

It is unfortunate that the paleontologists are subjected to increasing overwork, and it is to be regretted that on account of inadequate funds the distinguished Survey specialists engaged in these important studies, which are particularly in demand by the cooperating State surveys, can not be provided with assistance.

It should be added that the science of paleontology has a large educational value, and its popular interest is well illustrated in the western guidebooks, just published. As with geology in general, so in paleontology, the Survey is the central public source of information.

CHANGES IN PERSONNEL.

The death of Henry Gannett, on November 5, 1914, terminated a long and important service. Mr. Gannett was connected with the Survey, with a few interruptions, since 1882 and accomplished much in establishing the methods and fixing the standards of the topographic work in the early days of the organization. He held the title of chief geographer (or chief topographer) in the years 1882 to 1896. His Government work outside of the Survey, chiefly work on the census of the United States, Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, and his services as chairman of the United States Geographic Board and as geographer of the National Conservation Commission, covered a wide field of geographic investigations and showed large grasp of new problems. He was also president of the National Geographic Society.

Among the important resignations or transfers from the Survey within the fiscal year were those of David T. Day and E. W. Parker. These two men are to be credited with the development of the division of mineral resources, a service that is unique among the statistical organizations of the world. Dr. Day, after a service of nearly 30 years, was transferred August 31, 1914, to the Bureau of Mines,