C— GEOLOGY. 65 



reflect that the total annual cost of the Geological Survey of England, 

 Wales, Scotland, and Ireland is somewhere near £20,000 — less, that is to 

 say, than the salary and fees we have been accustomed to pay every year 

 to a single Law Officer of the Crown — we should find it difficult to bear 

 patiently with any narrow or short-sighted official view.' 



Granted, then, the value of a Geological Survey to a country already 

 well established, and with many lucrative sources of production and wealth, 

 how much more so is it to a young country, dependent to a greater or less 

 extent for its existence during its infancy or adolescence, upon the financial 

 benefactions of its guardian or sponsor ; a country the revenue of which in 

 some cases is less than its expenditure ; and the significance of whose 

 natural features is scarcely understood, with its mineral resources almost 

 unknown and entirely undeveloped. Surely a young country needs to have 

 its possible economic mineral importance investigated and determined by 

 competent persons specially trained in this respect. Thus, as regards all 

 that appertains to geology in all its branches and connections, the trained 

 geologist is the person to whom appeal should be made for such purpose. 



For the following information I am indebted to Dr. C. A. Matley : — • 

 ' The earliest record there is apparently of a geological survey of a 

 Colony is that of Trinidad, as shown in the Introductory Notice and 

 Appendix of the Report on the Geology of Trinidad, published as 

 one of the " Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain," in 1860. 

 This says : " The Geological Survey of Trinidad originated with the late 

 Sir William Molesworth, who, in 1855, when Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, induced the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to appoint 

 competent Geologists to undertake a general Survey of the Economic 

 Geology of Trinidad, and the other West India Colonies." The cost of the 

 survey and publication of results were borne by the Home and Local 

 Governments. Three Memoirs were published, the first in 1860, on Trinidad, 

 the second in 1869, on Jamaica and the adjacent islands of Anguilla and 

 Sombrero ; and the third in 1875, on British Guiana. 



' This official geological survey of Jamaica, done between 1859 and 1866, 

 was a creditable production of pioneer work. On the scientific side notable 

 advances were made in the knowledge of the formations, fossils and tectonics 

 of the island. On the economic side valuable information was gained of the 

 metalliferous and non-metalliferous resources of Jamaica, and the important 

 role played by the various geological formations in controlling the surface 

 and underground water-supply.' 



Further valuable work on the geology of the island of Jamaica was 

 done by Dr. Matley, from October, 1921, to near the middle of 1924, and 

 important economic results obtained by him, specially with regard to 

 water-supply, road-stones, and fossiliferous zones of the rocks. 



The Colonies do not seem to have had any more surveys of this kind 

 till, through the broad vision and enlightened policy of the Colonial Office, 

 Mineral Surveys were established in Southern Nigeria in 1903, Northern 

 Nigeria in 1904, Ceylon in 1903, Nyasaland in 1906. These surveys did 

 useful work and made important discoveries of mineral deposits. They 

 were succeeded by Geological Surveys, with broader interests, as men- 

 tioned hereunder. 



The Colonies and Protectorates that now have Geological Surveys in 

 1929 ™ 



