by Gordon L. Herries Davies. 1995 ISBN 1 899702 00 8 Hardback book 21cm x 30cm €25 + €5 post & packing IE-GSI-0179 The Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) is one of the world's oldest Geological Surveys. It was founded in 1845, but its roots extend back a further twenty years to 1825. In this volume a distinguished Irish earth scientist and historian of science tells, for the first time, the story of the Survey over its life of 150 years.

This is not a dry institutional history. It is a tale of men - and of women - seeking to understand, to map, and to describe the rocks of Ireland. It tells of the young Survey learning its skills in a famine-stricken land. It describes the completion of an immense cartographic masterpiece in 1890. It explores the failure of newly-independent Ireland to develop the Survey. It explains the impact upon the Survey of the discovery of minerals in 1961 at Tynagh, Co. Galway. It details some incidents of human sadness and it brings out into the open a few human scandals.

The author, Gordon Herries Davies, established his international reputation as a historian of science with The Earth In Decay, a history of British geomorphology, published in 1969. He has many other books and papers to his credit, among them being Sheets of Many Colours, a history of Irish geological cartography published in 1983.

The book comprises 356 pages, and is 21 x 30cm hardback. There are twelve chapters, a chronology of GSI's history, a biographical listing of those who have worked for the Survey over the last 150 years, a comprehensive bibliography and a full index.

There are 15 colour plates and 100 black and white illustrations, most of which have never before been published.