LITERARY REGISTER SUPPLEMENT: 
AND CEYLON 
"NOTES AND QUERIES." 
[Under this heading, in future, we mean to give a four or eight page " Supplement " with our Tropical 
Agriculturist, from quarter to quarter, according as there is matter of sufficient value, so to be preserved.] 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY FOR CEYLON. 
MEMORANDUM ON THU SCOPE, ORGANIZATION, 
AND FUNCTIONS OF A GROLOGICAL SURVEY 
FOR CEYLON : BY MR. R. D. OLDHAM, OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 
Accepting as a fundamental principle that a 
geological examination of Ceylon is desirable, 
the first point to be considered is whether this 
can be carried out in a sufficiently satisfactory 
manner by the temporary employment of persons 
posscBsinf the requisite knowledge, or whether it 
is desirable to establish a Geological Survey as a 
permanent Department of Government. 
TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT OF EXPERTS NOT 
DESIRABLE. 
The temporary employment of individuals to 
make special examinntions of selected tracts would 
be the cheapest as regards actual expenditure 
of money, as no liability would be incurred 
beyond the stipulated remuneration, and there 
would be neither permanent office expendi- 
ture nor any non-effective pay to be provitled 
for. This, however, is all that can be said 
in favour of such a mode of procuring a geolog- 
ical examination, even if it were confined to 
part only of the Island; judged by the standard of 
results the economy is more than doubtful. Be- 
inf employed only for a limited period the ex- 
pert would be exposed to a temptation, greater 
than human nature can be expected wholly to 
resist, to take an optimistic view of the facts, 
and especially such a view as would lead to 
renewed employment. His conclusions would con- 
sequently be lacking in the judicial quality, 
which may more reasonably be expected in those 
of an individual of equal attainments who had 
no pecuniary interest to influence his conclusions, 
while it would be almost certain that his atten- 
tion would be devoted mainly or solely to the 
points likely to make the best show of results in 
the shortest time, to the neglect of those wliich, 
if apparently less striking at the time, or requir- 
ing greater patience to work out, may ultimately 
be the most important. 
An even greater evil would be the want of 
continuity in the work ; each man coming fresh 
to the Colony would have to start afresh ; lie 
would iind no laboratory, libraiy, or other re- 
quisites for thorough and systematic work, and 
would have either to neglect the proper work- 
ing out of his held ohsei vations or to take his 
collections to Europe, where they would be 
lost to the Colony and inaccessible to his suc- 
cessors. 
ADVANTAGES OF A PERMANENT SURVEY. 
A permanent Geological Survey, propeily 
equipped, would not only make a complete ex- 
amination of the whole of the Island, both of 
those parts which appear to be of immediate 
economic importance and of those whose im- 
portance is yet to come, or in wliich there are 
no minerals of economic value ; the results 
would be worked out and the records be pre- 
served locally, and in course of time the head- 
quarters office of the Department would become 
an Intelligence Bureau for the Island, so 
far as its geology is concerned. In this 
way the information accumulated will, in 
many cases, prevent the useless expenditure 
of money consequent on mistaken identifications 
or, on the other hand, it will be possible to 
reply, immediately and without the undertaking 
of special investigations, to inquiries regarding 
the presence, distribution, and abundance of miner- 
als in the island. 
TIME REQUIRED FOR COMPLETION OF FIRST 
SURVEY. 
The only doubt that might be entertained as to 
the desirability of maintaining a permanent Geo- 
logical Survey is whether there would be sufficient 
work to keep it permanently employed ; this I 
do not think need be seriously questioned. Tlie 
Island has an area of over 25,000 square miles : 
of this about lO.OtO probably consists of alluvium' 
and recent deposits wliich can be fairly rapidly 
surveyed ; the other 15,000 square miles is 
more rocky and cannot be surveyed so 
rapidly. I do not think that, allowing for leave 
sickness, and casualties, an average of more than 
1,000 square miles per annum in the one case 
and 500 in the other can be reckoned on. There 
are consequently about 40 years' work to com- 
plete a thorough survey of the whole Island, or 
if three men are employed a period of 13 yearg 
