The Geological Survey 1841–1849

The steady publication of maps and sections, each of which was separately two-dimensional, gave when they were combined a three-dimensional representation of strata which had been produced by group endeavour and the regular use of measuring instruments. In the rubrics of the maps De la Beche stressed that his Survey was mapping areas containing or bordering coal fields. As De la Beche&s;s field lieutenant from 1841 to 1843, John Phillips deployed techniques of geological surveying which drew on his long experience of measuring devices which he handled far more adeptly than De la Beche. In the early 1840s the Geological Survey broadly confirmed and extended Murchison&s;s Silurian domains, but Phillips&s; detailed investigations showed Murchison&s;s inadequacies as a field geologist on the outskirts of Siluria as defined in his Silurian system . The palaeontological appendix of the Malvern memoir was a collaborative Survey effort which updated Murchison&s;s Silurian system .