yune 27, 1878] 



NATURE 



235 



pollution of the New England rirers, the lumberer and 

 manufecturer have ruined the cod-fishery of that locality 

 by destroying the anadromous fishes which attracted the 

 cod thither ; so that thus the " fish oil ' ' and " fish guano ' ' 

 manufacturers, who are now enriching themselves, not 

 only at the expense of the herring and menhaden, but of 

 the other species which depend on these for food, will 

 speedily, if unchecked, increase the depletion of the 

 northern waters of the United States ; thus increasing the 

 value of the concession made by the Treaty of Washing- 

 ton, and rendering it still more important that laws should 

 not only be made, but enforced, for the prevention of a 

 similar depletion of the (at present) highly productive 

 fishing-grounds of the Dominion, 



William B. Carpenter 



THE GEOLOGY OF LONDON^ 



A LTHOUGH the British Government have under- 

 -'*• taken the geological survey of the country, yet the 

 valuable results obtained by this survey are unfortunately 

 allowed to remain almost unknown to the general public. 

 A complete set of the publications of the geological sur- 

 vey costs, we believe, something like 130/., and is, of 

 course, quite out of the reach of all but great libraries and 

 wealthy public institutions, and no authorised reductions 

 of the maps have as yet been published. It is much to be 

 regretted, too, that the illiberal parsimony displayed in 

 some branches of our public service is most conspicuous of 

 all in that scientific department of it, where its effects prove 

 most injurious. While the publications of the American 

 geological surveys are distributed in foreign countries 

 with an open-handed liberality worthy of a great govern- 

 ment, and the courtesy of the chiefs of those surveys, Dr. 

 Hayden and Mr. Clarence King, is well known to every- 

 one — it is notorious that the directors of our own survey 

 are placed in the painful position of having to refuse to 

 acknowledge the just claims of the largest and most im- 

 portant scientific institutions of their o^vn and other 

 countries. The directors of our national surveys are the 

 more to be pitied, inasmuch as the position of grudging 

 parsimony in which they are placed contrasts so strikingly 

 with that course of wise and judicious liberality in making 

 known the results of their labours which the officers of 

 the scientific departments of the United States and some 

 other countries are permitted to pursue. 



Another matter calling for serious consideration on the 

 part of those who manage the publication of the results 

 of these national surveys, is the exorbitant prices so 

 often charged for the maps and memoirs. We know 

 not whether it be the result of mismanagement or some- 

 thing worse, but it is a fact that it would seem to cost this 

 Government department three or four times as much to 

 produce a map or memoir as a private firm would require 

 to accomplish the same work. Surely these publications 

 not being handicapped with the charges of authorship, 

 ought to be alike marvels of cheapness and models of 

 excellence, yet how very different is the fact ! For an 

 unmounted one-inch map of the district around London 

 the public is charged thirty shillings; for very mode- 

 rate-sized volumes printed on inferior paper and having 

 the general aspect of mean blue-books put into cloth 

 covers, the sum demanded is two pounds ; and recently 

 the geological survey has surpassed even itself by issuing 

 a small paper-covered pamphlet at the price of seventeen 

 shillings ! 



None suffer so much from the effects of this unwise 

 parsimony and obvious mismanagement as the officers of 

 the survey itself. Those among their number who are 

 engaged in active scientific work see the results of their 



^^ Stanford's Geological Map cf London and its Suburbs. The Geoloey 



^Tr A w T '"l^ ^'""P" ^o'* °i^^I "^^^^ °f t*^«= Geological Survey of En^- 

 land and Wales by James B. Jordan. Size, 76 inches by 65. Scale. 6 inchfs 

 to a nule. (London : Edward Stanford, 1878.) 



labours, after long delays and many vexations, placed 

 before the public in an almost inaccessible form ; and 

 they are too often disappointed and discouraged by 

 finding that they do not receive the credit which their 

 persevering labours so well deserve. Possibly, as has 

 frequently happened, an amateur observer working inde- 

 pendently, and untrammelled by the chains of officialism, 

 IS able to forestall their results, by publishing in a scien- 

 tific journal the most important of their conclusions. 

 Have not the directors of these surveys yet learnt that the 

 day is gone by, when scientific writings can with impunity 

 be delayed for years in the press ? 



Fortunately the evils to which we have directed atten- 

 tion in the foregoing paragraphs have a tendency to work 

 their own cure. Thus, though the English Government 

 have not followed the wise example of Austria in pub- 

 lishing chromo-lithographed reductions of the larger 

 maps, the director-general and the directors of the branch 

 surveys have produced privately useful maps on a reduced 

 scale of the areas of which they respectively have charge. 

 Objectionable as it may seem in principle that Govern- 

 ment officials should issue as private speculations these 

 results of their labours, it is certainly better that they 

 should be allowed so to do, than that the public should be 

 altogether deprived of such important publications. 



The map of which the appearance has prompted the fore- 

 going remarks, is another example of private enterprise, 

 being allowed to take in hand what we might fairly expect 

 to be accomplished by a national institution. At the Loan 

 Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus, in 1876, a MS. map of 

 the geology of the district around London, drawn on the 

 scale of six inches to the mile, attracted much attention. 

 Since that time this map, with a well-constructed model 

 of the same area, has formed one of the attractions of 

 the admirable museum at Jermyn Street. In this in- 

 stance the wise course was adopted of publishing a cheap 

 " Guide to the Geology of London," which was drawn up 

 by Mr. Whitaker, one of the most active and efficient 

 officers of the survey, and a geologist whose researches, 

 are well known to scientific men beyond its limits. We 

 believe that this excellent little book has had the large 

 circulation it so well deserves ; and it is certainly much 

 better calculated to attract the attention of the general 

 public to the important work that is being carried on by 

 the Geological Survey than some of the more ponderous 

 volumes, of which only a few copies are sold at very high 

 prices in each year. 



But valuable as the information on this six-inch map 

 clearly was to a large section of the public, its informa- 

 tion has been allowed to remain unpublished, and now 

 Mr. Stanford has had to step in to supply the deficiency. 

 Taking advantage of his excellent and well-known library 

 map of London, and securing the services of Mr. James 

 B.Jordan, who has had so much experience in work of 

 this character, he has issued the geological information 

 in question in a very convenient form. The map em- 

 braces all the area from Finchleyon the north to Becken- 

 ham on the south, and from Blackheath on the east to 

 Shepherd's Bush on the west. The subdivisions of the 

 superficial deposits are not so numerous as might possibly 

 have been desired on a map of this large scale, and the 

 work shows too evident traces of having been compiled 

 from a variety of different sources, some of the areas 

 having been carefully surveyed on the six-inch scale> 

 while others are only enlargements of the one-inch map. 

 Nevertheless, with all these drawbacks the map furnishes 

 information not to be obtained from any other published 

 source, and it will supply a want that was beginning ta 

 be extensively felt among the ever-growing population of 

 the metropolis. 



The colours of the map are exceedingly well chosen, 

 and tastefully combined. Until it is superseded by an 

 authoritative Government publication on the same scale, 

 it is sure to have an extensive circulation. 



