546 Mr. Strickland on the Geology of the line 



sod. The only remedy for this evil seems to be for each line of railway to be 

 systematically surveyed by a competent geologist, who should pay repeated visits 

 to every section during the time of its excavation, in order to collect minerals and 

 fossils, and to record the features of its stratification. It would be highly desirable 

 if each railway company had a professed geologist on its staff, but as such an ap- 

 pointment would probably be considered foreign to the objects of these companies, 

 the ends of science might perhaps be attained if the Geological Society were to 

 make applications to the several railway companies, requesting from them a series 

 of their published sections, the colouring of which might be undertaken by some 

 member of the Society. Such sections, even if uncoloured, are still valuable as 

 containing a vast fund of accurate measurements, levellings, and other geographical 

 facts, which it is desirable to possess in our archives. But, if the geological phae- 

 nomena be superadded to these sections by the aid of colour, it is evident that 

 such documents will acquire the utmost value. And we must remember that the 

 means of doing this is fast passing away ; in a few years all the important lines of 

 railway will have been completed, and future geologists will perhaps sigh for the 

 opportunities which their ancestors neglected. 



Anxious to contribute towards so desirable an end, I gladly yielded to a request 

 made to me by Captain Moorsom, chief engineer of the Birmingham and Glouces- 

 ter railway, to undertake a geological survey of that line. To Capt. Moorsom the 

 Society are indebted for the accompanying lithographed sections, to which I have 

 added the geological colouring ; and I must here express my obligations to that 

 gentleman, as well as to Capt. J. Vetch, F.G.S., for much valuable assistance 

 during the survey*. The line had previously been surveyed by Mr. F. Burr (see 

 Geological Proceedings, vol. ii. page 593), and I am happy in bearing testimony 

 to the general correctness of his observations ; but as none of the excavations were 

 commenced w^hen he made his survey, he had no other data than the " trial shafts" 

 sunk from time to time, which of course could not exhibit geological phcenomena 

 with the same accuracy as open cuttingsf. 



The Birmingham and Gloucester railway is not perhaps geologically one of the 

 most interesting lines, because, from running nearly parallel to the strike of the 

 strata, it passes through but a small succession of formations. This circumstance, 

 however, causes each stratum to be exposed in greater detail, and affords a wider 

 scope for local variations. 



* The sections here referred to, consisting of thirty-five folio sheets, are deposited in the Society's 

 Collection of Maps, &c. 



t The lithographed sections being made for engineering purposes alone, exhibit a great disproportion 

 between their vertical and horizontal scales; the former exceeding the latter in the ratio of about 13 

 to 1. In the portion of these sections introduced in the Plate this disparity is diminished one half. 



