Reviews — The Geological 8urvey, 39 



formation. Concluding with some remarks on the origin of the 

 Valley, he observes that it has been made by the slow, long-continued 

 ceaseless action of the river, whose original course may in the first 

 instance have been directed here and there by disturbances. Some 

 signs of disturbance are pointed out as occurring near Wallingford, 

 where the river cuts through the great Chalk range, and again from 

 Greenwich to Erith a fault may have greatly aided the erosive 

 action of the old river. We miss a reference to the view advocated 

 by Prof. Ramsay of the original extension of the Chalk and the river 

 cutting its way down before the escarpment was formed, this being 

 the only plausible explanation of the breaching of the Chalk-range. 

 Eeference might also have been made to Phillips' " Geology of 

 Oxford and the Valley of the Thames," and, without overstepping 

 the bounds of modesty, to his own " Geologj'' of the London Basin," 

 as the two works dealing specially with the Geology of the area, 

 and to which the anxious inquirer might go for further information. 



in. — The Geological Survey. 

 n^HE attention of the public has recently been drawn to the state 

 I of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, by questions 

 asked in both Houses of Parliament. 



Thus, in the House of Commons on July 12th, Mr. Adam, reply- 

 ing to several aiembers who urged the Government to do what they 

 could to push on the Geological Survey, said that the Directors of 

 the Survey had laid before him a plan by which he hoped it could 

 be accelerated considerably, and completed in 1890. He added that 

 if the House wanted the Survey to be pushed on more rapidly, they 

 must vote more money. A few days afterwards, in replying to a 

 question asked in the House of Lords, Earl Spencer was unable to 

 state the exact date at which the Geological Survey could be finished. 

 He observed, however, that it " would hold its own against that of 

 any other country in the world," and that " one cause of the delay 

 in the progress of the Survey was the advance which was being 

 made in the science of geology." 



These statements were preceded by the publication in the Times 

 newspaper of a letter from an "Observer," who complained in bitter 

 tones of the cost of the Survey, and at the time taken in its com- 

 pletion. The letter, however well-meant and disinterested, was 

 calculated not merely to prove prejudicial to the Survey, but to the 

 objects which the Survey is intended to serve. Had " Observer " 

 taken the trouble to inquire into the reason of the facts which he 

 pointed out, he must have been convinced that without interest and 

 enthusiasm in their work, men would not be found to undertake the 

 arduous duties of the Geological Survey at the extremely small rate 

 of pay gi'anted to them ;^ while if the Survey had been carried on 



1 We are informed on good authority that some men who have served twelve years 

 on the Geological Survey receive only £219 per annum ; while attached to the Office 

 either of the Geological Survey or of Mining Records is at least one who after 

 serving over thirty years receives no larger sum; another who receives £180 after 

 working for about twenty years ; and a third who receives £175 after a term of 

 fourteen years' servitude ! 



