WITH THE YORKSHIRE COAL-FIELD. 
101 
also as a school of applied science. The Geological Survey was trans- 
ferred in 1844 from the Ordnance Department to th?„t of Woods and 
Forests. The Chief Commissioner of the latter was the late Earl of 
Carlisle, who was a member of this Society. Another prominent 
member of the Government, then occupying the office of Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, was the late Lord Halifax (then Sir Charles Wood), 
whom this Society numbered amongst its vice-presidents. During 
the alterations which were necessary to adapt the building in Jermyn 
Street for museum purposes, the following letter was addressed by 
Lord Carlisle to Sir Charles Wood. ' It has been settled that my 
department is to build a museum of Economic Geology. The rent of 
the building in Piccadilly, which the public will have to pay to the 
crown, is calculated at about £2000 a year. There has been a plan 
for having shops in the lower story, which might bring in £750 a year ; 
but the conductor of the museum, Sir H. de la Beche, and the 
Economic Radicals, are vehement against said shops ; and Hume 
says if I do not assure him that they are given up, he will this session 
move an address to the crown. Will you let me throw over the 
shops ? ' To which Sir Cliarles Wood replied, ' If you wish me to 
denationalize to such an extent this sliopkeeping nation, I cannot 
resist you.' 
The staff of the survey in 1839 consisted of six assistant 
Geologists, with Sir H. de la Beche at their head. There was also a 
laboratory under the charge of Mr. Richard Phillips ; and a room, set 
apart for the collection and preservation of mining plans and other 
documents relating thereto, was denominated the Mining Record Office. 
It is evident from the foregoing brief epitome of the state of 
Geological Science before the foundation of this Society in the West 
Riding of Yorkshire, that the accurate information respecting the 
Yorkshire Coal-field was a comparatively small item ; and this obser- 
vation applies with equal force to that of Lancashire. The want of 
authentic information resulted in the expenditure of thousands of 
pounds sterling in fruitless searches and borings for coal, where the 
most rudimentary geological knowledge would have made it abundantly 
evident that the longed-for coal seams could by no means be present. 
It is not an uncommon incident to find heaps of shale still existing 
