THE SCHOOL OF MINES. 
183 
he made me write a minute to the effect that Mr. Buddie 
and 1 should dine with him at the Geological Club in 
London on the following Wednesday.” 
In the autumn of 1838, at the meeting of the British 
Association at Newcastle, Buckland again conferred 
with Mr. Sopwith, Sir Charles Lemon, and others upon 
the best mode of bringing the subject of an application 
to Government on Mining Records before the Association. 
“ It was,” he said, “ indispensable for the country to have 
a scientific education in connection with manufacture and 
mining.” The immediate outcome of his efforts was a 
grant of money from the Association for the purpose of 
collecting and preserving information as to the geological 
structure and mineral riches of the country. The oppor¬ 
tunity was one which was not to be lost. Sections of the 
strata on the numerous railroads in various parts of the 
United Kingdom, many of which traversed important 
mineral districts, were exposed in cuttings, and, before 
they again became covered, would afford much valuable 
information. 
The collection of all this information in one central spot 
was one of the objects which Buckland had in view in his 
projected School of Mines. But the more he considered 
the scheme, the more varied appeared to be its utility. 
The Jermyn Street Museum and School was to serve as 
the central map office of the Geological Society ; as a 
Mining Record office, where all plans of mines abandoned 
or existing are registered and kept; as a statistical office, 
in which might be collected all the documents that bear 
upon the mineral produce of the country ; and, finally, as 
