NOTICE. 



Paljeontological researches forming so essential a part of geological 

 investigations, such as those now in progress by the Geological Survey 

 of the United Kingdom, the accompanying plates and descriptions of 

 British Fossils have been prepared as part of the Geological Memoirs. 

 They constitute a needful portion of the publications of the Geological 

 Survey, and are taken from specimens in the pubHc collections, or lent 

 to the Survey by those anxious to advance this branch of the public 

 service. 



The plan proposed to be followed in the work, of which this Decade 

 forms a part, is as follows : — 



To figure in elaborate detail, as completely as possible, a selection of 

 fossils, illustrative of the genera and more remarkable species of all 

 classes of animals and plants the remains of which are contained in 

 British rocks ; to select especially such as require an amount of illus- 

 tration which, to be carried out by private enterprise, would require 

 a large outlay of money, with little prospect of a return, and a long 

 time to accomplish, but which, by means of the staff and appliances 

 necessarily employed on the Geological Survey, can be efi'ected at small 

 cost, and with a rapidity demanded by the publication of the Maps and 

 Memoirs of the Survey ; thus, it is hoped, affording an aid to those 

 engaged in the sciences with which this work is connected, that they 

 might not otherwise have possessed, and which may materially promote 

 the progress of individual research. 



H. T, De la Beche, 



Director- General. 



Geological Survey Office^ Jermyn Street, 

 SOth June, 1850. 



