290 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



money. Sometimes, as he pretended, it was impossible to 

 get the difference of level of two points, as, for instance, 

 Ateamari and Opepe; and therefore it was impossible to 

 determine the dip of the rocks. Or, if the difference of 

 level was known, the rocks in the two places were differ- 

 ent, and it was necessary to know which held the highest 

 stratigraphical position. Suppose he found the Ateamari 

 rock to hold a position known by observation in other 

 places to be fifty feet above the position of the Opepe 

 rock, while Ateamari and Opepe occupy the same topo- 

 graphical elevation. It would be inferred that Opepe is 

 fifty feet lower, geologically, than Ateamari. That is, go- 

 ing from Ateamari to Opepe, strata lower and lower in 

 the geological series come to the surface. This means 

 that from Opepe to Ateamari the rocks dip toward Atea- 

 mari to the amount of fifty feet. So he reasoned, and so 

 he wasted his time, all the while spending the people's 

 hard-earned money. But how to know that the Ateamari 

 stratum was fifty feet higher than the Opepe stratum, 

 that was the frivolous problem which he set himself to 

 work out by means of what he called " palaeontology." 

 He pretended that each formation contained certain so- 

 called fossil remains which were peculiar to it, and as 

 soon as he could identify any fossil remains in the Atea- 

 mari formation he would know what stratum it is ; and 

 having determined the identity of the Opepe stratum in 

 a similar way, he was in possession of a knowledge of the 

 interval between them. Posterity will think all this very 

 occult and extremely far-fetched. What the man who 

 owns a kumara plantation desires to know is the depth 

 to which he must dig to get soap or oil ; and all the 



