366 Notices of Memoirs — The Geological Survey. 



The paleontologists with their assistants are continually engaged 

 in arranging and revising the collections, and in adding fresh 

 material received from the officers in the field, from donations, or 

 from purchase. 



The rock-collections have in recent years been greatly increased 

 and entirely rearranged so as to bring them abreast of modern 

 petrography. They include examples of rock-forroing minerals, in 

 illustration of the characters of the more important minerals that 

 enter into the composition of rocks ; a series of typical rocks, named, 

 classified, and so arranged close to the eye that the visitor may have 

 no difficulty in observing their general external characters ; a section 

 devoted to illustrations of various geological structures such as 

 cleavage, jointing, foliation, plication, the structures of igneous rocks, 

 the effects of contact-metamorphism, the markings made by glacier 

 ice, and the results of w^eathering in different rocks. But the chief 

 part of the collection is a series of British rocks arranged in 

 stratigraphical order from the oldest gneisses up to the most recent 

 shell-sand. Not only are the sedimentary rocks represented in this 

 series, but a large suite of igneous rocks is included, so that the 

 student of volcanic history may see samples of the lavas and tuffs 

 which have been ejected at each of the periods of volcanic activity 

 in the geological annals of Britain. Diagrams and maps are placed 

 near the specimens to show the geology of the districts from which 

 the latter were taken. Drawings are likewise given of the more 

 important microscopic structures met with in rocks, and especially 

 among those of Britain. 



A series of handbooks and catalogues has been issued in explana- 

 tion of the different parts of the Museum. Thus Mr, F. W. Eudler, 

 the Curator, has jDrepared a general handbook to the whole contents 

 of the building, and also one to the collection of British pottery and 

 porcelain. There are, likewise, catalogues of fossils. A new guide 

 to the rock-collections and another to the palEeontological collections 

 are now being prepared. 



The Geological Survey collection, illustrative of the geology of 

 Scotland, is arranged in the upper gallery of the west wing of the 

 Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh. It includes an extensive 

 series of rocks grouped in petrographical order according to the 

 respective counties from which they come, each specimen being 

 traceable to its locality by a pin with its number fixed to the 

 geological maps exhibited in the table-case below. There is, like- 

 wise, a large collection of fossils, mainly Scotch, arranged in strati- 

 graphical order. A handbook to the whole collection prepared by 

 Mr. J. G. Goodchild, the Curator, has been published. 



The collections of the Irish branch of the Survey deposited in the 

 Science and Art Museum, Dublin, are similarly arranged, and are 

 illustrated by a handbook so full in its descriptions as to serve as 

 a guide to the general geology of Ireland. This useful publication 

 has been prepared by Messrs. A. McHenry and W. W. Watts. 



