8

OUR  MINERAL  RESERVES.

tins  already  published  has  devolved  principally  upon  the  geologists
of  the  Survey,  who  for  several  years  have  made  a  special  study  of
the  country’s  mineral  resources.  The  specialists  who  have  thus
contributed  to  this  bulletin  are  Edson  S.  Bastin,  Ernest  F.  Burchard,
B.  S.  Butler,  David  T.  Day,  J.  P.  Dunlop,  Frank  L.  Hess,  J.  M.  Hill,
Edward  W.  Parker,  W.  C.  Phalen,  and  C.  E.  Siebenthal.
GOVERNMENT  PUBLICATIONS.
Several  reports  issued  by  the  Government  will  be  especially  useful
to  those  who  are  interested  in  mineral  supplies.  These  publications
furnish  authoritative  answers  to  many  of  the  inquiries  now  made
by  importers  and  domestic  consumers  and  by  exporters  and  foreign
buyers. 1
The  Geological  Survey  issues  an  annual  report  on  "  Mineral  Resources ­
  of  the  United  States,”  which  is  published  finally  in  two
bound  volumes,  but  at  first  in  about  65  separate  chapters,  which  are
issued  as  pamphlets  several  months  in  advance  of  the  bound  volumes.
Each  of  these  chapters  treats  of  an  important  mineral  product.
Other  annual  publications  of  the  Survey  that  contain  reports  on
the  country’s  mineral  resources  are  the  bulletins  entitled  “  Contributions ­
  to  Economic  Geology,”  published  in  two  series—(I)  metals  and
non  metals  except  fuels,  (II)  mineral  fuels—and  “Mineral  Resources
of  Alaska,”  the  report  on  the  progress  of  investigations  in  Alaska.
The  separate  papers  in  these  bulletins  are  also  issued  in  the  form  of
advance  chapters  and  include  brief  reports  on  geologic  investigations ­
  in  mining  regions  or  on  newly  discovered  deposits  or  recently
opened  mining  districts.  Examples  of  such  chapters  recently  issued
that  are  of  interest  in  connection  with  the  present  discussion  are
entitled  “  Potash  in  western  saline  deposits,”  “  Nitrate  near  Melrose,
Mont.,”  “Late  developments  of  magnesite  deposits  in  California  and
Nevada,”  “Analyses  of  coal  samples  from  various  fields  in  the  United
States,”  and  “A  barite  deposit  near  Wrangell,  Alaska.”
Another  recent  Survey  publication  is  a  bulletin  entitled  “Useful
Minerals  of  the  United  States”  (Bulletin  585),  which  may  be  described ­
  as  a  directory  of  all  the  minerals  that  are  now  of  recognized
utility,  with  a  list  of  localities  at  which  these  minerals  occur  in  sufficient ­
  quantity  to  be  of  present  or  possible  future  value.  The  directory ­
  of  minerals  is  well  supplemented  by  another  bulletin  of  the
Geological  Survey,  entitled  “The  Mining  Districts  of  the  Western
United  States”  (Bulletin  507),  which  furnishes  a  complete  index  to
the  mineral-producing  centers  of  the  western  part  of  the  country.
A  series  of  maps  showing  the  quarry  localities  of  the  country  is
contained  in  the  1911,  1912,  and  1913  volumes  of  “Mineral  Resources
1  The  publications  here  mentioned,  issued  by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  the
Bureau  of  Mines,  and  the  Bureau  of  Foreign  and  Domestic  Commerce,  may  be  obtained
free,  until  the  editions  are  exhausted,  on  application  to  the  respective  bureaus  at  Washington, ­
  D.  C.