06 OCCASIONAL PAPERS. 



can always go geologising. I do not mean simply 

 fossil-bunting, but geologising in tbe fuller sense of 

 tbe word gaining a knowledge of all tbe formations 

 in our neigbbourbood, wbere tbey crop up, and their 

 line of strike tbe gravels, tbe clays, tbe sands, and 

 tbe drift, as well as tbe harder rocks ; all these will 

 afford plenty of room for speculation, too much, 

 perhaps, but at any rate tbey will set us a thinking. 

 And if we go out simply in search of fossils, we 

 shall meet plenty to encourage us in this rich neigh- 

 bourhood. Among the chalk on the cliffs crowded 

 with fragments of Inocerami and Rhynclionclke ; in 

 tbe Green sand blocks scattered over the beach in 

 East Wear Bay, rich in oysters and fossil woods ; 

 and above all in the blue clay left bare by tbe 

 receding tide, studded with countless ammonites 

 and belemnites here we shall find ourselves sur- 

 rounded by the remains of a former world, and find 

 problems set us that men very far wiser than 

 ourselves have never yet been able to work out. 

 Although it is certainly not pleasant to stand 

 chipping corners off stones with a cold hammer, 

 with tbe wind and sleet driving in our faces, yet 

 there are many mild soft days in tbe very depth 

 of winter when we may thus comfortably amuse 

 ourselves. 



But now, to pass to the animal world. Many of 

 our sylvan inhabitants have, it is true, retired for 

 tbe winter, but they are not wholly lost to us. Many 

 a time, when rooting among tbe mosses we shall 

 turn out perhaps a beetle snugly ensconced, or a 

 plump caterpillar, perhaps a dormouse fast asleep, 

 and this sets our mind astir in another direction, we 



