182 J. L. L0I5LEY — THE STUDY OF GKOLOGY. 



more tlie noisy town, but listen in imagination to the ocean's roar, 

 or the torrent's fall; or gaze on mountain peaks, and see the glacier 

 and the avalanche doing their destroying yet preserving work, or 

 on the sun-lit iceberg floating calmly on the ocean's breast, while 

 it is melting and dropping its burden of rocks and earth on a future 

 continent. Or we are taken at once to our own beautiful hills and 

 vales, where we may see, in part at least, the faunas and the floras 

 of the distant past. 



"When we look at a geological map of the British Islands, and 

 observe the variety of colours indicating the many formations of 

 which our countiy consists, and when we remember its limited 

 extent, and the facilities which now exist for reaching every part, 

 one feels that every inhabitant of the British Islands ought to 

 have some knowledge of Geology. In no other country on 

 the globe do the same facilities exist for the attainment of a prac- 

 tical acquaintance with almost every variety of rock, with almost 

 every formation. We all travel now and then for one purpose 

 or another — for business or pleasure — and on these occasions we 

 can Irequently find opportunities to study in the field the geological 

 characters of the district we may happen to be in, and to spend a 

 few hours or a few days in collecting the fossils of the locality, and 

 so we may form a collection which will be both an interesting 

 and a valuable addition to our household gods. 



How much, also, does a knowledge of Geology add to the pleasure 

 even of a pleasure excursion. A search for fossils is far superior 

 to a fox-hunt ; for we are taken through as beautiful, if not more 

 beautiful, scenes, and may experience with almost equal keenness 

 the pleasure of pursuit, while we have the consciousness, which 

 ought to add an indescribable pleasure, that we are adding to our 

 knowledge and not inflicting pain on the meanest creature. "While 

 traversing a strange district we shall not be as strangers ; we shall 

 feel that we possess an acquaintance, and even an intimacy, with 

 every rock, with every hill and ridge we see ; its birth, its history, 

 its cause, the purpose it is serving in the economy of the world, 

 and the part it is playing in Nature, will be known to us, and 

 we shall feel at home in a strange land. 



The cultivation of the habit and the development of the power 

 of observation, which are amongst the rewards given by science 

 generally to its votaries, are obtained in perhaps a greater degree 

 from Geology than from any other department of the investigation 

 of Nature. This and the other considerations which have been 

 urged will, I trust, make it apparent that from the study of 

 Geology many and great advantages will result, and that the 

 subject is well worthy the consideration and attention of the 

 members of a Society devoted to the observation and investigation 

 of the natural phenomena presented by their county. 



