570 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. — lOlG. 



club may undertake the work in one portion of the river and another above or 

 below, as the case may be. The joint talnilated results, on <a pre-arranged and 

 <arefully considered system, would be of permanent value. 



Again, as regards Fossils. Now that zoning has become so much the fashion, 

 the recognition of zones in adjoining areas by means of preconcerted simul- 

 taneous collecting in the same beds may lead to far-i-eaching generalisations. In 

 a comparatively short time the value of a zone or supposed zone may be deter- 

 mined. It may be shown to be a case of mere local distribution, or it may 

 prove to be of vast extent and become a stratigraphical landmark of great 

 utility. In this connection I would especially like to call attention to the case 

 of strata in. which occur coal-seams, oil-shales, ironstones, and other deposits of 

 industrial interest. The recent work of many competent geologists has shown 

 the great value that may attach to certain beds charge<l with special plant- 

 remains, fish and shell-bands, algal layers, and other horizon-fixing organisms 

 in such rocke. Such things have been noticed for years by isolated observers, 

 very few of whom have troubled to make their occurrence generally known. 

 Lately the continuity of some of these fossil horizons over large areas has at 

 last been recognised, and the great value of some of them in fixing the position 

 of workable beds of one kind or another has been abundantly proved. But there 

 is room for much more intelligently-conducted research in this field, and 

 especially for much more rapidly acquired knowledge of this sort. Let every 

 Field Club fossil-collector in our coalfields record his finds of such fossil 

 ' indicators ' — if I may so call them ; let his records be properly combined with 

 those of every other club similarly situated, and it will not be long before a 

 really authoritative schedule c^n be drawn up in which every such ' indicator ' 

 is placed in its proper relative position in the column of strata and its horizontal 

 extension, upon which its practical utility largely depends, is correctly shown. 

 Some of these zones mil be then known as of great value, others as of le.'ie 

 constancy, and some will be discarded as too uncertain for use in practice, 

 though they may retain much interest from the purely scientific point of view. 



As regards Glacial Deposits something has already been done in the way of 

 co-operation, and that too very successfully. Bonlder committees exist in 

 connection with several societies, and some have combined their results. I 

 should like to see such committees multiplied, and the results of all sifted and 

 tabulated on some well-thought-out system, so that all the vast amonnt of work 

 they represent may become readily accessible and ultimately bear fruit. 



In the collection of Borings and Sinkings also a good deal has been effected 

 by costly publications issued by some of the great mining institutes, and by the 

 invaluable well-sinking records so carefully preserved for us by our past- 

 President, Mr. Whitaker. But there is no end to this form of work, and all 

 our societies, if they are willing to co-operate, can take part in it with great 

 advantage. 



The above are some only of very many directions in which the clubs and 

 societies, working on pre-arranged lines with each other, may^ in the field of our 

 branch of science alone, induce their individual members to take part in wide- 

 reaching research with the certainty that no bit of work, however small, will, 

 so long as it is honestly and carefully done, be lost (as it now is nine times out 

 of ten),l)ut will find its place as a stone in some worthy edifice erected by the 

 joint efforts of many others. Co-operation of the sort I have in my mind should 

 be so planned that the maximum value in useful results will be obtained from 

 the maximum number of co workers. The enormous saving of time to be arrived 

 at by such methods will be patent to all. The use at k.st found for odd notes 

 and notelets, the reduction of size in publications, with the saving of money 

 which follows — these are some of the points I rely on in submitting my sug- 

 gestions to the consideration of our delegates. The machinery to carry out such 

 schemes must be left to those in whose hands lies the management of the 

 different societies if they should think any of them worth trying. This brings 

 me to my last suggestion. It is that the co-operation I mean could probably 

 be made practically effective by the delegates themselves acting as plenipoten- 

 tiaries in special assembly for the purpose during the annual meetings of the 

 Briti.sh Association. 



In conclusion I wish to say that T regard the views I have pxpi'essed as in 



