140 
The Work of the Geological Survey. 
Witney (Mr. Gregson) : 
The rush in most or all instances appears to have been from the west to 
the east, as the hurdles were generally down on the east side of the folds. 
Bloxham (Mr. Denchfield) : E. 
Ditchley : 
They had travelled direct north. 
Sezincote : 
Appears as if whatever frightened them came from the south. 
Batsford Home Farm : Ditto. 
Lower Lemington Farm : Ditto, or S.E. 
Lord Moreton was told that in many, if not most, cases the sheep 
broke out at the S.E. 
P.C. Sirman says that the black cloud travelled from north- 
west to south-east, and the evidence of the Banbury District 
Constabulary points to its travelling from N. to S., or perhaps N.N.W. 
to S.S.E. But supposing that the sheep fled from the advancing 
darkness, which is not very likely, we could hardly expect the rush 
to have taken the same direction in all cases when we remember the 
hilly nature of the country and the effect of the lie of the land upon 
the line taken by storms and clouds moving at a low elevation. 
In conclusion I wish to tender my thanks to those who have 
been kind enough to furnish the valuable and accurate information 
upon which the above report on, and attempted explanation of, sheep 
panics is founded ; without which it would, of course, have been impos- 
sible to draw up this paper, 
0. V. Aplin. 
Bloxham, Banbury. 
THE WORK OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 1 
Before geology became organised into a definite branch of science 
men had begun to perceive that one fundamental requisite as a 
groundwork for the study of the rocks of the earth’s crust, alike in 
their theoretical and industrial aspects, lay in the delineation of the 
respective areas of these rocks upon maps. At first the maps so 
constructed were merely rough representations of the general distri- 
bution of the mineral masses. They were mineralogical, or, as it 
was called then, geognostical, that is, they only aimed at an indica- 
tion of the relative positions of the rocks at the surface. They 
made no attempt to show the structure and sequence of the various 
formations. It was not until the time of William Smith that 
1 From a paper read by the Director-General of the Geological Survey 
before the General Meeting of the Federated Institution of Mining Engineers, 
and reprinted by special permission of the Council of that body, 
