"The Times" of Sept. 19 states: A geological survey of China was organized in 1913, two years after the revolution. Two months ago, at the ceremonial, opening of a geological museum and library, President Li Yuang-hung reminded his hearers that interest in the application of science was not an invention of the West. Under the Chou dynasty, 1,000 years B.C. a mining and geographical staff formed a branch of the Governmental organization. The dynasty of Han, 200 -B.c., employed Government experts in mineral ores. According to Confucius, even long before these dates, the almost' mythical engineering Emperor Vu discriminated soils according to their colour and composition, but there was little system in the methods of ancient China, and it is under the direction of Chinese trained in America and Swedish geologists, that the new survey is making progress.
A number of iron-ore deposits, coalfields, and other mineral lodes, including antimony' and mercury, have been discovered and surveyed in the provinces round Peking Sheet maps of the whole of China on a scale of one to a rullion are in preparation. Field geologists are collecting and examining fossils, and the strata of the country are being mapped and identified. The museum now contains nearly 4,000 specimens, and the library nearly 9,000 volumes. The Government, wealthy Chinese, and foreign mining companies sare contributing to the cost. Thus the three great objects of a geological survey are being accomplished. The mineral resources of the country are being ascertained, a uniform survey is being made, and scientific research is being prosecuted. Although the survey was formally - organized in 1913, it was not until 1916, when the eyes of the greater part of Europe were turned elsewhere, that active work was begun. What has been. accomplished already shows that the geological survey is going to become an active factor in the material development of the country.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.