440 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



always fully attended, as a part of their regular duty; and during the past 

 year, several of them have delivered voluntarily courses of evening lectures, at a 

 fee so small as to put them within the reach of working men, pupil-teachers, 

 •and schoolmasters of primary schools. The professors thus hope to support to 

 the utmost the great impulse towards the diffusion of a knowledge of physical 

 science through all classes of the community, which has been given through 

 the Department of Science and Art by the Minute of the Committee of Privy 

 Council of the 2nd June, 1859. 



A body like the British Association for the Advancement of Science should, 

 I conceive, not be unaware of a step of such vast importance, and tending so 

 entirely towards the same goal as that to which its own efforts have been and 

 still are constantly directed. 



Now, inasmuch as I can trace no record of the teachings of the Government 

 School of Mines in the volumes of the British Association, and as I am con- 

 vinced that the establishment only requires to be more widely known, in order 

 to extend sound physical knowledge not merely to miners and geologists, but 

 also to chemists, metallurgists, and naturalists, I have only to remind my 

 audience that this School of Mines which, owing its origin to Sir Henry De 

 La Beche, has famished our colonies with some of the most accomplished 

 geological and mining surveyors, and many a manufacturer at home with good 

 chemists and metallurgists, has now for its lecturers men of such eminence 

 that the names of Hoffman, Percy, Warington Smyth, Willis, Ramsay, Huxley, 

 and Tyndall are alone an earnest of our future success. 



In terminating these few allusions to the Geological Survey, and its appli- 

 cations, I gladly seize the opportunity of recording, that in the days of our 

 founder, Sir Henry De la Beche, our institution was greatly benefited in pos- 

 sessing, for some years, as one of its leading surveyors, such an accomplished 

 naturalist and skilful geologist, as the beloved Assistant General Secretary of 

 the British Association, Professor Phillips, who by his labours threw much new 

 light on the palaeontology of Devonshire, who, in the Memoirs of the Survey, 

 has contributed an admirable monograph on the Silurian and other rocks around 

 the Malvern hills, and who, by his lectures and writings, is now constantly ad- 

 vancing science in the oldest of our British universities. 



There is yet one subject connected with the Geological Survey to which I 

 must also call your attention, viz., the Mineral Statistics of the United King- 

 dom, as compiled with great care and ability by Mr. Robert Hunt, the keeper 

 of the Mining Records, and published annually in the memoirs of our esta- 

 blishment. 



These returns made a deep impression on the statists of foreign countries 

 who were assembled last year in London at the International Congress. The 

 Government and members of the Legislature are now regularly furnished with 

 reliable information as to our mineral ore produce, which, until very recently, 

 was not obtainable. By the labours of Mr. Robert Hunt, in sedulously col- 

 lecting data from all quarters, we now become aware of the fact that we are 

 consuming and exporting about eighty millions of tons of coals annually (a 

 prodigious recent increase, and daily augmenting). Of iron ore we raise and 

 smelt upwards of eight millions of tons, producing 3,826,000 tons of nig iron. 

 Of copper ore we raise from our own mines 236,696 tons, which yiela 15,968 

 tons of metallic copper; and from our native metallic minerals we obtain of 

 tin 6*696 tons; of lead, 63,525 tons; and of zinc, 4,357 tons. The total 

 annual value of our minerals and coals is estimated at 26,993,573/., and that of 

 the metals (the produce of the above minerals) and coals at 37,121,318/. ! 



When we turn from the consideration of the home survey to that of the 

 geological surveys in the numerous colonies of Great Britain, I may well re- 

 flect with pleasure on the fact that nearly all the leaders of the latter have 



