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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



assured that my old friend, Mr. Charles Maclaren, who first correctly 

 pointed out the great geological features of the country round the 

 Scottish metropolis, will heartily join me in applauding the results 

 of the recent researches of the Government Surveyors. 



When I inform you that during the past year accurate surveys 

 have been made in England of 832 square miles of Tertiary and 

 Wealden formations, 40 of Oolitic rocks, 413 of Coal-measures, 

 Magnesian Limestone, New Eed Sandstone, and Marl, — and in 

 Scotland, 241 of Coal-measures, Old Eed Sandstone, and Silurian 

 rocks — you will readily believe that a vast mass of facts of the 

 highest interest to geological science will be brought to light so 

 soon as the maps, sections, and reports on those surveys are pub- 

 lished. 



Of information to be derived from publications by the Survey 

 in the last year, we have five memoirs descriptive of coloured sheets 

 of the Ordnance 1-inch scale Map of England, previously published ; 

 four additional coloured sheets of the same map, comprising 1700 

 square miles ; besides four sheets of the Lancashire Coal-fields on a 

 scale of 6 inches to a mile ; and 53 miles in England, and 48 miles 

 in Scotland of longitudinal sections, on a scale of 6 inches to the 

 mile. Other 6-inch-scale maps of the Lancashire and Edinburgh 

 coal-fields are nearly ready for publication. 



To those who can visit the Museum in Jermyn Street, many ad- 

 ditional opportunities for the careful study of fossils have been 

 supplied by the labovu-s of Professor Huxley, Mr. Salter, and Mr. 

 Etheridge ; and a second edition has been published of the veiy 

 instructive descriptive catalogue of the rock-specimens, drawn up 

 by Professor Eamsay, and, under his superintendence, by Messrs. 

 Bristow, Bauerman, and Geikie. 



The information I got at the Mining Eecord Office, most obligingly 

 given to me by Mr. Eobert Hunt, the keeper, relating to mineral 

 statistics of various kinds, hardly comes within the range of our 

 inquiries in this place. One fact I learned which was somewhat 

 startling, namely, that the drain upon our coal-fields now amounts 

 to 72 millions of tons per annum. Calculations have recently been 

 made by Mr. Hull, one of the surveyors, that with an annual drain 

 of 60 millions of tons, our coal-fields will be exhausted in a thousand 

 years. Let us hope that our School of Mines will ascertain the 

 existence of deep-seated beds, such as that in Nottinghamshire, 

 made known to us by the perseverance, under great discourage- 

 ments, of his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, to allay our anxiety 

 for the fate of our remote successors. 



You are probably aware that the Geological Survey of Ireland is 

 placed under the superintendence of a Local Director, assisted by a 

 staff of District Surveyors, and that there arc distinct volumes of 

 memoirs, with Ordnance Maps, for that part of the United Kingdom, 

 and a Museum of Practical Geology in Dublin. Mr. Beete Jukes, 

 the Local Director, has been so obliging as to supply me with full 

 information respecting their proceedings in the past year. 



The great features of the geology of Ireland have for some time 



