554 Dr. J. W. Evans — Presidential Address. 



geology will not be of only scientific interest, but will bring material 

 benefits witb them. Even at present the working of coal-seams and 

 metalliferous veins has been extended outwards beyond low-water 

 mark, and, if evidence should be forthcoming that valuable deposits 

 underlie the shallower waters of the North Sea at any point, there is 

 no reason to doubt that mining engineers would find means of 

 exploiting them. It seems quite possible that off the shores of 

 Northumberland and Durham there are in addition to extensions 

 of the neighbouring coalfield, Permian rocks containing deposits 

 of common salt, calcium sulphate (gypsum and anhydrite), and, 

 above all, potash salts comparable to those at Stassfurt, which have 

 proved such a source of wealth to Germany. 



No 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 

 they are 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 of specimens to which those engaged in 

 research can refer for comparison, and it is imperative that they 

 should be maintained in the highest state of efficiency, 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 recognized, as well as their readiness to assist all those 

 who go to them for information, but in point of numbers they are 

 undeniably insufficient to perform their primary task of examining, 

 describing, arranging, and cataloguing their ever-increasing 

 collections so as to enable scientific workers to refer to them under 

 the most favourable conditions. 1 Even if the staff were doubled, 

 its time would be fully occupied in carrying out these duties, quite 

 apart from 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 establish- 

 ment would be more than repaid 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 

 illustrating 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 attention of geological workers should not be 

 confined to one country, however diversified its rocks may be, and 



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

 work is urgently needed. In the Geological Department provision is only made 

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



