GEOLOGY IN SERVICE OF MAN WATTS 285 



have been in the habit of making use of the only substitute open to 

 them, prospecting and photographing from the highest points ac- 

 cessible. Many unexpected results have thus been secured in arche- 

 ology, and at least as much may be looked for in geological surveys 

 even in settled and surveyed districts, while in unsurveyed and un- 

 prospected regions its use is proving of the highest importance. 

 Too much credit can not be given to Canada for its enterprise in 

 using this method for the prospecting and preliminary survey of the 

 animal, vegetable, and mineral resources of its great hinterland by 

 means of the airplane. A great saving in time and cost has thus 

 been secured, and tlie method bids fair to remove the reproach lev- 

 eled at the British Empire that such vast areas of it are practically 

 unknown. 



Physiography and Geografliy. — It is because of the variety and 

 intensity of observation essential to geological surveying — in the 

 course of which every acre of his ground must be traversed, and 

 much of it retraversed — that the geologist must necessarih^ become a 

 physiographer and geographer. There is a limit to the perfection 

 of topographic maps and surveys, even when, as in the United States, 

 there is close cooperation between the Topographic and tlie Geologi- 

 cal Surveys; and it is the duty of the geologist to take note of in- 

 numerable features Avhich have no delineation, still less explanation, 

 on such maps. The geologist is probably the only class of person 

 who has to traverse large areas with liis eyes open, not to one class of 

 phenomena only, but to all that can help him to decide questions of 

 concealed structure; and he naturally seeks to supplement this by 

 personal contact with the inhabitants, and with their written and un- 

 written records, which it is part of his business to interpret and ex- 

 plain. Nor can he confine himself to the purely physiograj^hic as- 

 pect of his area. He is led into bypaths as a byplav, and many facts 

 with regard to the distribution of animals and ])lants, and of the 

 dwellings, occupations, and characteristics of the people, can scarcely 

 escape his observation; neither can lie shut his eyes to historic and 

 prehistoric facts. Thus, Avhen a geologist leaves his district, lie is 

 generally possessed of a store of knowledge reaching far beyond the 

 strict bounds of his science. 



While geologists, from the conditions undei- which they work, 

 have been able personally to make individual C()nrril)utions to these 

 sciences, the most important service of geology as a whole has been 

 the transformation of geography from a static into a dynamic sci- 

 ence. In its earlier stages, geology discovered that jji'ogress involved 

 the close study of the earth of the present and the application of 

 that knowledge to explain its past changes; and tlie progress of ge- 

 ology has onl}' intensihed botli the need of deeper study and the 



