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Show MAPS SAVE MANY MILLIONS ' Work of the Government Geological I Survey le Having a Cumula. 1 tlve Effect The work of the government's old-test old-test scientific bureau, the geological survey, Is having n cumulative effect, ns the years go by, In a thousand different dif-ferent ways In enhancing the economic econo-mic efficiency of the nation. The foundation foun-dation of the geological survey's work Is tho construction of a great topographic topo-graphic map of the United States. Al-Keady Al-Keady 1,200,000 square miles, or 40 er cent of the nation's area, has Seen mapped. The distinctive charac-. charac-. eristic of these maps, which are minutely mi-nutely nccurate In every detail, Is the contour lines, each line representing la certain altltudo above sea level, the Intervals In altitude represented by Ithe distance between the lines being . 110 to 100 feet according to the character char-acter of the country. These maps are of Immense practical value. For example, ex-ample, when the Lackawanna railroad decided to relocate 84 miles of Its main line a few years ago, the engineer engi-neer of construction got down a geological geolo-gical survey map and, .sitting comfortably com-fortably at his office desk, ran all the preliminary surveys and even mado the final location for his twelve mil-Won mil-Won dollar Improvement from the data Von the printed sheet. It was only necessary nec-essary to shoulder a transit and go out Into the brush to verify the final location lo-cation and drive stakes. Charles Frederick Carter In World's Work. |