304 The Geological Survey of England and Wales. 
Water Supply . — During 1892 a Royal Commission was appointed 
to consider the question of the water supply of London. Having 
been nominated one of the Commissioners Sir Archibald Geikie con- 
sidered it desirable that every assistance to the inquiry which it 
was in the power of the Geological Survey to render should be given. 
As so much of the value of the investigation would depend upon the 
accuracy of the geological information laid before the Commission, he 
placed at its disposal the published maps of the Survey and such un- 
published data as might be of service. Two maps of the region 
embraced by the inquiry were supplied from the Survey office, 
viz. : one of the entire Thames Basin, showing the nature and dis- 
tribution of the superficial deposits over the Chalk and Tertiary 
areas ; and one of the Chalk areas within that basin, indicating the 
tract of bare Chalk, the districts covered with more or less pervious 
accumulations which allow the rain to sink through them into the 
Chalk, and the districts where the Chalk is covered with impervious 
deposits which throw the rain off upon the surrounding ground. 
The areas of these impervious deposits are further distinguished 
according as they throw the drainage away from or into the 
Chalk. 
At the request of the Commission, Messrs. Whitaker and Topley, 
who have an intimate knowledge of the geology of the London 
Basin, made a careful examination of the Chalk area of the east of 
Kent, with special reference to the possibility of obtaining an addi- 
tional supply of water from that district for London. The data ob- 
tained by them have been laid before the Commission and will 
appear in its report. 
Applications for Information . — During the year numerous in- 
quiries were made at the office of the Survey, 28 Jermyn Street, 
London, S.W., respecting Agriculture, Water Supply, Building 
Materials, and allied subjects, and were duly attended to. 
THE SPRING OF 1894. 
Regarded from an agricultural standpoint, the weather of last 
spring was distinctly disappointing, for while the earlier part of the 
period was, as a rule, fine, warm, and dry, the latter part was 
characterised by excessive rains, and, what was even worse, by 
persistent low temperatures. The natural progress of the season 
from winter cold to summer warmth was, in fact, to a large extent 
reversed, the weather at the close of the spring being more in 
keeping with the beginning of March than with the end of May. 
During the first half of March the country experienced a con- 
tinuance of the stormy showery conditions which prevailed through- 
out the greater part of last winter, and by the middle of the month 
the farmer was beginning to long for dry weather, in order that he 
