Notes on the Geological Reports. 275 



glcal survey is not a gold prospeflion ; though it may 

 often happen that in a survey of a distri6l, it may be 

 possible to prove that gold or other valuables is to be 

 found there in paying quantities. The close and detailed 

 examination of a small distri6l for special minerals, is a 

 vastly different undertaking from the comprehensive 

 survey of a region for the purposes of mapping — to deter- 

 mine the relative arrangement of water, hill and vale, and 

 their component parts, of the rock systems and their 

 included fossils and mineral constituents. 



The whole secret of the complaint seems to lie in the 

 want of comprehension of what a geological survey means, 

 and its discrimination from a gold hunting expedition. 



But the complaint is, moreover, unjust and false. Con- 

 sistently with the objefts of the survey, the geologists 

 kept an open eye for the discovery of gold ; and frequent 

 references in the reports substantiate this, where instead 

 of statements that gold did not exist, they notify its 

 presence or the likelihood of its occurrence, and recom- 

 mend further investigation. 



On page 37, at the close of their report on the North 

 Western part of the colony, after a description of the 

 various schistose, granitic and gneissic rocks and their 

 reference to Palaeozoic times, they close with the follow- 

 ing. " From their {i.e. the rocks) being metamorphosed 

 and pierced by quartz veins, and from their possessing 

 all those lithological chara6lers which are considered 

 auriferous, we regret that our means of supporting 

 labourers with the necessaries of life prevented us from 

 carrying our examinations to the extent we would 

 recommend." 



On page 41, in 'the report on the Cuyuni and Supi- 



