364 Notices of Memoirs — The Geological Survey. 



examining and reporting upon fossils collected by the Geological 

 Survey is entrusted to the palaeontologists, who occasionally visit 

 the field, but are mainly engaged at the museum. With reference to 

 the exigencies of field-work a somewhat similar system is followed 

 with regard to fossil evidence as in the case of the petrography, 

 though the same minute detail is not necessary. The ofiicer, when 

 in doubt about any species, the names of which are needful in 

 separating formations and drawing their mutual boundary-lines, 

 collects specimens of them and sends them up to the office for 

 identification. They are compared by the palseontologist with pub- 

 lished descriptions and named specimens, and a list of their specific 

 names (as far as they can be made out) is supplied to the surveyor. 



Besides such specimens as may require to be identified in the 

 course of the mapping, full collections from the formations of each 

 important district are made by the collectors under the guidance of 

 the officers by whom the district has been surveyed. Every speci- 

 men is numbered and registered in the collector's book, so that its 

 source and destination can at once be found. Lists of the fossils 

 are drawn up by the palteontologists for insertion in the published 

 Memoirs. A selection of the best specimens is placed in the 

 cases, drawers, or cabinets of one or other of the three Museums, 

 Fortunately in the case of the paleeontologists also, though much of 

 their work is necessarily of a routine official character, opportunities 

 are afforded to them of making interesting and important additions 

 to palceontological science. It was from this department of the 

 Sni-vey that Edward Forbes produced some of his best work, that 

 Salter made his fame as a palseontologist, and that Professor Huxley 

 enriched geological literature with his memoirs on Silurian Crustacea, 

 Old Eed Sandstone fishes, and Triassic reptiles. Within the last 

 few years fresh distinction has been won by Mr. E. T. Newton, of 

 the same department, from the investigation and restoration of 

 a series of remarkable reptiles from the Elgin Sandstones. 



5. The Museum of Practical Geology and the Geological 

 Survey Collections in Edinburgh and Dublin. — For the complete 

 illustration of the geology of a country it is necessary not only to con- 

 struct geological maps and sections, and to publish printed descriptions, 

 but also to collect and exhibit specimens of the minerals, rocks, and 

 organic remains. Each branch of the Geological Survey has from 

 the beginning kept in view the gathering of such specimens, and 

 the galleries of the Museums in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin 

 may be appealed to as evidence of the manner in which the duty 

 has been discharged. The Museum in Jermyn Street is intended 

 to be primarily illustrative of the minerals, rocks, and fossils of 

 England and Wales, but as far as space will admit an endeavour is 

 made to exhibit what is specially characteristic of the other two 

 kingdoms. For more detailed illustrations of Scottish geology 

 recourse must be had to the Museum at Edinburgh, and for those 

 of Irish geology to the Museum at Dublin. 



The Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, as its name 

 denotes, was from the beginning intended to illustrate the applica- 

 tions of geology to the industries and arts of life, as well as the 



