GEOLOGICAL SECTION. 
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series of organism, the remains of which occur in such abundance in 
various deposits, will be exhibited, and the whole Natural History of 
rocks traced out, so far as collections enable this to be done. By the aid 
of drawings, such objects as cannot be procured jvill be made familiar to 
the student, and by the use of maps, the structure of countries, which 
it would be impossible for many to visit, will be made known. 
While thus endeavouring to render the student acquainted with the 
principles of the Science, the practical applications of these principles 
will, at the same time, be fully exhibited. Mining processes, mining 
products, and the principal metallurgical operations will also be in¬ 
cluded, and the comparative excellence of each, so far as possible, made 
known. The building materials of the country, and their applications, 
the localities where used, the durability, the facility of working, the 
strength, etc., of the stones, w'ill all be examined into. The importance 
of Mineral, waters must not be overlooked, and the value of these will be 
determined by careful investigations. 
Further, in a country so essentially agricultural as India, the 
character of the soils and sub-soils, their peculiar adaptation to peculiar 
crops, their composition, and, in dependence upon this, the easiest means 
of renewing or increasing their fertility; all these are important ques¬ 
tions which at once connect themselves with the researches of the 
Geologist, inasmuch as the natural powers of any soil depend essentially 
on the source from which that soil has been derived, and therefore on 
the geological structure of the district. 
To enable such enquiries to be effectively carried out, a small 
Laboratory is attached to the Museum, where such analyses and 
investigations as may be requisite will be carried on; audit is hoped 
that most valuable, because accurate and detailed, information may thus 
be acquired. 
Moreover, careful summaries of all existing knowledge on the 
geological structure of the country, will be compiled and arranged, so 
as to facilitate reference. Much has been done in investigating the 
geological structure of this country, and very valuable papers have been 
given to the public, descriptive of various parts of India. But these 
facts are scattered through various periodicals, are often only inciden¬ 
tally noticed in travels, or can be found only in manuscript among the 
records of Public Offices. Many of these are with, difficulty intelligible, 
from the writers frequently calling similar objects by different names, 
or vice versa. It is, therefore, necessary to obtain the key to the terms 
used before these can be compared. It- will be an object with the 
Officers of the Geological Survey to remove this difficulty, and to bring 
into an accessible form every thing which has been published bearing 
on the geological structure, the mineral wealth, or the manufacturing 
industry (so far as this is concerned with mineral products) of this 
Empire. 
The Museum of Geology has been placed in connexion with, and 
under the same superintendence as, the Geological Survey of India. By 
this means opportunities will be afforded of procuring a very perfect 
