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organic remains, almost exclusively the productions of England ; 
and. it is due to his late exertions, whilst Chancellor of the Exche- 
quer, that I should bear this public testimony to the services which 
Lord Monteagle has rendered to science, by supplying the means 
of placing these unrivalled collections in our national repository ; 
where their constant presentation to the view of its thousands of 
daily visitors cannot fail to attract increasing attention to the won- 
derful discoveries of Paleontology. 
These important public events, occurring beyond our walls, and 
having a direct and immediate tendency to enlarge the field of our 
labours, form an epoch in the history of our science, and place 
Geology before the country in a new and more widely popular 
aspect than it had occupied before. The past year has been also 
distinguished beyond all precedent, by the number and value of the 
GEOLOGICAL MAPS it has produced. 
GEOLOGICAL MAP OF CORNWALL AND DEVON. 
The first map which I shall mention, affords another example of 
the recognition by Government of the importance of our subject, 
by their having attached a geological department to the Ordnance 
Survey of England and Wales. The first fruits of this appoint- 
ment are the splendid Maps of Devon and Cornwall, and a part of 
Somerset, coloured after the surveys of Mr. De la Beche; and it 
may be truly said of them, that they are more beautiful in their 
execution, more accurate in their details, and more instructive in 
the ceconomical and scientific information they give respecting 
mines, than any maps yet published by any government in the 
world ; affording documents to which we can at length with pride 
appeal, in reply to the reproach that has so long, with too much 
truth, been cast upon us, that England alone, of all the civilized 
nations, has abandoned to gratuitous individual exertions, and the 
liberality of amateurs in science, the great work of exploring and 
delineating the mineral structure of the country ; and ascertaining 
the nature and extent of the subterraneous produce, which lies at 
the foundation of the industry of its manufacturing population, 
and to which the nation owes no small portion of its wealth. 
The statistical importance of this first portion of the Ordnance 
Geological Map of England will be duly appreciated only by those, 
who know the extent of the property embarked in the mining inter- 
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