712 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



The characteristics of the different liinds of rock (Lithogenesis) are to be care- 

 fully studied in order that sufficient observations may be made to explain the 

 derivation of the rocks, and particularly the ores. Specimens of ore should be 

 diligently collected and preserved. 



Although these instructions were intended for travelers in foreign 

 countries, it is quite evident that they were intended to apply with 

 equal force to those who traveled within the mother country (Swe- 

 den), a necessity which Linne had emphasized in a special lecture 

 delivered in 1741. 



He says in this lecture — 



Nowhere abroad have I found a region richer than our own country in the 

 marvels of nature; none in which her masterpieces are so numerous or astonish- 

 ing. 



And in the instructions, part of which is quoted above, the traveling 

 naturalist is expressly enjoined not to leave his own country — 



until he has acquired a thorough knowledge of natural history and has scru- 

 tinized the various parts of his own country; in order that he may not, so to 

 speak, cross the stream for water, and waste his money endeavoring to learn 

 in a foreign country what he might have acquired at home, and for almost 

 nothing. 



In addition to what immediately concerns the mineral kingdom, 

 the instructions contain precepts concerning notes and observations 

 to be made within various other departments of science, geography 

 and physics, botany and zoology, domestic economy, pathology, 

 dietetics, etc., given for the purpose of illustrating his introductory 

 statement that the naturalist " should observe everything." 



This requirement is of particular value to the geologist, who must 

 draw his conclusions of the past from present conditions, since the 

 more familiar he is with nature as it now appears, the more clearl}^ 

 and correctly will he be enabled to interpret the happenings of remote 

 ages. Under such circumstances it is but natural that Linne, pre- 

 eminently a naturalist, who manifested an equal interest in every 

 phase of nature, should haA^e recorded his name as well in geo- 

 logical annals, although until recently this fact has not been justly 

 recognized." 



At the period when Linne was pursuing his academic curriculinn 

 the differences of opinion as to the nature of the fossils to be found 

 iu rock strata, differences which had prevailed since the days of 

 Aristotle, had been so far settled that the fossils were no longer con- 

 sidered as accidental formations, or freaks of nature, but were quite 

 generally recognized as relics of animals and plants that had formerly 

 existed on the earth. Another common view, however, and one which, 

 in the eighteenth century, operated as a stumbling block in the devel- 



"■ Recognized in Sweden for the first time by A. G. Nathorst, " Jordens His- 

 toria," pt. 1, pp. 36-43. Stockholm. 1888. 



