Recent Work of Geological Surveys

Abstract

THE Geological Survey of Great Britain has issued its “Summary of Progress for 1906” (1907, price 1s.), from which it is clear that a large part of the work of the staff must always be devoted to the revision of geological details in areas already mapped. This is not work that can be carried out hurriedly, or in response to every change in popular geological opinion; but the real need for re-consideration in accordance with modern discovery is at once apparent from the results recorded on pp. 2 to 5 of the present summary. Geological surveys have an important educational duty in addition to their economic functions, and one can never predict where an accurate knowledge of the earth may not lead to the foundation of an industry, or where an industrial inquiry may not suddenly illumine our relation to this globe on which we have to spend our lives.