542 
The British Association . 
[October, 
126 sheets. It had been found necessary to revise the 
geology of the Leinster and Tipperary coal-fields, the car- 
boniferous trap-rock of the County Limerick, and the south- 
east portion of the country, including parts of Wicklow and 
Wexford. The coal-fields of the North of Ireland had also 
been surveyed and published in maps both on the 6-inch and 
i-inch scales; and it was also intended that the districts of 
the County Antrim containing pyrolitic iron ores should be 
illustrated by maps on both scales. The district still re- 
maining to be examined included the greater portions of 
Donegal, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Sligo, and Antrim. 
The President said the object of these Surveys was to 
make the public at large thoroughly acquainted with the 
geology of the country in which they resided. Maps were 
carefully drawn, and memoirs published from time to time 
in illustration of the maps ; but unfortunately, so far as the 
diffusion of knowledge was concerned at the present time, — 
not owing to any prohibition of the Geological Survey, but 
owing to some mistaken view on the part of the Treasury, 
— prohibitive prices were placed upon the geological me- 
moirs. He had seen small pamphlets priced at 16s. or 17s., 
though these pamphlets were printed and published at the 
public expense for the benefit of the public. He held in his 
hand a very small pamphlet, which w r as published at 9s. 
He did not think a false economy of this kind ought to be 
suffered to go on without a protest on behalf of those who 
were interested in geological progress. He therefore felt it 
right to make these remarks, in the hope that steps might 
be taken to bring this matter under the consideration of the 
Treasury, and point out how with the one hand they were 
lavishly spending money for the advancement of geological 
knowledge, and with the other withholding it from the 
public. 
Dr. Sterry Hunt read a paper “ On the Geological Rela- 
tions of the Atmosphere.” The author began by noticing 
the inquiries of Ebelmen into the decomposition of rocks 
through the influence of the atmosphere, resulting in the 
fixation of carbonic acid and oxygen, and discussed the 
question at length with arithmetical data. He inquired 
farther into the fixing of carbon from the air by vegetation, 
with liberation at the same time of oxygen, both from car- 
bonic acid and from the decomposed water, the hydrogen of 
which, with carbon, forms the bituminous coals and petro- 
leums. It was shown that the carbonic acid absorbed in the 
process of rock decay during the long geologic ages, and now 
represented in the form of carbonates in the earth’s crust, 
