Notices of Memoirs — TJie Geological Survey. 365 



more S3'steixiatic treatment of the science. Its materials were meant 

 in the first place to be taken from the United Kingdom and to form 

 a collection in which the minerals, rocks, and fossils of this country 

 should be displayed to the public in connection with examples of 

 their economic uses. The cases of the Museum now contain an 

 extensive collection of the building and ornamental stones of the 

 British Isles, which has been largely made use of by architects, 

 builders, and others. The granites of Cornwall, Devon, Scotland, 

 and Ireland, the marbles of Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Devonshire, 

 Bristol, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and Scotland, are well represented, 

 together with many varieties of serpentine, limestone, dolomite, 

 sandstone, slate, etc. Materials required in the process of grinding 

 and polishing stones, and those illustrating the preparation of plaster 

 and cements, also find a place. One of the most complete parts of 

 the Museum is the great series of specimens illustrating the ores of 

 Great Britain and Ireland. There are likewise colonial and foreign 

 ores, and an important collection illustrating the metallurgy of the 

 metals. Perhaps the most attractive departments of the Museum 

 are the large horseshoe case, in which are placed examples of 

 minerals and their applications in the arts, and the extensive ceramic 

 collection, in which the connection between the raw material and. 

 finished pottery is shown. The collection of British pottery was 

 one of the earliest formed, and is still, perhaps, the most illustrative 

 in the country. Models of geologically important districts and of 

 different mines are placed, in the model rooms and in different parts 

 of the Museum. The Library contains a tolerably complete repre- 

 sentation of the literature of geology, British and foreign, and may 

 be consulted by persons engaged in geological research. Large 

 geological maps are arranged along the lower gallery of the Museum, 

 and can be drawn down and studied by visitors. An extensive 

 and valuable collection of photographs of geological sections and 

 landscapes in the British Isles has been deposited in the Museum 

 and is accessible to students. A microscope and a series of thin slices 

 of typical rocks have been placed in the library for consultation. 



The portions of the Museum of Practical Geology most closely 

 connected with the work of the Geological Survey are the collections 

 of fossils, the series of rock-specimens, and the cases illustrating 

 geological processes and rock-structures. 



The large series of fossils has been almost entirely obtained from 

 the rocks of the United Kingdom, and chiefly in the course of the 

 prosecution of the Survey, It has furnished the basis on which 

 the maps of the fossiliferous formations have been constructed. 

 Every important subdivision of the Palaeozoic, Secondary, and 

 Tertiarj'^ systems is represented by a full series of its characteristic 

 fossils, gathered from the various districts in the British Isles 

 wherein it is developed. These are arranged and tableted in such 

 a way as to be readily accessible to the public. Those who wish to 

 follow out the palfeontological details of the Survey maps and 

 memoirs, or to study general textbooks of the science, have thus 

 the fullest opportunities afforded to them. 



