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carried out in 1906 ; the information obtained as a result of the 
laboratory investigations of the soils from the pipe track, and 
their effect upon pipe steel and iron are of considerable interest 
and perhaps of more than mere local importance. In addition 
a good deal of work is done in what may be. called the domain of 
metallurgical chemistry, although it ought to be made perfectly 
clear that the commercial application of technical processes is 
not a function of the Department. 
Palaeontology. 
Geology is more or less dependent upon palaeontological re- 
search, for without the specific determination of fossils, reports 
involving a wide range of stratigraphy could not be written, nor 
geological maps of large areas be properly completed, though, 
of course, those acquainted with geological field work, and the 
running of geological boundary lines are aware that palaeontology 
only plays an insignificant part in the actual construction of the 
maps. Palaeontology constitutes the timepiece of geology, serve 
ing the same purpose as do watches and clocks for the ordinary 
engagements of life. 
Many biologists, it may be noted with regret, look somewhat 
askance at Palaeontology on account, perhaps, of the absence of 
the softer portions of fossil organisms. The hard parts of organ- 
isms are so intimately related to the soft parts that whatever 
affects the latter is ultimately expressed in the framework. How- 
ever this may be, palaeontological researches do give the true 
key of the order of succession of organisms by actual observation 
in the field, and not by speculative groping in the study and the 
laboratory on recent organisms. By its means we learn much of 
some of the characteristic features of the geological systems, and 
thus gradually acquire that knowledge of the geographies of past 
eras which is really geology. 
Fossils being of such importance in determining the relative 
age, succession and correlation of strata, that the investigation 
of the Palaeontology of a formation becomes an important factor 
in the early attempts at the development of the mineral resources 
of regions in which the stratigraphy has been but imperfectly 
worked out, 
A very noteworthy instance of the importance of the study 
of the fossil fauna occurs in Victoria, where the Ordovician auri- 
ferous beds contain Graptolites, arranged in zones according to 
the presence of certain specific forms. They thus afford a means 
of providing geological bench marks which will materially assist, 
in the absence of other lithological methods of determining the 
boundaries of the barren and auriferous belts in the Ordovician 
beds. 
Most of the fossils in the possession of the Department have 
been collected by the staff during the progress of the field work. 
Each fossil received at the office is numbered and registered in 
