May 23, 1859.] GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 275 



presented to the Houses of Parliament. The account of the prin- 

 cipal tri angulation embodying the scientific results of ihe survey 

 was published in the beginning of last year, and has been received 

 with satisfaction by the scientific men of all countries. 



Geological Survey of Great Britain. — Fully aware that the physical 

 geography of a country can never be perfected until we are acquainted 

 with the structure of the sub-soil, on which the outlines of the land 

 depend, it is my duty to inform geographers of the progress 

 which has been made in this branch of the Government surveys 

 of which I am the director. In fact, the geographer has only to 

 inspect the horizontal sections which we publish on the scale of 

 six inches to a mile, to see how intimate is the connexion between 

 geography and geology. Whilst coloured maps on the one inch 

 scale have been published over a considerable portion of England, 

 Wales, and Ireland, six sheets on a smaller scale have been issued, 

 comprising all Wales and the bordering English counties. Lest any 

 one should suppose that the production of this beautiful and com- 

 pendious map had been favoured by myself because it includes the 

 " Silurian Eegion," let me say that it was ordered by my predecessor, 

 Sir Henry De la Beche, on account of the striking physical features 

 of that region, and was far advanced towards completion when I 

 took ofiice. 



Seeing the rapid progress which is made in England and Ireland, 

 it is a subject of deep regret to me that two surveyors only are as 

 yet allotted to Scotland. Knowing the extraordinary value of the 

 great coal tract between the Firths of Clyde and Forth on the one 

 hand, and on the other the great interest which geologists attach to 

 the acquirement of true knowledge respecting the broken and 

 mountainous parts of Scotland, it is manifest that the surveying force 

 there ought to be much augmented ; the more so as the Ordnance 

 Survey, under the direction of Colonel James, is now issuing rapidly 

 sheets on the six inch scale, relating to nearly the whole of the 

 south of Scotland. The maps on this scale are of the greatest 

 service to the field geologist, who registers upon them all his 

 detailed data previously to a reduction for the- one inch or pub- 

 lished map. And although the six inch maps will not be published, 

 copies of them will be registered in the public museum of Edinburgh 

 ready to be consulted by all proprietors who seek for accurate 

 details. I apprehend, indeed, that even when the one- inch sheet, 

 exhibiting the geological structure of the country around Edinburgh, 



