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PBOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Dublin, and afterwards Local Director of the Geological Survey of 

 Ireland. But so great were the difficulties with which he had to 

 contend at the outset, and for a long time afterwards, that little 

 more than four years have elapsed since he was able to establish 

 that regular system of operations by which alone any sure progress 

 could be made on a truly scientific basis. Before this, to clear the 

 ground of difficulties and obstacles was the indispensable work. 

 Although receiving from all in authority much support, the leading 

 notion of the kind of work for him to do was, to go from place to 

 place, and, without loss of time, to try to discover coal and other 

 minerals of economic value. You are probably acquainted with the 

 first volume of the 'Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India,' 

 which appeared in 1859, containing nine treatises — four by Mr. Old- 

 ham himself, the others by different gentlemen attached to the Survey 

 — accompanied by numerous maps on a large scale and many illus- 

 trations. A second volume has just been issued from the Calcutta 

 press, containing, a memoir on the northern part of Bundelcund, by 

 Mr. Henry Medlicott ; a very extensive one on the central portion 

 of the Nerbudda district, by Mr. Joseph Medlicott ; and one by Mr. 

 Oldham, " on the Geological Belations and probable Geological Age 

 of Bocks in Central India and Bengal." In a letter which I re- 

 ceived from him, dated last December, he states — "You will at 

 once see that we have been compelled to establish several new 

 groups to receive (provisionally) the various rocks we have had to 

 deal with. This has been necessary as well as useful, inasmuch as 

 for many, and these some of the most widely extended and most 

 important groups of rocks, we had no definite horizon from which 

 to work either up or down. Over thousands and tens of thousands 

 of square miles we have not found a fossil, — some vegetable remains 

 affording, at the best, imperfect evidence. The richly fossiliferous 

 rocks of the Himalaya and Sub-himalaya are widely separated from 

 all the rocks of the peninsula by the broad expanse of the alluvium 

 which unites the valleys of the Ganges and Indus; and we are 

 therefore unable to trace out any superposition." 



Mr. Oldham has sent me thirty-five folio plates of the fossil flora 

 of the Bajmahal Hills, executed in lithography in Calcutta. He 

 was told that such work could not be executed in India ; but he 

 is not a man to be frightened by difficulties : risking a consider- 

 able personal outlay for stones, presses, and paper, he persevered, 

 undaunted by early failures, and succeeded. Another proof of his 

 energy is the Museum of Practical Geology in Calcutta, and the Geo- 

 logical Library attached to the Survey. When we consider the vast 

 range of country over which the survey extends, and the serious ob- 

 stacles to field-work in such a climate, we cannot too greatly admire 

 the devoted zeal displayed by Mr. Oldham and the gentlemen who 

 conduct the surveys under his superintendence. It is to be hoped 

 that Annual Beports, such as that presented by Mr. Oldham last year, 

 setting forth the many excellent works which cannot fail to have 

 the most beneficial influence upon the material prosperity of the 

 Indian Empire, will secure the zealous and liberal support of its 

 Government. Let us also hope,- for the sake of our science, that a 



