Third Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey 1881-82

Washington: Government Printing Office, 1883. xviii, 564, XXV + 32 plates (some folding, some double-page), 11 folding, col maps. . HB. Ex-lib, Letchworth and District Naturalists' Society Museum Library. 4to, orig. cloth, rubbed, scuffed and a little worn; some light occassional foxing, otherwise a good copy of this Annual Report.. Contains six large papers: Birds with Teeth, by O. C. Marsh; The Copper-Bearing Rocks of Lake Superior by R. D. Irving; Sketch of the Geological History of Lake Lahontan, a quaternary lake of northern Nevada, by I. C. Russell; Abstract of the report on the geology of the Eureka District, Nevada, by A. Hague; Preliminary paper on the terminal moraine of the second glacial epoch, by T.C. Chamberlin; A Review of the nonmarine fossil mollusca of North America by C. A. White. The United States Geological Survey was established by an act of Congress in 1879 and was charged with the 'classification of the public lands and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain'. The third Annual Report was produced by John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) who served as the second director of the U.S. Geological Survey, 1881–1894. The volume contains a series of important papers, accompanied with fascinating black and white illustrations and attractive lithographic maps..