EXPEDITION TOWARD THE NORTH POLE. 383 



■wide and loug, and 1^ inches in thickness. Crystalline minerals ought, 

 of course, to be brolvcn from the matrix, rather with the view of pre- 

 serving the crystals as far as possible, than with regard to the size or 

 form of the hand specimens ; and the same remark applies equally to 

 fossils. 



On an overland journey the circumstances may not always be such as 

 to allow the necessary time to wrap carefully and label specimens on the 

 spot where they were collected ; but in such cases numbers or some other 

 marks should be scratched with the point of a knife, or other hard- 

 pointed instrument, on each, by means of which the specimens collected 

 at different times and places during the march can be correctly sepa- 

 rated, labeled, and wrapped when tlie party stops for rest. 



All specimens should be packed tightly in boxes as soon as enough 

 have been collected to till a box, and a label should be attached to each 

 box indicating the particular district of country in which the collections 

 were obtained. For this purpose empty provision boxes or packages 

 can generally be used. 



In examining sections or exposures of rocks along a shore or else- 

 where, it is a good plan to make a rough sketch in a note-book, thus : 



Section 1. 



10 feet. 



Then on the same or following pages, more i>articular descriptions of 

 the nature and composition of the several beds should be written, re- 

 ferring to each by its number. Sections of this kind should be num- 

 bered 1, 2, 3, and so on, in the order in which they were observed, and 

 thjB specimens from each bed ought also to be numbered on its label so 

 as to correspond. That is, specimens from the lowest bed of the first 

 section should be, for instance, marked thus: "Section No. 1, bed No. 

 1," and so on. The name of the locality, however, should also, as 

 already suggested, be written on the labels as a provision against the 

 possible loss of note-books. 



It generally happens that an outcrop will show only a part of the 

 beds of which it is composed, thus : 



