ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixi 



undertaken these investigations, already partly carried out by 

 M. Delesse. 



I have much pleasure in stating, that the progress of the Geological 

 Survey of the Empire has been most satisfactory during the past year. 

 Under the able superintendence of Prof. Ramsay, no less than 610 

 square miles in Sussex and Hampshire have been for the first time 

 accurately surveyed, and as the surveyors gradually creep on towards 

 the metropolis, we may confidently look to a further elucidation of 

 those important questions connected with the supply of water to the 

 metropolis, &c., which have already been so ably treated of by 

 Mr. Prestwich and others in their memoirs on the water-bearing 

 strata of London. 



A similar extent of surface has also been surveyed in North Wilts, 

 Northampton, Oxford, Warvrick, Gloucester, and Berkshire. A large 

 extent of work in the south and middle of England, already previously 

 surveyed, has been inspected and prepared for publication. In the 

 extension of the Survey into Scotland some progress has been made 

 in laying down on the six-inch scale maps the outline and structure 

 of the coal districts around Edinburgh, more particularly of Hadding- 

 tonshire and Fifeshire. Nor has the Survey of Ireland under Mr. 

 Jukes been less actively carried on ; good progress is making in de- 

 lineating the rugged, broken, and almost inaccessible coasts of Cork 

 and Kerry. The map on the one-inch scale has also been partly 

 issued by the Ordnance. 



Considering these active operations, and the able staff employed in 

 carrying out the difficult and sometimes intricate details connected 

 therewith, it is to be hoped that the Government will not lose sight 

 of the importance of the Institution of which the Geological Survey 

 forms such an important feature, nor. of the desirableness of pre- 

 serving its independent action. The Museum of Practical Geology and 

 the School of Mines is rapidly becoming one of the most important 

 scientific establishments of this metropolis ; and when we find the 

 Director-General in constant and direct communication with the dif- 

 ferent Departments of Government, who are desirous of obtaining from 

 him information which a few years ago they knew not where to apply 

 for, — when the Admiralty require information respecting the wear and 

 tear of our coasts, and the consequent impediments to navigation, — 

 when the Foreign Secretary desires to obtain reports on coal and 

 other minerals from the seat of war, — when the Colonial Minister ap- 

 plies for proper Mineral Surveyors to explore the West India Islands 

 and other Colonies, — or when the Home Government calls for reports 

 on and analyses of our British ores, and particularly of iron, and 

 when we find that the Institution has now brought together for the 

 first time in this country accurate returns of the produce of coal and 

 other minerals, we may form some idea of the importance of this 

 establishment, and may, I think, boldly express the hope that no un- 

 necessary trammels will be interposed to interfere with its energies, 

 or to prevent its direct communication with that department of 

 Government under which it is placed. 



With regard to the publications of the Institution, it is a great 



