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Memorandum on the Organization of a Museum of Economic Geo- 

 logy for the Islorth- Western Provinces of British India, to be estab- 

 lished at Agra. By Lieut, W. Baird Smith, Bengal Engineers, 

 The adequate representation and illustration of those important and 

 Characteristics of a extensive departments in the economy of life, in which 

 s"et^°'orE"onomi; the principles of the science of Geology are made 

 Geology. subservient to the interests or comforts of mankind, 



may with safety be assumed as the chief characteristics of a well- 

 organised Museum of Economic Geology. To insure such results, the 

 resources not of science alone, but of art also are essential; since while 

 the one indicates when general principles are applicable to special 

 cases, the other shews horv they are to be most effectively applied. 

 In devising, therefore, a scheme for the organisation of a new institu- 

 tion of this nature, theory and practice must each have its proper 

 place assigned to it, and each be illustrated by appropriate means. It 

 has been my anxious endeavour to embody these views practically in 

 the following details of the system proposed for the Museum of Eco- 

 nomic Geology for the North-Western Provinces of India, and al- 

 though it may be long ere the institution attains that completeness in 

 its various departments herein specified, it has been considered ad- 

 visable in projecting it, to do so on the most effective scale. Slow 

 and laborious may be its progress, yet may it be anticipated that by 

 the continual efforts of those interested in its success, even the highest 

 point in the scale proposed, will ultimately be attained. 



2. In the investigation of the mineral resources of hitherto unex- 

 ^ plored districts, it is of the utmost importance to 



Arrangements of 



the department of have a well-defined standard to which the newly 

 * discovered products of such regions may with readi- 



ness be referred. The basis, therefore, of the Museum in the depart- 

 ment of mineralogy, ought, I conceive, to consist of a series of charac- 

 teristic specimens of all minerals of established economic importance ; 

 and if it were possible to procure such specimens from the localities 

 most celebrated for producing them, their value would in some degree 

 be increased. The object of this collection being to impart as great 

 an amount of information as possible, all its arrangements ought to be 

 made subservient to this purpose. The specimens should be carefully 



