ON RAILWAY SECTIONS. 39 



ing, that in obtaining these documentsthey have been aided in the most effective 

 and satisfactory manner by all the Railway Companies to whom they have 

 applied, and also by their several officers ; the engineers in particular having 

 taken extreme pains and great interest in forwarding the views of the Asso- 

 ciation. When so many parties have thus zealously co-operated, it might be 

 almost invidious to name one without specifying all ; but in particularly men- 

 tioning Mr. Swanwick the engineer of the North Midland Railway, the Com- 

 mittee wish to do so for the purpose of remarking on the great care taken 

 by that gentleman to mark upon the sections as his works went on, all the 

 geological detail shown in the excavations of that railway which passes 

 through so interesting a region. There has consequently been put into pos- 

 session of the Committee a vast extent of most valuable records of the kind 

 sought for, and which at the same time form a most striking example, well 

 worthy of imitation, of the combination of engineering and geological infor- 

 mation available for ceconomic purposes. 



The Committee were not at first able to organize a system of working the 

 grant to their entire satisfaction, but after some experience they ascertained 

 that, with the favorable disposition shown by all the Railway Companies, they 

 might (without increasing the expense) by degrees and in no great time be 

 able to form an interesting and valuable collection, not only of the sections of 

 the excavations of the railways, but of the whole of the plans and sections of 

 the lines, which, concentrated in a public depository and open to the inspec- 

 tion of all scientific and literary bodies and individuals, and to the public in 

 general, under proper regulations, would be of high interest. In fact such do- 

 cuments were almost necessarily required as the mere indices whereby to iden- 

 tify the particular geological profiles ; but so useful and important is such a 

 collection likely to become, that it is not unreasonable to hope and believe 

 that after another year's experience shall have matured the arrangements of 

 the Committee, and perfected their proposed system of record, and brought 

 down the expense to a certain and moderate rate per mile, the subject may be 

 taken up by Her Majesty's Government, and made to form part of the great 

 Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, conducted by Sir Henry De la 

 Beche in connection with the Trigonometrical Survey now carrying on by 

 Colonel Colby and the Officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers. 



The Committee are therefore not without hope that the Geological Section 

 will again apply to the General Committee for a further grant at the present 

 meeting to enable them to complete the organization they have begun. The 

 documents which the Committee have to submit are the following : — 



1st. Plans and sections of the whole of the Midland Counties Railway from 

 Rugby to Derby and Nottingham, about 68 miles. 



Enlarged sections of the cuttings only of this railway, prepared to be filled 

 in geologically. The chief characteristics of this district are the gypsum 

 beds, commonly called plaster of Paris, and the water-setting lime, well known 

 to engineers as the Barrow lime. 



2nd. Plans and sections of the whole of the North Midland Railway from 

 Derby to Leeds, about 72 miles. The geological detail, as furnished by Mr. 

 Swanwick, is laid down on the working sections of the cuttings, but as it has 

 been considered by the Committee that a uniform system should be observed, 

 enlarged sections have been prepared, on which, as on the similar sections of 

 the other lines, the strata should be delineated. It may be observed here, that 

 these enlarged sections are laid down in the proportion of one inch to forty feet 

 upon the natural scale, that is, the vertical and horizontal scales are alike, 

 which is not always the case in ordinary geological sections, and very seldom 

 so with the working sections for earth-work and similar engineering purposes. 



