October 2, 1919] 



NATURE 



105 



the rocks could probably be obtained in this manner. 

 Opinion is very much divided as to the relation of 

 the Devonian to the older rocks in South Devon and 

 Cornwall, but there is little doubt that a series of 

 judiciously placed borings would solve the problem 

 without difliculty. In North Devon and West Somer- 

 set the question as to whether the Foreland Grits are 

 a repetition by faulting of the Hangman Grits could 

 also be settled at once bv borings in the Foreland 

 Grits and in the Lynton beds. 



It is not, however, on te.rra firnia alone that such 

 investigations may be usefully carried out. The floors 

 of the shallow seas that separate these islands from 

 one another and from the continent of Europe are 

 still almost unknown from the geological point of 

 view, although their investigation would present no 

 serious difficulties. Joly has described an electricallv 

 driven apparatus which, when lowered so as to rest oh 

 a hard sea-flcxir, will cut out and detach a cvlindrical 

 core of rock, and retain it until raised to the surface 

 Afterwards he invented a still more ingenious device 

 in which the force of the sea-water entering an emptv 

 vessel IS substituted for electrical power, but, unfor- 

 tunately, neither the one nor the other has actuallv 

 been tried or even constructed, 



-Meantime, however, vertical sections up to 80 cm 

 of the mud of the deep seas have actuallv been 

 obtained in iron tubes attached to sounding apparatus 

 employed in the course of the vovage of the Gaiiss. 

 I'Crg These reveal a succession of deposits of which 

 the lower usually indicate colder water conditions 

 than the upper. 



In many places rock fragments are dredged up bv 

 fishing-boats. These should, of course, be used with 

 caution in drawing conclusions as to the distribu- 

 tion of rocks m situ on the sea-bottom, as such frag 

 ments may have been transported when embedded in 

 ice-sheets or in icebergs or other forms of floatin<^ 

 ice, or entangled in the roots of floating trees- buf 

 where the rock fragments can be shown to have a 

 d.-hnite distribution, as in those described bv Gren- 

 ville Cole and Thomas Crook from the Atlantic to 

 the west of Ireland, and bv R. H. Worth from the 

 western portion of the English Channel, they mav be 

 regarded as affording trustworthy information as to 

 tiK-: geology of the area. 



There seems every reason to believe that advances 

 in submarine geology will not be only of scientific 

 interest, but will bring material benefits with them 

 It seems quite possible that off the shores of Northum- 

 berland and Durham there are, in addition to exten- 

 sions of the neichbouring coalfield, Permian rocks 

 containing deposits of common salt, sulphate of 

 calcium ("gypsum and anhydrite), and, above all 

 potash salts comparable to those at Stassfurt which 

 have proved such a source of wealth to Germany. 



\o less important than the work of the Geological 

 Survey is that of our great national museums I 

 have already alluded to the need for local collections 

 to illustrate the geology of the areas in which thev 

 aie situated. The museums of our larger cities and 

 our universities will naturally contain collections of a 

 more general character, but it is to our national 

 museums that we must chiefly look for the provision 

 .:>f specimens to which those engaged in research can 

 refer for comparison, and it is imperative that thev 

 ■should be maintained in the highest state of efficiencv 

 if the^ best results are to be obtained from scientific 

 investigations in this country. The ability and 

 industry of the staff of the mineral and geological 

 departments of the Natural History Museum are 

 everywhere recognised, as well as their readiness to 

 .issistall those who go to them for information, but 

 in point of numbers they are undeniably insufficient 

 NO. 2605, VOL. 104] 



to perform their primary task of examining, describ- 

 ing arranging, and cataloguing their ever-increasing 

 collections so as to enable scientific workers to refer 

 to them under the most favourable conditions.* Even 

 if the staff were doubled, its time would be fully 

 occupied in carrj'ing out these duties, quite apart frorii 

 any special researches to which its members would 

 naturally wish to devote themselves. The additional 

 expense incurred by the urgently needed increase of 

 the museum establishment would be more than re- 

 paid to the country in the increased facilities afforded 

 for research. 



There is room, too, for a considerable extension 

 in the scope of the activity and usefulness of our 

 museums in other directions, and more especially in 

 the provision of typical lithological collections illus- 

 trating the geology of different parts of the British 

 Empire and of foreign countries. 



So far as the United Kingdom is concerned, this 

 requirement has been admirably fulfilled in the 

 museums attached to the Survey headquarters in 

 London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, and there is a 

 smaller collection of the same nature, excellent in 

 its way, at the Natural History Museum. But to 

 obtain a broad outlook it is essential that the atten- 

 tion of geological workers should not be confined to 

 one country, however diversified its rocks mav be, 

 and it is impossible to assimilate effectively publica- 

 tions dealing with the geology of other parts of the 

 world without being able to refer to collections of 

 the rocks, minerals, and fossils described. 



Such collections should include not only rock speci- 

 mens in the ordinary sense of the term, but also 

 examples of metalliferous veins and other mineral 

 deposits which present important distinctive features. 

 The lithological and palaeontological collections 

 which I am now advocating should be arranged so 

 that each group of sfiecimens illustrates an area pos- 

 .sessing distinctive geological features. Little has 

 hitherto been done in this direction. The mineral 

 department of the Natural History Museum possesses 

 a large and extensive collection of foreign and 

 Colonial lithological specimens arranged according to 

 localities, which is too little know'n, but it is naturally 

 very unequal and incomplete, some countries being 

 comparatively well represented and others scarcely at 

 all. The geological department of the museum is 

 well provided with palaeontological specimens, but 

 these are arranged according to their biological 

 affinities, and they might well be supplemented by a 

 series of typical collections illustrating the fauna and 

 flora of the more distinctive horizons in different 

 areas. This is all the more important, as the mode 

 of preservation may be very different in different 

 places. The provision of such facilities for the study 

 of the geology of other lands is especially desirable 

 in London in view of the number of students of 

 mining and economic geology who receive their 

 training in this country and ultimately go out into 

 the world to find themselves face to face with 

 problems in which a true understanding of the local 



geology is absolutely essential. 



■ * * ■ » * * * 



It is more difficult to arrive at the true interpreta- 

 tion of the phenomena presented by the endogenetic 

 rocks ' which have come into existence by the action 

 of the forces of the earth's interior, for the conditions 

 of temperature and pressure under which they were 

 formed, whether they are igneous rocks in the nar- 

 rower sense,, or mineral vefns, or metamorphic in 



* Even the number of skilled mechanics is quite insufficient, though their 

 work is urgently needed. In the Geological Department provision i< made 

 for two only, and at present but one is actually at work. 



' T. Crook, Mi». Ma^., vol. .xvii., p. 87, 1914. 



