64 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



discovery, and especially for the proper development of these 

 resources. 



In most territories the geological departments embrace the sub- 

 ject of mineral resources, but the granting of mining licences and 

 leases, and the preparation of statistics of production, are under 

 the mining departments. Kenya and Sierra Leone have a Depart- 

 ment of Geology and Mines united, and Tanganyika has recently 

 amalgamated the former Geological Department, so that there is 

 now a Department of Lands and Mines at Dar-es-Salaam, with 

 separate divisions for Survey, Geology, and Mines at other centres 

 in the territory. 



The staff of these departments is small, and consists usually of 

 four or five geologists of whom one or two may be specialist officers. 

 Recruitment is usually made from graduates of British Empire 

 universities. The opinion has been expressed by several directors 

 that the right sort of men, suitably trained, are by no means easy 

 to obtain. At present there are the following numbers of trained 

 geologists in the departments: Nigeria — 6, Gold Coast — 4, Sierra 

 Leone — i, Kenya — 2, Uganda — 4, Tanganyika — 5, Nyasaland — 

 3. Those departments which undertake well-sinking operations 

 have in addition engineers and other European staff; for instance, 

 Nigeria, which has devoted much attention to the water-supply 

 of the Northern Emirates, has four engineers, five European fore- 

 men in charge of well-sinking gangs, and one driller. 



Geologists in the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone spend six months 

 of each year during the dry seasons working in the field and then 

 return to an office in London during the wet season to work up 

 the results. This system enables them to keep in close touch with 

 other geologists in England, and allows time for the field results 

 to be properly recorded. In Nigeria the geological department 

 had the same system up till 1930, but then changed to eighteen 

 months in West Africa, followed by six months' leave in England. 

 In East Africa the tours comply with the usual two and a half 

 years of other departments. 



The difficulty for these small staffs of combining specialized 

 research with routine work is great. In particular, the petrological 

 and chemical sides of the work are severely handicapped. At 

 present, Tanganyika and Uganda are the only territories with 



