xl EIGHTH REPORT — 1838. 



of once living and perfect animalcules inclosed in a single cubic inch 

 of solid stone. Well, indeed, may we quote the reoent work of Lyell, 

 who, rejoicing in this great discovery, exclaims with the poet, — 



" The dust we tread upon was once alive." 



In noticing the labours of the Section of Geology and Geography, we 

 have to observe, with regret, that the latter science has not hitherto 

 received at our meetings that amount of attention to Avhich it is justly 

 entitled. When we consider the advances which the science has re- 

 cently made under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society of 

 London, we cannot but lament that the British Association did not, at 

 an earlier period, request a report from some one of its members upon 

 the present state of our geographical knowledge, and upon those de- 

 partments of it in which our researches might be most advantageously 

 prosecuted. The annual reports of the Secretary of the Geographical 

 Society, — particularly the last report of Capt. Washington, and the 

 admirable discourse recently delivered by its President, Mr. W. R. 

 Hamilton, — have in great measure supplied this deficiency, making the 

 public acquainted both with much that has been done, and much that 

 remains to be worked out in this very important branch of knowledge. 

 But though we have thus been partially anticipated, we feel satisfied 

 that such a report, by bringing into prominent notice, before the whole 

 body of the Association, a statement of those great geographical pro- 

 blems, whose solution is most specially desired or most easily effected, 

 may serve to secure for the promotion of geography the application of 

 some portion of those funds which have been hitherto exclusively 

 appropriated to other sciences. 



The merits of the Statistical Section have been already made mani- 

 fest, by the collection of a great variety of very important data. On 

 this occasion we have to notice a very perspicuous and well-arranged 

 report, which appears in our Transactions, upon the statistics of a 

 large province of Hindostan, which sufliciently proves that a statist, 

 who would really contribute to the advancement of statistical science 

 by collecting facts in distant regions, must possess no slight qualifi- 

 cations. In vain, in the absence of other essential branches of know- 

 ledge, may he accumulate half-digested and ill-assorted observations ; 

 he must also combine, as in the person of Colonel Sykes, the ac- 

 quirements of the naturalist and geologist with those of an accom- 

 plished soldier and of a man of general information. 



The accumulation of such facts is obviously a very fit part of the 

 labours of this Association, for they prove statistics to be truly a 

 science of method. This science occupies the same relation to politi- 

 cal economy in its most comprehensive sense, which astronomical ob- 

 servations held relatively to astronomy before the discoveries of me- 



