52 PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



swelling the strength of the advance; while the < Geological Magazine,' 

 appearing at shorter intervals than onr own Journal, has satisfied 

 all the requirements of the light skirmishers of our army. 



The two great state-supported institutions to which Geologists 

 always look for aid in their work have not been wanting in effort 

 since our last Anniversary. 



The Geological Survey has already completed the one-inch map of 

 England, that of Ireland will be finished during the next year, 

 while their last great remaining task — the important one of mapping 

 the Scottish Highlands — is being vigorously attacked both from 

 the north and the south. Yaluable work of revision in the country 

 already surveyed is also being pressed forward, the most notable 

 achievement in this way during the past year being the complete 

 confirmation by Mr. Clement Eeid of Professor Prestwich's important 

 discovery, which was made in 1857, of the existence of Pliocene 

 outliers on the North Downs. 



Nor has the Natural History department of the British Museum 

 been behind its sister institution in the work it has accomplished. 

 The rearrangement of the palseontological and mineral collections, 

 under more favourable conditions of space and light, has gone on 

 steadily ; valuable monographs like those of Dr. Hinde on the fossil 

 sponges, and of Mr. E. Etheridge, jun., and Mr. P. H. Carpenter on 

 the Blastoidea have been issued ; and catalogues like those of 

 Professor Rupert Jones on the Eoraminifera, of Mr. Lydekker on the 

 Eossil Mammalia, and of Mr. Kidston on the Palaeozoic plants have 

 been published. Among the good work done by some of our members 

 who direct the affairs of the Museum, we must not overlook the 

 admirable and successful efforts which are being made to increase 

 the value of the collections for educational purposes. The specially 

 arranged collections for the guidance of students and beginners, 

 and the cheap and accurate guide-books now issued, afford sufficient 

 evidence that the Director and Keepers of the Museum are alive to a 

 very urgent national want. Erom among those whose interest has 

 been excited and whose earliest cravings for information have been 

 supplied by such means as these, our own and other societies must 

 look for future recruits. It may not therefore be uninteresting to 

 mention that of the cheap illustrated guide to the Palseontological 

 Galleries, prepared by Dr. Woodward in 1880, four editions have 

 already appeared and over 12000 copies have been sold ; while of 

 Mr. Eletcher's Guide to the Mineralogical Gallery, with its charming 

 introduction to the study of Mineralogy, no less than 4000 copies 

 have been disposed of within a very short period. 



