CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 199 



also in half a hundred or more places in Great Britain where 

 large bodies of men were quartered in training camps and hos- 

 pitals. The army engineers wanted to know the value of 

 certain sands for use in concrete, why particular formations 

 squeezed out into the trenches and dugouts, about the use of 

 sandscreens in wells, what was the permanent level of under- 

 ground water in many localities, and a long list of additional 

 things equally varied. War trade organizations wanted in- 

 formation on mineral resources in many parts of the world. 

 The navy desired 'help in testing various minerals needed for 

 the manufacture of instruments used in important submarine 

 devices, in locating coal supplies in distant ports of the world, 

 and in finding suitable water supplies for a large number of 

 naval stations. The ministry of munitions asked about caves 

 for storing high explosives, and the sources and quality of 

 minerals used in the manufacture of such explosives. Even 

 the air service had its geological problems to bring to the 

 Survey officials. All these needs, and many more which lack 

 of space forbids us to mention, were met by the trained staff 

 of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. If this were the 

 whole story, surely few would deny that this scientific branch 

 of the British Government had amply justified its existence 

 when the test of war came. 



But it is not the whole story. Some members of the staff 

 were missing for a time, and inquiry would have elicited the 

 information that three of them were in the Gallipoli penin- 

 sula developing a water supply for the forces engaged in that 

 ill-fated campaign; while others were here or there on other 

 geological missions. At the front you might have found Bel- 

 gian, British and French army officials eagerly consulting one 

 of the only two known available copies of a detailed geological 

 map of Belgium showing geological cross-sections and well 

 records of most vital importance, both copies having been sup- 

 plied from the files of the British Survey. On asking about 

 the other copy, you would have learned that the Survey staff 

 was busy preparing from it as a base, a new issue for distribu- 



