352 On Mineralogical Surveys, 



in the crust of the earth, arrangement as perfect as is ob- 

 served in the zoological or botanical kingdoms. In the geo- 

 logical department we have every thing presented to our 

 view on a colossal scale, when compared with what we 

 meet with in zoology or botany ; but the laws which regulate 

 the arrangement are as unchangeable, and unvarying, as we 

 see in either of these ; and the geologist can now tell with as 

 much certainty the relative position which mineralogical 

 specimens when presented to his view ought to hold in 

 the geological system, as the zoologist or botanist can with 

 regard to animals or plants. Moreover, the experienced geo- 

 logists from an examination of a few specimens, can, with 

 great precision, not only determine the relative age of the 

 country in which they have been found, but also point 

 out whether that country is likely to afford minerals of value 

 in an economical point of view. Each mineral has its own de- 

 terminate arrangement and distribution, and is accompanied 

 with its own suite of minerals. Thus, for example, bitumi- 

 nous coal is always found to be associated with several, 

 or all, of the following rocks, viz. sandstone, bituminous 

 shale, slate clay, fire clay, and clay ironstone, which occur in 

 greater or less quantity, and in extensive coal fields are 

 all found to exist. The same is the case with metals; and 

 if the minerals which are well known to be associated with 

 particular metals are found to occur in quantity in any district, 

 then we are entitled, even if the metal is not at first pre- 

 sented to our view, to infer, that it exists there, and that 

 upon proper search being made it will be found. We make 

 this statement in order to point out the value of mineralogi- 

 cal characters, which have been much neglected, and in no 

 country more than in India. 



Before laying down the plan which ought to be adopted in 

 conducting mineralogical surveys, we shall first give a rapid 

 sketch of what has lately been done in this department. 

 In regard to Europe, there scarcely remains a tract which 



