Geological Survey and Museum: New Activities

Abstract

A NEW publications stall, where the public may purchaatothe official guides and geological memoirs, including the series of handbooks on British Regional Geology referred to in NATUBE of September 5 (p. 389), has been opened in the entrance hall of the new Geological Museum at South Kensington. The Museum has also published an extensive series of excellent photographic postcards, price Id. each, which are likely to be of value to teachers of geology and physical geography. The postcards include reproductions of general views of the Museum, with dioramas and other interesting exhibits; and photographs of British localities of geological interest, with explanatory text, illustrating marine erosion and sea coasts, rock-weathering and denudation, vulcanism, glaciation, and similar subjects. A list is obtainable from the Museum. An experimental series of free public lantern lectures and lecture tours on the geology and scenery of various regions of Great Britain was given last month. The lectures were well attended, and will be continued throughout the winter. Facilities for special parties can be arranged. Recent additions to the exhibited collections include a series of specimens from H.M. Office of Works, illustrating the weathering of the building stone (Anston stone) of the Houses of Parliament; and a suite of ores illustrating the occurrence of copper at Kilembe, presented by the Geological Survey of Uganda. This occurrence, which is in granulitic rocks, is remarkable for the presence of the cobalt ore linnseite, although arsenic and antimony are absent. Among the donations recently received by the petrographical department there is a valuable series of rock-specimens from the Pre-Cambrian of the Adirondacks, New York State, collected and presented by Dr. A. F. Buddington of Princeton University; and a second fine collection from the Charnwood Forest and Nuneaton areas, presented by Mr. H. H. Gregory of the Leicester Museum.