Vol. 52.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lxXXV 



To note the special scientific results obtained by the Geological 

 Survey has, however, during the past few years, been rendered 

 unnecessary by the publication of the more detailed Eeports of the 

 Director General. It is the more desirable to draw attention to 

 this fact, for the reports themselves, unless obtained in the form of 

 reprints, are apt to lie buried in the more bulky General Keport 

 of the Science and Art Department. That Report must now be 

 added to our record of Geological Literature, for in the elaborate 

 statement of Sir Archibald Geikie we find many a new and inter- 

 esting fact for the first time recorded, whether it relate to England 

 or Wales, the Isle of Man, Scotland, or Ireland. 



In parts of all these regions the Survey is actively engaged. The 

 mapping of the Drift deposits in the Midland and Southern counties 

 has been accompanied by important revisions of the more solid 

 geology, and the results of the work are to be seen in the issue of 

 sheets of the New Series of Ordnance Maps, geologically coloured,, 

 of parts of Sussex, the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, and Devon. 

 The re-survey of the great coalfield of South Wales has already borne 

 fruit in the shape of one new map and a sheet of vertical sections. 



The progress of the 4-mile-to-l-inch map of England and 

 Wales is of especial interest to us, as eventually it will replace our 

 Greenough map, which was based on the original map of William 

 Smith. Of the Survey map, which comprises thirteen sheets, seven 

 are now published, five, we are informed, are being engraved, and 

 one (the Isle of Man) will erelong be completed. A most important 

 change has this year been introduced by the Director-General, that 

 is, the issue of one of the sheets (that of the London Basin and 

 great part of the Wealden area) printed in colours. Thereby the 

 price has been reduced from 10s. 6t?., that of the hand-coloured 

 issue, to 2s. 6d. — a boon indeed to the geologist, and a course well 

 calculated to ensure the wide circulation of the map. 



Another departure made by the Director-General has been the 

 preparation of Stratigraphical Memoirs, and of these one volume on 

 the Pliocene Deposits, and five on the Jurassic Rocks have now 

 been issued. In them our present knowledge from all sources is 

 summarized, so that they may furnish stepping-stones to further 

 progress. 



In Scotland interest of late years has been centred in the 



resolute attacks made by the Survey on the problems connected 



with the Scottish Highlands. Following in the wake of Murchison, 



Nicol, and Lapworth, the officers in the field, headed by their 



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