RECORDS OF GEOLOGICAL FACTS 223 



specifying the locality at which his operations were 

 carried on. In certain cases commercial competition 

 renders it advisable that information so obtained 

 should be temporarily withheld, but this is surely 

 no excuse for the indefinite retention and ultimate 

 loss of knowledge which after a time ceases to be 

 of value to the owner but is of infinite value to the 

 State. Take for example the case of a bore-hole 

 made in search for coal or other minerals. If it 

 proves to the owner of the property that no mineral- 

 wealth, such as he sought, exists, that information 

 can be of no value to him, but this fact if placed on 

 record will prevent, in the future, wasteful expendi- 

 ture of capital in the same area to obtain the same 

 negative result. Such remarks apply equally to the 

 question of water-supply, for the same careful record 

 of scientific information concerning its underground 

 distribution is an absolute necessity for our well- 

 being. 



Such considerations as these naturally suggest 

 certain lines of action, and the most obvious is for 

 legislation to demand that all excavations, bore- 

 holes, and shafts, that reach a depth of more than 

 50 feet from the surface, should be notified to some 

 government department whose duty it should be to 

 register the details, and place on record those facts 

 of scientific value which the work has brought to 

 light. That there are difficulties in the way of 

 carrying out such a scheme must be admitted. In 

 the first place, the strata exposed in any excavation 



