78 NATURAL SCIENCE. July, 1893. 



" Royal Geographical Society, 

 " I Savile Row, 



"Burlington Gardens, W., 

 " 5th June, 1893. 

 "Sir, — I am desired by the Council of the Royal Geographical Society to inform 

 you that Mr. Freshfield's letter of June ist was written and issued without their 

 authority or knowledge, and that his action in so writing has been disavowed by 

 them. The Council as a body have no wish to influence the judgment of any Fellow 

 in the matter. " I have the honour to be, 



"Your obedient servant, 



" R. Strachey, Vice-President." 



We need not add to our remarks last month. So far as we can judge, all the 

 Royal Geographical Society's difficulties have arisen from the usurpation by the 

 Council of powers exclusively belonging to the Fellows assembled in a Special 

 General Meeting ; and the time for granting the Fellowship to ladies has thus been 

 unfortunately postponed. 



During the absence of Mr. Theodore Hughes in England, Mr. T. D. La Touche 

 undertakes the duties of Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India. We 

 briefly referred last month to the new orders under which the work of the Survey 

 will for the future be directed more especially to subjects of economic interest, and 

 we are now able to add some further particulars. It is ordered that two-thirds of 

 the officers shall always be primarily engaged on the explorations necessary to 

 complete the geological survey, and the remaining third on the practical investigation 

 of mineral fields. In the latter case, the exploration will be confined to such pre- 

 liminary researches as may be necessary to supply general information regarding 

 their character and extent to capitalists and promoters, to whom will be left the 

 responsibility for more detailed prospecting. According to the recently-issued 

 annual report, the most important scientific work of the past year was that carried 

 out in the Central Himalaya by two of the survey officers in co-operation with Dr. 

 Diener, the eminent geologist of Vienna, and their joint researches are said to be 

 certain to prove of high scientific interest. There were experimental borings for oil 

 in Beloochistan and on the Indus, investigations into the Nerbudda coal-fields, the 

 coal resources of Tenasserim, jade in Burmah, coal and rubies in the regions 

 bordering on Yunnan, and much else of a similar character. The advance in the 

 knowledge of Indian coal-fields has been great. The centres of production, which 

 a few years ago were almost confined to Bengal, have now been extended to Assam, 

 Punjab, Central Provinces, the Nizam's territory, and Burma. The survey has 

 also done much to determine the character of the oil resources of the country, and 

 soon the question will be set at rest whether any important or permanent supply of 

 oil can be secured in Northern India. 



