52 



upon the structure and composition of the country to which the ope- 

 rations extend. The Tract, which I now show you, has been drawn 

 up by one of the principal officers engaged in the Irish survey*, and 

 ithographized for the use of the subordinate surveyors ; and it con- 

 tains so clear and able a system of instruction for their guidance, il- 

 lustrated by sectional sketches, as greatly to facilitate the task of 

 geological investigation. The surveyors will thus accumulate a series 

 of specimens, the precise places of which will have been recorded in 

 maps upon a very large scale, — on which also the heights above the 

 sea will be determined, in points almost innumerable ; while sections 

 are taken in well chosen situations, for the purpose of illustrating 

 more effectually the order of the strata. The 1 ultimate results of ope- 

 rations so well combined, must be equally honourable to those who 

 are engaged in this vast work, and ferule in various and substantial 

 advantage to physical science. 



But while the survey of Ireland is in progress, it is to be hoped that 

 that of England will not cease to advance ; and that no great delay 

 will take place in the publication of the maps which have been actu- 

 ally prepared by the Ordnance. To geologists who have travelled in 

 England, I need not mention the benefits that our science has derived 

 from the maps already engraved; nor dwell upon the misery of plung- 

 ing, from a tract that we have traversed with the advantage of this 

 guide, into regions where the survey leaves us, lost, as it were, and 

 bewildered from the want of such assistance. The sheets of the Ord- 

 nance Survey which I now lay before you, represent a portion of the 

 midland counties, coloured geologically by a gentleman whose activity 

 and accuracy of research have made him minutely acquainted with 

 the stratification of the district around himf ; and the maps thus co- 

 loured, are probably as complete specimens of geological illustration 

 as ever have been produced. The knowledge of this observer extends 

 with equal precision several miles to the north of the tract here re- 

 presented ; but these sheets, you perceive, are bounded by a right 

 line ; — and beyond that line it has not been in his power to extend his 

 colours, because no good map of the adjacent district is in existence. 

 In this instance therefore, and no doubt in numberless other cases, 

 the want of adequate maps may cause the final and irreparable loss 

 of much geological information : And when it is considered, that 

 Geology is but one of many departments of useful inquiry, to which 

 good maps administer, — how much they contribute to the advancement 

 of commerce, and to the comforts and conveniences of life, — it will 



* Captain Pringle, of the Royal Engineers. 

 t Mr. Lonsdale of Bath. 



