CIVIL-ENGINEERING 219 



Civil-engineering. 



In an address delivered before the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers some few years ago we find it 

 asserted that "few sciences are more intimately 

 connected with civil engineering than geology" for, 

 as the author points out, whether the work be the 

 construction of railways, harbours, docks, canals, 

 water-works or sewerage-works, it necessitates the 

 removal of large masses of rock, sand, clay or 

 other geological material, with the lateral extent, 

 thickness, and general characters of which the 

 geologist is acquainted. 



Thus one of the fundamental requirements of 

 the engineer before such work is undertaken is a 

 detailed geological survey of the district concerned. 

 To take a case in point: in the construction of 

 the great reservoir in the Vyrnwy Valley, from 

 which to supply the city of Liverpool with water, 

 geological principles guided the engineer in the 

 choice of the position for the dam; a position so 

 advantageously selected that any other site, even 

 as little as 200 yards away, would have involved 

 an additional expenditure of from 300,000 to 

 400,000. 



In the construction of a railway, the making of 

 cuttings and tunnelling through the hills, the 

 inclination and hardness of the rocks, the presence 

 of water-bearing strata, and the occurrence of faults, 

 are a few of the geological factors with which the 



