302 REPORT— 1897. 



may be called the more sensational geological phenomena. What is now 

 rather more required is the steady surveying of ordinary, and especially 

 temporary, features and phenomena. Picked points on retreating and 

 advancing shore lines should be photographed at regular intervals ; 

 sections in variable deposits should be taken as the excavation of them 

 proceeds, and out-of-the-way districts sliould also be registered, even if 

 they only yield ordinary phenomena. Important as it is that fossils 

 should be accurately and faithfully figured, it is equally essential that 

 phenomena in the tield should be figured in a way that is not only 

 accurate, but includes, without accentuation, the interpretation of the in- 

 vestigator, while it registers facts which may have escaped his observation. 



In order to glean copies of the original photographs used as the bases 

 for illustrations in papers and books, a circular has been furnished to 

 Editors of Geological publications, and by the kindness of the Societies 

 and their Editors these have been sent out to the contributors of papers 

 so illustrated. The plates and other illustrations published are, when 

 possible, mounted by the side of the original photographs, and yearly lists 

 are published in the Report (list 5). The Committee are indebted to the 

 Editors of the publications of the Geological Societies and Associations of 

 London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cornwall, Yorkshire, Dublin, and 

 Belfast, and to the Editor of the ' Geological Magazine ' for help in this 

 connection. 



Friendly notices of the work of the Committee have been published in 

 'Nature,' 'Science Gossip,' several photographic journals, the 'Standard,' 

 the 'Irish Naturalist,' the 'Transactions of the Woolhope Club,' and 

 elsewhere ; while an illustrated paper on the subject was published in the 

 'Practical Photographer' for April 1897; and another, illustrated by 

 reproductions of photographs kindly lent for the purpose by Miss Andrews, 

 Mr. Bingley, and Mr. Garwood, was published by the Secretary in the 

 first three numbers of the 'Geological Magazine' for 1897. A short 

 paper on the subject was also read by the Secretary to the South-Eastern 

 Union of Natural History Societies in 1896. Prizes have been offered by 

 the publishers of the ' Practical Photographer ' for specimen local surveys, 

 including the geological phenomena of a particular district. Albums 

 containing recent additions to the Collection have been exhibited at the 

 Royal Institution, the Geological Society, and the Geologists' Association. 



The results of these efforts have been gratifying in several directions. 

 Photographic surveys have been started in Bolton and Devon ; each 

 of these includes geological work. The following Clubs and Societies have 

 definitely undertaken to photograph in their own districts — The North 

 Staffordshire Naturalists' Field Club, the University of Durham Philo- 

 sophical Society, the Woolhope Field Club, the Dublin Field Club, and the 

 Burton Natural History Society. From these sources valuable results 

 have already accrued, and further work may be confidently looked forward 

 to next year. 



Much labour has been expended in getting the collection into thorough 

 order, and it is hoped that the greater part of this work is now satis- 

 factorily accomplished. All mounted photographs, to the number of 

 about 1,700, are accessible for reference in the Library of the Museum of 

 Practical Geology at 28 Jermyn Street, S.W., where they can be inspected 

 on application to the Librarian. They are classified geographically and 

 grouped according to countries and counties in twenty-three albums, 

 so arranged that their contents can be expanded as new photographs are 



