GEOLOGY IN ECONOMICS AND EDUCATION. 489 



sterling. Indeed one can hardly over-estimate the 

 importance and variety of those British mineral produc- 

 tions, the places and characters of which are mapped out, 

 described and studied by our practical geologists. These 

 mineral productions include not only the coal, ironstone 

 and limestone deposits worked by the coal miner, the vein- 

 stones wrought by the ore miner, searching for tin, copper, 

 lead and the like, but they embrace all that long array of 

 mineral material employed by the architect in almost 

 every kind of building construction, or by the engineer in 

 making and maintenance of roads, aqueducts, and 

 railways. 



A few years ago coal was ignorantly sought in every 

 geological formation. But since the coalfields have been 

 mapped by geologists, and the maps and sections 

 published for the people, this waste has practically ceased 

 (at all events in those cases when the . owners and 

 speculators have consulted competent geologists, or have 

 been themselves familiar with the results of geological 

 research). By means of a certain amount of geological 

 knowledge, and the ability to understand and to utilise 

 geological maps and publications, the landowner in a coal 

 district can now ascertain broadly the extent and value 

 of the coal or iron seams on his estate ; the mining 

 engineer can fix on the best place for his new shafts, and 

 can estimate beforehand the amount and qualitj- of his 

 needed engine plant. The borer for coal, iron or water, 

 if he has only a fair amount of geological knowledge, can 

 in most cases determine for himself beforehand the 

 thickness and nature of the strata which he will have to 

 pass through, and consequently the probable costs and 

 profits of his undertaking. 



" Not only has the advance of geological science, and 

 that faith in its results which has gradually made its way 



