24 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



gun more and more, and finally altogether, to my servant, 

 as shooting interfered with my work, more especially with 

 making out the geological structure of a country. I dis- 

 covered, though insensibly and unconsciously, that the plea- 

 sure of observing and reasoning was a much higher one 

 than that of skill and sport." 



This fragment of personal history seems to me even 

 more impressive than the glowing words of Thierry, who 

 although himself an invalid, wrote " II y a au monde quel- 

 que chose qui vaut mieux que les jouissances materielles, 

 mieux que la fortune, mieux que la sante elle meme, c'est le 

 devouement a la science ! " 



So much I have ventured to say in eulogy of all Science, 

 of my own subject I would only add that it enjoys what is 

 supposed to be a thoroughly English characteristic, it is 

 fond of the open air ; its best work can only be accom- 

 plished in the open air, it is there that its greatest triumphs 

 have been won, and must continue to be won. 



Many great discoveries have been made in Science by 

 observers who did not consciously set out with a predeter- 

 mination to discover something, but whose imagination was 

 fired by some object or occurrence rather out of the ordinary 

 course of Nature ; as Bacon has observed : " It is probable 

 that Prometheus, when he first struck the flint, must rather 

 have marvelled at the spark than expected it ". With the 

 advance of Science we become less open to surprises, and 

 the number of discoveries due to some happy chance con- 

 stantly tends to diminish ; such, on the other hand, are 

 peculiarly characteristic of Science in its infancy. It would 

 appear that the strange phenomenon which first directed 

 attention to the problems of geology was the occurrence of 

 curious stones, such as are now termed fossils, that, having 

 a likeness to the hard parts of animals and plants, are yet 

 found, to the surprise of the observer, lying embedded in the 

 substance of rocks which form the interior of a country 

 often at a great distance from the sea, and sometimes at a 

 great elevation above it, as in the case of fossils in the 

 Himalayas, which are obtained from that lofty mountain 

 chain at a height of 16,000 feet. 



