"360 Geological Survey of Great Britain, 



vonsbire, this being tlie great metalliferous district of England. 

 After some time he received a little assista,nce, namely, two of the 

 civil officers attached to the ordnance survey, giving a portion of 

 their time to tracing geological lines, entirely under the supervision, 

 of Sir Henry de la Beche. This vp^as found to be insufficient ; and 

 when the geological survey had finished in Devon and Cornwall, 

 it transplanted itself to South Wales, and commenced operations 

 on the great coal fields of South Wales, where he received one or 

 two assistant geologists, expecially those who might be supposed 

 to have some skill in tracing coal beds. Before this time a certain 

 grant had been made for the conduct of the survey, and there Sir 

 Henry first made the acquaintance of Sir William Logan (then 

 Mr. Logan), who was at the time living in Swansea, and had for 

 six years been amusing his leisure in constructing a map of the 

 Glamorganshire coal field, which was entirely surveyed by Sir 

 William, and was constructed upon so admirable a system that 

 ever since it has served as a model for all our work when we 

 chance to be conducting operations in any coal field. Pointing 

 to the one constructed by Sir William, Mr. Ramsay said there are 

 no fewer than 25 or 30 beds of coal on this map, and their actual 

 out crop on the ground is traced and engraved. Sir William Logan 

 having done so much in that field, transferred the whole of his 

 work as a present to the geological survey, and occasionally work- 

 ed himself as an amateur on the survey for upwards of 12 months 

 afterwards. This survey gradually increased. Sir Henry de la 

 Beche was too wise to ask for a large sum of money at one time ; 

 but, as the importance of the survey attracted attention, he gra- 

 dually asked for and obtained enlarged grants to increase the force 

 till at length he had a large staff of geologists organized. His 

 general rule was to seek out young men, not those who had always 

 distinguished themselves in the science, but who were full of ener- 

 gy and love of the subject, and in whom he saw a strong appre- 

 ciation of the science. He took them into the field with himself 

 and having trained them in the field under his own care, appointed 

 them an area, and sent them out to make operations by themselves, 

 These operations he examined and corrected if necessary, and gave 

 the young men any farther assistance they required, until they 

 became all as experienced as himself in tracing lines, faults, &c., 

 &c., in conducting all field operations connected with geological 

 maps. The grant we now have is £6000 sterling a year. In 1845 

 the survey was remodelled and divided into two portions. One 



