82 Mr. Aikin on the V allies and Watercourses , EsV. 
greater will be the accumulation of facts, and the more assured and 
general the reasonings founded upon them. There are few parts of 
England and of the south of Scotland which are not either intersected 
by canals or in which proposed lines of canal have not been surveyed, 
or the principal watercourses of which have not been levelled. All 
these by moderate activity on the part of persons resident on the 
spot may be obtained from canal offices, civil engineers, and land 
surveyors. The Geological Society seems to offer itself as the natural 
repository of these documents, being the only Institution by which 
they can be arranged, and classified, and applied to use, and in which 
their real value can be duly appreciated. May I, therefore, be per- 
mitted to recommend the subject to the industry and zeal of the 
members in general, and especially of those whose profession or 
local situation give to them peculiar facilities of inquiry. 
