Notices of Memoirs — The Geological Survey. 361 



Besides the usual Horizontal Sections on the scale of six inches to 

 a mile, occasional sections on a larger scale are prepared to illustrate 

 the geological structure of particular localities. In this way the 

 coastline of Cromer and Yarmouth has been represented in detail, 

 and its numerous features of geological interest have been inserted 

 so as to exhibit a kind of picture of the arrangement of the strata in 

 these changing cliffs. Portions of the coastline of Dorset and of 

 the Isle of Wight have been similarly treated. 



(c) Memoirs. — It has for some years been customary to insert in 

 the Annual Report of the Director-General of the Geological Survey 

 (submitted to the Science and Art Departijient, and published in its 

 Annual Report) a general statement of the nature and progress of 

 the operations of the Survey for the year. Tliis statement has at 

 last become too voluminous to find a place in that Report. Jt is 

 now given in the present publication, which is the first "Summary 

 of Progress." It is intended hereafter to continue this series 

 uniform with the Memoirs. 



Obviously, in the course of a geological survey, a large amount 

 of detailed information is collected which cannot find a place either 

 on the Maps or the Sections. This material embraces much local 

 detail, and a large body of evidence which is of importance in 

 general geological inquiry. It can only be properly used by being 

 arranged, condensed, and printed. The issue of Memoirs of its work 

 <has, therefore, been from the beginning one of the chief occupations 

 of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. The form in 

 which these publications have appeared has varied. De la Beche's 

 plan was to publish volumes of General Memoirs, embracing 

 descriptions of particular regions and also essays on special branches 

 of geological inquiry. His own memoir on the geology of Cornwall, 

 Devon, and West Somerset is an admirable example of his method, 

 and has long taken its place among the classics of English geology. 

 Edward Forbes' striking Essay on the " History of the British Flora 

 and Fauna" and Ramsay's on the "Denudation of Wales" appeared 

 in the first volume of these General Memoirs. There were practical 

 difficulties, however, in the waj' of continuing these volumes when 

 the staff increased, and the literary labour had to be shared by 

 a number of observers, who were, in many cases, more ready to 

 wield their hammers than their pens. When Murchison succeeded 

 to the charge of the Survey, he sought to avoid these difficulties by 

 instituting the practice of accompanying every sheet or quarter-sheet 

 of the one-inch map with an explanatory pamphlet, giving the chief 

 data on which the map had been constructed, with references to the 

 best sections, lists of minerals, rocks, and fossils, and information as 

 to the geological structure of the ground. These pamphlets, con- 

 taining essential details only, were to be eventually condensed and 

 collated by the Local Director, so as to form a generalized view of 

 each important geological region. This scheme was well conceived, 

 and with some modifications, rendered necessary by the progress of 

 the Survey, has been continued. It is not always possible or 

 desirable to prepare a separate explanation for each sheet or 



