36 rORMATION OF THE SOCIETY : UNPUBLISHED RECORDS. 
nitude and bearing of faults and workings. That this object is so 
important in a national point of view, that it ought to be done at the 
national expense ; and as the ordnance surveys of Ireland are on a 
scale of six inches to a mile, the petitioners prayed that the legisla- 
ture would authorise a similar survey of the northern counties of 
England. 
Mr. H. Hartop, then moved, and Mr. C. Morton, seconded a 
resolution to invite the British Association to hold their next meeting 
in one of the towns of the West Riding, which was unanimously 
agreed to. 
The Rev. W. Thorp read a paper on the Geology of the neigh- 
bourhood of Sheffield. It was largely illustrated by diagrams and 
sections, and resulted in a discussion of some of the points raised, 
more especially with reference to the much disputed faults in the 
valley of the Don. The paper was not printed, Mr. Thorp retaining 
it for a proposed work on the West Riding Coal-field. Messrs. 
Hartop, Morton, and Prof. Johnston spoke. 
Mr. Charles Morton then proceeded to read a paper on the 
Utility of Geology, as applied to Mining, Agriculture, and the Arts. 
He remarked, that geologists had too long been considered to be 
mere antiquarian theorists ; but his object was to show the high 
utility of geology. He adverted to the internal condition of the 
earth, as capable of being known from its exterior surface, and to 
the innnense losses which had been caused by the ignorant search for 
minerals, in situations where a geologist would at once know they 
could not be found. He adverted, also, to other cases, where the 
science of geology had enabled man to reach valuable minerals, in 
situations where ignorant persons had long been convinced they did 
not exist, or were inaccessible. Such was the discovery of the 
Warwickshire coal-field, under the red sandstone, and the Hetton 
and other Durham coals, which had been reached through the lime- 
stone. In reference to railway operations, he remarked on the im- 
portance of going in the longitudinal direction of the strata. The 
case of the North Midland was a remarkable illustration of this. The 
line followed the rule he had described, and went chiefly through soft 
cuttings. But the opposition had attempted to bring it by a route 
