W. W. Watts — British Geological PJiotographs. 37 



place tlieir negatives in the hands of professionals, from whom 

 lantern slides and prints can be obtained on paying the expense 

 of production. It would, however, be far too large a task for the 

 Committee to undertake any further action in this matter or to 

 assume the copyright of prints sent to them ; this must remain in 

 the hands of the original photographers, and arrangements must be 

 made with them in each case. 



In conclusion, I feel impelled to add a word about the regulations 

 and forms issued by the Committee, which have been objected to in 

 some quarters. In the first place no hard and fast rules are insisted 

 on ; only certain hints have been drawn up as they were suggested 

 by the experience of the Committee, now somewhat considerable. 

 Uniformity in size is unattainable, nor is it at all necessary with 

 the present system of mounting, but the larger photographs are, 

 up to whole plate size, the more easily they can be examined. 

 Larger ones, up to 15 in. by 12 in., can be accommodated. For the 

 reasons given before, permanent prints are obviously more likely to 

 be useful to posterity than others. A scale of some sort, no matter 

 what if its size is given, where necessary, in the explanatory form, is 

 really required in order to impress the scale of the structure photo- 

 graphed ; the human figure does very well — a hammer of stated 

 size is convenient in smaller views if it is placed so that its entire 

 length lies at right angles to a line joining the camera with the 

 centre of the picture ; an umbrella or walking-stick is quite satis- 

 factory ; or it suffices to indicate the length of some portion of the 

 section, easily recognizable in the print, on the accompanying form. 

 The use of the standard descriptive forms is very desirable ; they are 

 mounted with the photograph, and if the chief details are filled in 

 they enhance its value enormously. It is very important that these 

 forms should be sent, filled in, with the photographs to ensure ab- 

 solute accuracy, and, although it is not necessary to attend to all the 

 minute details for which space is provided, some of them, like the 

 date (at least the year, and when possible the month) and the exact 

 location, so that the place could be found again, should be carefully 

 given. It has recently been my lot to fill in some hundreds of 

 tliese forms for other people, and this has led me to appreciate the 

 labour involved, but it has only convinced me more completely of 

 the necessity for them, and that they should be filled up by those 

 who know the locality and its geology well. 



I am hoping to have a number of the older photographs looked 

 over, as opportunity occurs, by those who are most familiar with the 

 localities in question, so as to bring out to the fullest extent at present 

 practicable the latent value and interest of the whole collection. 



Note. — By the kindness of Mr. W. W. Watts we hope, next month, 

 to be enabled to give one or two good illustrations in order to show 

 the value of the work which is now being carried on by the British 

 Geological Photographs Committee, initiated by Mr. 0. W. Jeffs and 

 carried on so successfully by him and by the Committee during the 

 past nine years. — Edit. Geol. Mag. 



