14 



What fascination even a smattering in Geology has ! Geology 

 is a branch 'of science, which above all others, perhaps, lends 

 itself as a suitable pursuit to the amateur. Independent of 

 seasons, capable of being studied in any locality, and though not 

 necessarily requiring much knowledge in other branches, at any 

 rate at first, yet with affinities in almost every other branch of 

 science, — biology, botany, chemistry, mathematics, and the like. 

 With such information as may be readily picked up, the railway 

 cutting, the quarry, the hillside, the shore, every scarp and bank 

 becomes instinct with meaning. 



In early manhood it was my lot to live for a time on the 

 coast of Durham. Much of the landscape is bare and unin- 

 teresting, marred by the gaunt machinery of the coalpits, from 

 which extend the long, hideous banks of shale and spoil from 

 the mines, stretching into the fields like lava streams from the 

 crater of a volcano. But to this day I cannot recall to mind, 

 without the revival of the feeling of keen pleasure, the leisure 

 hours spent in exploring the geologic wonders of that region. It 

 was a great occasion when first I discovered (new to me, of 

 course,) the boulder clay glacial deposit on the coast, the remains 

 of the great ice-sheet, which streamed from the Cumberland 

 mountains and the hills of upper Teesdale, and ground its way 

 into the bed of the North Sea, where it met the vast glaciers of 

 Scandinavia. How precious were the beautifully scratched and 

 polished boulders of carboniferous limestone, of granite, or of 

 other rocks, which I found embedded in the mass, and which 

 told such a marvellous story of the movements of the over- 

 whelming mass of arctic ice ! And another day a wonderful 

 raised beach of seaworn shingle and sand cemented into hard 

 conglomerate came to light ; and then there were long afternoons 

 on the shale banks amongst the fossils of the coal measures, or 

 spent in examining the magnesian limestone, with its compara- 

 tively insignificant fossils, but which on acquaintance grew to be 

 so interesting. 



It is far from in an egotistical spirit that I refer to these 

 experiences, but I present them as typical of what the pleasures 

 of a mere scientific amateur may be. Others find equal charm 

 in botany, of which I know nothing, and yet here may I give an 

 example of the interest which only a very slight observation 

 may give. 



It is well-known that one of the botanic specialities of the 

 County of Sussex is the somewhat insignificant Trifolium Stella- 

 tiim. I had seen a single specimen, carefully pr.- served, from the 

 shingle bank at Shoreham, the sole habitat in Britain of this 

 plant, and where its seed is suspected of having been brought in 

 ships' ballast. But when in Sicily this year I found it growing 

 in profusion, there seemed a special interest to be attached to it. 



It is, therefore, surprising how a comparatively small 

 degree of knowledge gives an insight by which Nature is 



