The Worn, of the Geological Survey. 
153 
occasionally visit the field, but are mainly engaged at the museums. 
With reference to the exigencies of field-work, a somewhat similar 
system is followed with regard to fossil evidence as in the case 
of the petrography, though the same minute detail is not necessary. 
The officer when in doubt about any species, the names of which 
are needful in separating formations and drawing their mutual 
boundary-lines, collects specimens of them and sends them up to 
the office for identification. They are compared by the paleontologists 
with published descriptions and named specimens, and a list of 
their specific names as far as they can be made out is supplied to 
the surveyor. 
Besides such specimens as may require to be identified in the 
course of the mapping, full collections from the formations of each 
important district are made by the collectors under the guidance 
of the officers by whom the district has been surveyed. Every 
specimen is numbered and registered in the collector’s book, so that 
its source and destination can at once be found. Lists of the 
fossils are drawn up by the palaeontologists for insertion in the 
published Memoirs. A selection of the best specimens is placed in 
the cases, drawers, or cabinets of the museum. Fortunately, in the 
case of the palaeontologists also, though much of their work is 
necessarily of a routine official character, opportunities are afforded 
to them of making interesting and important additions to 
palaeontological science. It was from this department of the 
Survey that Edward Forbes produced some of his best work, that 
Salter made his fame as a palaeontologist, and that Professor 
Huxley enriched geological literature with his memoirs on Silurian 
Crustacea, Old Red Sandstone fishes, and Triassic reptiles. Within 
the last few months fresh distinction has been won by one of 
the staff of the same department from the investigation and 
restoration of a series of remarkable reptiles from the Elgin 
Sandstones. 
IY. Collecting Work. 
From what I have already said it will be seen that the systematic 
collection of the minerals, rocks, and fossils of the country is an 
essential part of the operations of the Geological Survey, and is 
made to aid the progress of the mapping and the completion of the 
illustrations of British geology in the museums. Each branch of 
the Survey has its collector, who moves from district to district as 
his services are required. When he begins work in any area, he 
is supplied with a map on which the field-officer who surveyed it 
has marked every locality that should be searched, and also with a 
list of these localities, giving local details as to the rocks to be 
specially examined and the kind of specimens to be looked for and 
collected. When necessary the surveyor accompanies the collector 
to the ground and starts him on his duties. Every specimen which 
the collector sends up to the office has a number affixed to it, and is 
entered in the lists, which are also at the same time transmitted to 
