26 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



out to, on our maiden geological trip, was a heap of 

 coal-shale, near a pit's mouth, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Manchester. Our only weapon was a com- 

 mon house hammer, for we then knew nothing of 

 the technical forms which geological fancy so often 

 assumes. We had passed that same heap of coal- 

 shale hundreds of times, without suspecting it to 

 be anything more than everybody else considered 

 it ; viz. a heap of rubbish. "Wiiy that particular 

 spot was selected, we cannot now say. We had 

 seen illustrations of carboniferous plants, shells, 

 &c., in books, but we seemed to imagine their dis- 

 covery could only be effected by scientific men, and 

 that it required a good deal of knowledge before 

 one should attempt to find them. Suffice it to say 

 we made the pilgrimage to the coal-shale heap in 

 pretty much the same mind as we should expect to 

 get the head prize in some fine-art drawing. The 

 humble hammer was put into use, for a brief time 

 without much effect, as we could hardly have com- 

 menced on a more barren kind of shale than we had 

 chanced to hit upon. We imagined we could per- 

 ceive traces of leaves and slender stems, but were 

 afraid to trust our ej'es. At any rate, there was 

 nothing definite enough to raise our enthusiasm. 

 But by-and-by, as the hammer kept cleaving open 

 the thin leaf-like layei's of shale, there appeared a 

 large portion of that most beautiful of all fossil 

 plants, the Lepidoclendron. Those who are familiar 

 with this object, with its lozenge-shaped markings 

 running spirally up the stem, will readily under- 

 stand the outburst of pleasure whicli escaped our 

 lips ! That was the first real fossil — ^a pleasure 

 quite equivalent to that of landing the first salmon. 

 How carefully was it wrapped in paper, and carried 

 home in the pocket ! There never was, and never 

 will be, another fossil in the world as beautiful as 

 that insignificant fragment of Lepidoclendron ! 



We have seen a good many converts made to 

 geology in a similar manner, since first we laid open 

 to the light this silent memorial of ages which have 

 passed away. Let a man have ever so slight ac- 

 quaintance with geology, and give him the chance of 

 hammering out a fossil for himself, and the odds 

 are you thereby make him a geologist for life. 

 There is something almost romantic in the idea 

 that you are looking for the first time, and have 

 yourself disentombed the remains of creatures 

 which probably lived scores of millions of years 

 ago ! We would strongly advise our readers, there- 

 fore, not to fall into the error of supposing that 

 fossil-hunting belongs to highly-trained geologists. 

 On the contrary, it is by fossil-hunting alone that 

 you can ever hope to be a geologist yourself. 

 Another mistake often made, is that of supposing 

 these rich and interesting geological localities arc 

 at a distance. It seems so hard to suppose, after 

 reading about typical sections, &c., that under your 

 very feet, in the fields where you liavc *o often 



played, there occur geological phenomena of no 

 less interest. But it is actually surprising what 

 evidences of our earth's great antiquity, in the 

 shape of fossils, &c., may be studied and obtained 

 in the most out-of-the-way and insignificant places. 

 You say you have no rocks in your neighbourhood 

 — nothing but barren sands, or beds of brick-earth 

 or clay. Wei!, go to some section of the latter, 

 exposed, perhaps, in some tarn or stagnant pond in 

 a turnip-field. You examine the sides, and what 

 do you see ? Nothing, but here and there a boul- 

 der-stone sticking out. Well, be content with that. 

 You said you had no rocks in your neighbourhood ; 

 how, then, has that boulder, which is a rounded 

 fragment of a rock broken off from somewhere, — 

 how has it come there ? Here is a poser at once. 

 Examine it, and you will perhaps see that its hard 

 surface is polished or scratched, and then you 

 remember the theory of icebergs, and feel astonished 

 to think that you hold in your hand an undeniable 

 proof of the truth of that theory. Those very 

 scratchings could have been produced iu ao other 

 way ; that foreign fragment of rocks now only to 

 be found on some distant mountain-side, coald have 

 been conveyed in no other manner. Not ©tantent 

 with the exterior examination, yau break ilie boul- 

 der-stone open, when you may chanec to find it is a 

 portion of Silurian, Carboniferous, or Oolitic lime- 

 stone, and that it contains /05sj7s belonging to those 

 formations. Here is a find — an object with a double 

 interest turning up where you never expected to 

 discover the slightest geological incident. You 

 examine other boulders, and find in them general 

 evidences of ice-action in their present re-deposi- 

 tion, and most instructive lessons as to the nature 

 of rocks of various formations, from the granite and 

 trap series to the fossiliferous deposits. In fact, there 

 is no place like one of these old boulder-pits for 

 making oneself acquainted . with petrology, or the 

 nature of stones. 



And now, as to the tools necessary to the young 

 geologist. First of all, he cannot take tcofeio! It 

 is a great mistake to imagine that a full set of 

 scientific instruments makes a scientific man. The 

 following hammers, intended for different purposes, 

 ought to be procured. Fig. 12 is an exceedingly 

 useful weapon, and one we commonly use, to the 

 exclusion of all others. It is handy for breaking off 

 fragments of rock for examination ; and, if fossils 

 be included in them, for trimming the specimens for 

 cabinet purposes. As a rule, however, field geolo- 

 gists are always divided over the merits of their 

 hammers, some preferring one shape and some 

 another. Fig. 13 is generally used for breaking up 

 hard rocks, for which the bevel-shaped head is pecu- 

 liarly adapted. It is usually much heavier than the 

 rest, and is seldom used except for specific purposes. 

 If our readers are inclined to study sections of 

 i)Oukler clay, and wish to extract the rounded and 



