68 SURVEY UNDER OFFICE OF WORKS CHAP, in 



fruits of individual research. But in the Geological 

 Survey of Great Britain there is a combination of 

 forces which we have never, in this country at least, 

 seen applied to the promotion of any one department 

 of science. No department perhaps requires so many 

 different descriptions of force to be brought to bear 

 upon it. The Ordnance Trigonometrical Survey led 

 the way by the preparation of that indispensable 

 requisite in geological inquiries, an accurate map on 

 a large scale. For the more general (geological) 

 Survey, we have geologists of great practical experi 

 ence, who have established a high reputation ; and 

 when the structure of each region is to be worked out 

 in detail, the special knowledge of the mineralogist, 

 the chemist, the natural philosopher, the zoologist, 

 the comparative anatomist, the botanist, and the 

 palaeontologist, will be brought to bear, as required, 

 by means of men of high authority in each branch, 

 and their labours will be illustrated by artists of great 

 skill, all attached to the Survey, forming together a 

 corps of scientific men, for the accomplishment of a 

 great work, not surpassed, I believe, by any similar 

 establishment in any other country. 1 



By these new arrangements additional duties 

 and responsibility were thrown upon Ramsay. The 

 Local Director was to have immediate supervision of 

 the field-work of the staff, which would necessitate 

 his frequent inspection of the surveys of his various 

 colleagues. He was to see that the whole mapping 

 was conducted on uniform methods, to confer with 

 the officers on their difficulties, to bring the experience 

 gained in one district to bear upon the elucidation of 

 another, and thus to ensure the harmony and steady 



1 Anniversary address, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iii. (1847), p. 31. 



