ing control of distribution of
mineral products on fundamental facts of geology and geography; thus it
was that geologists had a considerable voice in the vast number of
special measures taken for war purposes by such organizations as the
Shipping Board, the War Trade Board, the War Industries Board, and other
public organizations. The same was true in relation to the mineral
resource questions at the Peace Conference. In the reconstructive
measures of the future, a still larger use of scientific considerations
may be looked for. Further suggestions as to the relation of geology to
laws affecting distribution appear in the chapter on International
Aspects (Chapter XVIII).

IV

OTHER RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY TO LAW

It is often assumed that the economic geologist is exclusively
interested in mineral resources. However, there are varied applications
of geology outside of the mineral resource field,--to many kinds of
engineering and construction operations, to soils, to water resources,
and to transportation,--any of which may develop legal problems
requiring geologic service. A few illustrative cases follow.

The classification of mineral materials in contracts presents many
difficulties. A contract for a railway cut, for a canal, or for any
other kind of excavation may specify different prices for removing
different mineral materials. Too often these are stated in extremely
crude and arbitrary terms, such as _rock_, _hard rock_, _hardpan_,
_earth_, _dirt_, etc., without regard to the actual variety of materials
to be dealt with. When, therefore, in the case of the Chicago drainage
canal, the contractor encountered a soft shale and claimed compensation
for rock excavation, geologists played a considerable part in the
extensive litigation that followed in the attempt to define the facts of
nature in terms of a contract which did not recognize them. In a railway
cut through glacial drift or till, a contractor came suddenly upon a
mass of till which had been so thoroughly cemented in place as to have
all the resistance of rock. Litigation was then necessary to decide
whether this should be classified as dirt or rock.

Rock and dirt slides of all kinds, met with in open-pit mining, canals,
and other excavations, present engineering problems with a geologic
basis. The kinds of rocks, their strength, porosity, and moisture
content, the effects of weathering, and the structural conditions must
be determined in order to asc