OFFICIAL SWAMPING OF GEOLOGY.
ANOTHKR protest has come ont against the Kensington Gore pro- ject. The science of geology as represented by its incorporated society protests against being removed from its present abode in dermyn Street to the proposed. colony West of London ; and the grounds are of the most practical kind. They were in great part set forth in a letter by Sir Roderick Murchison to Lord Stanley of Alderley as President of the Board of Trade, so long ago as Ja- nuary; but no notice was taken of the letter. It was, in fact, avowedly treated as "a private communication," until the House of Commons ordered a return of it. The Board, of Trade then discovered that the letter had been addressed in his public capa- city by Sir Roderick as the representative of geologists on. a public, question ; and then, in May, the Board returned an answer, as-
* Sir Roderick, that although the institution should be tra,us- furred from the Board of Trade to the Department of Practical Science and Art, it would receive the same encouragement from Government as had been productive of so much benefit already. Surely so simple an answer might have been returned, four months earlier. But in fact it is no answer at all. The tranifer to the
Department of Science and. Art, against which Sir Roderick pro- tested, was onlythe preliminary of the transfer to Kensington, and of the manifest change in the whole treatment of geology. Sir Roderick truly says if geology be treated simply as a matter of education it will fall under those whose training and position are generally derived from scholarship and abstract science ; whereas the Geological Department will be best appreciated in re- ference to those material interests over which the Board of Trade presides ; its professors would be most likely to find encourage- ment under that department, and its machinery must certainly be turned to a better use.
What is the Geological Department of which we speak ? It consists of an organized machinery for the geological survey of the United Kingdom. Attached to that department is a Museum of Practical Geology, which already contains a great number of specimens, of surveys of mines in the United Kingdom and abroad, of sections, models, working plans, &e. ; and there is also a school of science applied to mining and to the cognate arts. What has the department done ? It has during the Last year surveyed about 2700 square miles of the United Kingdom, which has been mapped out on the six-inch scale, this series of maps being graduallyfol- lowed by a publication of maps on the one-inch scale. The maps show in detail the nature of the ground, of the subsoil, and of' the geological strata ; forming valuable assistance to landowners, land-purchasers, agriculturists, students of practical science in connexion with agriculture, miners, inspectors of mines, the Le- gislature, and the country: Let us take two examples of the prac- tical advantages to be derived from the study of geology. At Henrristbury Head in Hampshire, and on the coast East of it, a removal is going on of iron-atone from the headland, and of ce- ment-stones from Christchurch Bank ; operations which are likely to entail the most .prejudicial consequences upon the waters of the Southampton river, upon the navigation, and ulti- mately upon the harbour of Portsmouth. We may improve and cultivate for the purposes of civilization the land which Provi- dence has bestowed upon us, or we may spoil it ; and science is a watchman to protest against such acts of spoiling as the above. Again' it has been supposed that the consumption of coal for this country was between 34,000,000 and 56,000,000 tons ; it is now ascertained to be 64,000,000 tons with a constant increase in the household population, manufactures, and railways, and the other vast branches of consumption. Many, mines, it is well known, are worked at a loss : the geological maps not only point out the fields which are most profitable, not only ascertain by 'a com- parison of data the probable direction of coal-veins, but they have already pointed out the expediency of much deeper mining than any hitherto adopted—have, in fact, pointed to the existence of a coal-field below the strata generally known. A body of workmen are now on strike because they doubt the safety of the mine in which they are working. Such doubts arise from the want of positive competency in the inspector class. They are likely to be confirmed or removed, and the fears of the working population to be satisfied, in proportion aswthe official in- specters are thoroughly educated in the only science which can guide them. There are twelve inspectors of coal-mines, receiving a salary of 4001. a year each ; and it would be a Feat advantage if they were to be expected to undergo the preliminary studies which the institution of practical geology affords. Already nearly one hundred officers of the Royal and the East India Companrs service have spontaneously sought instruction, which gives them advantages in foreign lands, and which they can obtain in a much more perfect form and at much less cost at the Geological Institution than in any other school. Why disturb this either topographically or departmentally ? Why transfer it from that department which presides over manufacturing and trading in- terests, to one which presides over scholarly education or one which is by many, considered no higher than the Department of Gimcracks? Why, in fact, dispromote the Geological Depart- merit? There is another reason against the removal. Six hun- dred working men have attended the course of evening lectures delivered gratuitously by the professors : numbers of these work- ing men come from distant parts of the metropolis ; many come' to fit themselves as miners, seeking promotion in that calling; others have different motives, but still of aipractical kind : why, give these men an additional walk of two m les and a half to the extreme West, which is not the quarter of the working classes ; why add five miles to the long walk from Rotherhithe or Stepney and. back?
It appears to us that a very practical answer ought to be given to the protest of Sir Roderick Murchison on behalf of the Geologi- cal Society.
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