88 Address. [Fer. 



the practical exploration of mineral products, the call for which, owing 

 to the larger extension of the railway system, the interest evinced by 

 private enterprise, and the desire of the Government of India to place 

 the conditions of the resources of India as clearly as possible before 

 the public, has become most urgent. 



Reports of the greatest economic interest and value have been pub- 

 lished, in the Records of the Survey, on the Auriferous rock series 

 (Blidrtvdrs), and the Diamond exploration in South India, by Mr. Foote ; 

 on Tin-mining in Tenasserim, by Mr. Hughes ; on Indian steatite and 

 materials for pottery manufacture in the neighbourhood of Jabalpur, 

 by Mr. Mallet, who gives notes of trials of steatite from various parts of 

 India as to capability of being cut into small pieces without breaking and 

 freedom from grit, for the purpose of making gas-burners. The best 

 specimens were from Kurnool, the Anantapur District and Jaipur, but 

 many others were promising. Dr. Noetling has also given a very in- 

 teresting and valuable Report on the Oil-fields of Tenangzoung, in 

 Burma, in which he shows that under the native system of working the 

 greater part of the oil-bearing sandstone is untouched and the oil 

 industry would not be developed more than it is at present; but if 

 ■worked according to the European style, by bores, these oil-fields 

 are capable of considerable development in the future, but cannot be 

 expected to compete vpith American or Russian oil. 



The first part of a provisional " Iiidex of the Local Distribution 

 of important Minerals &c. in the Indian Empire" has been compiled 

 by Dr. W. King, the Director of the Survey. Such an Index has been 

 much wanted and will be of great value. It is ai-ranged ; first, by Pre- 

 sidencies, Provinces, Agencies, or Native States, in alphabetical order, 

 and gives the mineral products found in each under the heads of im- 

 portant minerals, miscellaneous minerals, gem-stones and quarry-stones. 



Professor the Ober-Bergrath, Dr. W. Waagen, of Prag, continues 

 his admirable memoirs on the Salt-range fossils, in the Falceontologia 

 Indica, of which Part I, Vol. lY., Geological Results, was issued by the 

 Survey in December last. Succeeding parts of this volume will be 

 issued as volumes II and III, are completed, the part now issued having 

 reference mainly to the first volume, The Salt-range geology is, 

 however, continually receiving great attention from explorers and per- 

 haps the most interesting observation yet made is that of Dr. Wavth, 

 who was fortunate enough early in the year to make the remai-kable 

 discovery of trilobites in the Neoholus beds, which had long been looked 

 upon as of Silurian age. Dr. Waagen confirmed the discovery by 

 recognising two determinable species ; one a Conoce])lialites, very nearly 

 related to Con. formosus, Hartt. from the St. John's grouji, and the, other 



