MUSEUM OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 263 



XU. MUSEUM OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 



This is a most valuable establishment, in the centre of Lon 

 don. Its whole object is utility, and principally in rendering 

 geological discoveries subservient to the promotion of the useful 

 and ornamental arts. It is a most singular, but a well-estab 

 lished fact, that the mineral treasures dug from the mines, in the 

 islands of Great Britain, amount to the enormous sum. of twenty 

 million pounds sterling per year, or one hundred million of 

 dollars, of which eight million pounds, or forty million of dol 

 lars, are of iron, and nine million pounds, or forty-five million of 

 dollars, of coal. It is easy to see what a vast interest is at stake 

 in these matters. In another form, I hope to be able to give 

 some account of a visit which I made to one of these immense 

 excavations, where I descended, by a ladder, seven hundred feet, 

 and then groped my way through various crevices, and chambers, 

 and shafts, a distance of perhaps two miles under ground. I am 

 disposed to think it would be misplaced in an agricultural report, 

 where I am afraid my friends will already find too many things 

 out of place. I can only, in this matter, throw myself upon the 

 indulgence of my readers, and remind them of the variety of 

 tastes and appetites which I am compelled to consult. If, in 

 spite of all this, a bill of indictment should be brought against 

 me for making my Reports too miscellaneous, I shall at once 

 allow a plea of guilty to be recorded, and throw myself upon the 

 mercy of the court. I am indeed, in this way, an old offender, 

 and I cannot express the gratitude which I feel for the mercy I 

 have so often experienced. 



The Museum of Economic Geology, though not founded 

 principally for the benefit of agricultural science, is yet made 

 subsidiary to this object. The geological structure of any por 

 tion of the earth s surface seems intimately related to the nature 

 of the soil which rests upon it : so that, from knowing the 

 structure of the rocky substratum of a country, you can infer 

 strongly its fertility or its infertility, or the adaptation of its soil 

 to various crops. The general opinion is, that all soils are 

 formed from the crumbling or detrition of rocks, mixed with 

 some vegetable or organic matter. This is the received theory, 



