PART L] 
Annual Report for 1871. 
13 
General's Department, has evinced in the matter. And I doubt not that a short time will 
now suffice to bring the system into operation, after full prevision, so as to prevent their 
being any interruption afterwards. 
Geological sketches of several districts have been furnished to local officers for use in 
gazetteers. Accounts of Bombay generally, of the Worth-Western Provinces, of Kerowli, 
have thus been supplied. 
Library. —During the twelve-months one thousand and sixty-eight volumes or part of 
volumes have been added to the Library of the Geological Survey. Of this number about 
one-half, namely, 529, have been presented, and 539 have been purchased. A complete list 
of these accessions has been given in the successive numbers of the .Records. I append 
here a summary list of those Societies, Institutions, &c., from which presentations have 
been received during the last year. Recently established rules for the purchase of books, by 
which the purchase of any book in this country, however urgently required, has been strictly 
forbidden, and the establishment of an agency in London, which, however good for the provision 
of ordinary English books, never has had such connection with the foreign scientific societies, 
and such knowledge of the publication of scientific works, as would enable it satisfactorily to 
fulfil the duties of an agent for a purely scientific establishment such as the Geological 
Survey Library, will most seriously delay, obstruct, and impede the successful formation of 
what has ever been our great want here—a good Geological Library. The delays alone will 
necessarily throw back our information more than half a year. Books delivered for trans¬ 
mission to our library in May last arrived in middle of November, those sent to India Office 
in July were delivered in Calcutta in middle of December. In this case the cost of 
transmission direct by post would have been less than the cost of the cumbrous and needless 
packing in boxes of wood and tin. In scientific enquiries and researches it is essential that 
we should have rapid and ready access to the latest publications, and delays of this kind, 
therefore, most seriously diminish the utility and interest of our labours. 
Museum. —As frequently stated, we can only maintain our collections in order by removing 
one series so as to make room for the examination of another, and so gradually, but with 
great inconvenience, bring them all into arrangement. I have already stated that during 
the year our mineral collection has been overhauled and entirely remodelled. This could 
only be done by removing from the cases a collection of rocks. This difficulty will, I fear, 
continue in full force until the collections have been placed in the new building intended 
for their reception, when space sufficient for their exhibition and careful comparison will be 
available. Steady progress is, however, being made in the arrangement of the large collec¬ 
tions, and in the sorting them, so as to form, when space is procurable, duplicate series for 
exchange or presentation. 
An index map is appended showing approximately the present state of progress of the 
field work of the Survey. 
The various collections are in as good order and safe keeping as the limited accommo¬ 
dation at our command will permit. 
Camp, Godavery River, \ 
17 th January 1872. i 
T. OLDHAM, 
Superintendent of Geol. Survey of India , 
and Director of Geol. Museum, Calcutta. 
