ON GEOLOGICAL 



SURVEYS. 



By HYDE CLARKE, 



D.C.L., Etc. 



At the outset of an institution of this nature it is desirable, with a view 

 to its successful progress, that it should hold out advantages to the indivi- 

 dual members, and the promise of public good. The organisation we have 

 formed as the Geologists' Association will afford to each student of the 

 science great and invaluable assistance : for by instituting a co-operation 

 among working geologists, each will be directed and aided in his pursuits, 

 and many new followers of the study be enlisted. It is not every one who 

 has the time or the means disposable to enable him to make geology the 

 aim and occupation of a life, as Buckland, Murchison, and Lyell have 

 done. We cannot, many of us, undertake distant explorations, accu- 

 mulate costly musuems, or write and publish volumes ; but there is a large 

 body of men, and of women too, who can give themselves much satisfac- 

 tion, and be the means of doing considerable good. The materials for geo- 

 logical collections are much more accessible than those of any other home 

 musuem. The mammalia are costly to preserve dead, as they are to main- 

 tain alive, and thus, they can only afford a luxury for a princely Earl of 

 Derby. Birds are attractive to the collector, but there is much trouble in 

 the collection. The art of preserving the skins must be learned and prac- 

 tised : local specimens are few, but glass cases accumulate. Thus they 

 do scarcely afford a homely pursuit, though some zealous weavers have 

 fair collections. Insects afford to the same class, as to others of the work- 

 ing classes, and to wealthier students, a limited scope for their collection 

 and preservation ; and they come nearer to our collections in their facili- 

 ties than perhaps any other, but we must claim the superiority for our own. 

 An herbarium may be formed from the flora of one's neighbourhood ; but 

 inasmuch as the plants can be readily seen alive, and are familiar to those 

 interested in the pursuit, the formation of an herbarium is not self-satify- 

 ing. Coins and antiquities are only found by chance, and must, under all 

 ordinary circumstances, be purchased on the faith of a dealer, and witli 

 all the risk of spuriousness. Mr. Touhnin Smith, in his discourse, has re- 

 ferred to the blunders and frauds of dealers in fossils, but these are as no- 

 thing compared with what occurs to the purchasers of archieological ob- 

 jects. Every house that is pulled down, and evciy foundation that is dug 

 in the City, is attended by ingenious navvies and bricklayers' labourers, 

 who are ready to sell to the incautious spectators and neighbours true and 

 spurious coins, swords, and pottery ; and many a man gives a sixpence for 

 a Roman coin which neither in olden times nor now was ever worth half a 



