Economic Work of the Geological Surveys

Abstract

THE note on Sir Robert Hadfield's address to a Committee of the Advisory Council for Scientific Research, given in NATURE for May 25 (vol. xcvii., p, 264), suggests that the speaker was ill-informed as to the recent history of the Geological Surveys of our islands. The activities of what Sir Robert Hadfield styles “the Geological Survey” have naturally been “restricted” as regards Ireland, since the Geological Survey of that country was placed under the Irish Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction so far back as 1905. So soon as the need for more detailed information as to our mineral rethe staff in Ireland was devoted to the preparation of a reference index to all known mines and mineral localities in the country, and the inquiries that are almost daily dealt with already show the utility of the material thus brought together.