Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1884 — GEOLOGICAL AND GEODETIC. [ARTICLE]

GEOLOGICAL AND GEODETIC.

Wbat Gave the Surreys Their Impetus— What They Bare Accomplished^—Senator Logan') Work. "When the name of a public man becomes conspicuous, his acts and charac-. ter are the legitimate objects of either praise or condemnation. It is not generally supposed that Gefieral John A. Logan is a devotee at the shrine of science, yet he is a liberal reader and thinker, and a man of great practical wisdom. It is a curious fact that Scientists, theorists, philosophers and bookworms are always preceded in practical discoveries by unlettered students in science and close observers of Nature’s laws. General Logan’s t home was at Carbondale, in the center of the great coal belt of Southern Illinois. As a student of N ature’s laws he studied the geological formation of the coal fields and became familiar with this branch of scientific research. He reached in the open fields and plains the same conclusions evolved in books written by British and American scientists like Lyell, Hugh Miller,Tuomey, Hitchcock, Agassiz and others. His investigation, induced him to value properly the learning and studies of philosophers, chemists and geologists. These practical ideas thus obtained gave paternity in Congress to the scheme of important legislation, which was destined to effect marked progress and disseminate valuable informationto the whole civilized world, necessitating the organization of the geological and geodetic • surveys of of the United States. As De Lesseps denominated John Condon the truest hydrodynamic philosopher of the lowlands of the Mississippi, so the practical Logan gave origin to the application of science to the unknown mineralogical resources of this continent. From a small appropriation injected in the sundry civil bill of the House of Representatives in the Fortieth Congress by Gen. Logan, sprung the United States Geological Survey, which is fully organized in all of its branches to conduct a geological, topographical, and mineralogical survey of the whole United States. The amount appropriated was expended in making the surveysin New Mexico and Colorado under the direction of Prof. Hayden, This was the beginning of the United States geological surveys. These surveys were of sueh confessed advantage to the mining and agricultural in terests that in subsequent years there has been no formidable opposition in Congress to the concession of all demandi made by this earnest, energetic, and most important bureau for money to continue the great work it has commenced.

Its toils and wonderful discoveries and results are especially valued in Europe. Mr. Edward Hull, d rector of the Geological Survey of Ireland, says in an official paper that the “surveys made under the auspices of the United States Government reflect infinite credit upon the intelligence of American lawgivers." Lieut. Gen. Bichard Strachey, of the Royal British Engineers, London, England, writes: “The work of the surveys is most honorable to the United States Government and to the men of science who have been the agents in carrying it out. In truth it is, I believe, the only scientific survey of a great country ever entered upon.” Prof. L. De Konick, at the University of Liege, Belgium, expresses himself in the following manner: “It is an eternal honor to your country to have been able to keep alive the torch of Science in the midst of its political preoccupations, and not to have let its flames go out in the most violen t crisis that you have passed. You have understood that this flame, more than any Other, is destined henceforth to illumine the world. It would be a shame to let this flame go out at the very nabment when it produces its best results.” The present geological survey is the result of the consolidation of several surveys which sprung from the popular impetus given to such enterprises by the Logan amendment to the Sundry Civil bill in the Fortieth Congress; the discoveries of valuable minerals, surveys of rivers, lakes, mountains, plains, and the great canons of the West, have been of priceless value to the people of this and other countries. This survey is destined • teubecome; Hsr, most .important organization in its scientific attainments and researches in the world. Gen. Rogan, without ever anticipating or imagining the magnitude of the great work he inaugurated through his wise judgment, discovered his most.fitting and choicest monument in the, memory and hearts of the American people and the scientific world in the formation of the bureau which he founded. What was but yesterday a helpless babe, is to-day a Briarean giant, stretching forth its arms and extending its beneficent operations over the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the British possessions to the gulf and along the Mexican border. The Bureau of Ethnology is an incident of that which sprung from Gen. Logan’s keen interest in practical geological studies. A knowledge of the history and peculiarities of different races which at different periods in the world’s history have occupied this continent has been acquired through the intervention of this bureau as results of its task.— Exchange.