Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1896 — WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON.

The Navy Department filially accepted the battleship Oregon from the builders, the Union Iron Works of San Francisco, who have made good all [defects in the protective deck. The plan of field operators of the geological survey for the seqson of 1896-97 has been completed and approved by the acting Secretary of the Interior. Five geological parties will work throughout the summer in the New England States and eastern New York, five in the Appalachian region, two in the cdastal plain from the mouth of the Hudson to the Gulf of Mexico, five in the interior or Mississippi region, four in the Rocky Mountain region and eight In the Pacific region. Half the $50,000 appropriation for the hydrographic work will be devoted to the gauging of streams and determination of the water supply of all parts of the United States under the direction of Expert Newell. The Government Forestry Commission, organized to make an investigation of various forestry problems and outline ap administrative policy on the subject, will devote the summer to its work. The commission consists of Prof. Charles Sargent of Harvard College, Prof. M illiam H. Brewer of Yale College, Dr. Wolcott Gibbs. Newport, R. 1., president of the National Academy of Sciences; Prof. Alexander Agassiz of Cambridge, Mass., Gifford Pincbot, New York;- Arnold Hague of the geological survey, Washington. and Gen. Henry L. Abbott, L. S. A. (retired). All except Dr. Gibbs and Prof. Agassiz, who may join the pilrty later in the season, and Prof. Plnchot, who has been engaged in the work in Montana for a fortnight or so, will meet in Chicago next month and immediately proceed together to the field. The investigations will begin in Montana and later will be extended through Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California. Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado." Prof, Hague will confer with Prof. Sargent this week and the detailed plans of the expedition of the scientific body will be formulated at .Chicago. The commission will return late in the autumn and as soon as possible submit its report.