THE STARTING-POINT 



works of God should not be confined to a coterie, but should 

 be made public for the benefit of all. Hence I have gladly 

 embraced any opportunities to popularise my results, whether 

 in lectures, articles, popular books, or in the instruction of 

 students, and this in a manner to give accurate knowledge, 

 and perhaps to attract the attention of fellow-workers to points 

 which they might overlook if presented merely in dry and 

 technical papers. These objects I have in view in connection 

 with the present collection of papers, and also the fact that my 

 own pilgrimage is approaching its close, and that I desire to 

 aid others who may chance to traverse the ground I have 

 passed over, or who may be preparing to pass beyond the 

 point I have reached. 



To a naturalist of seventy years the greater part of life lies 

 in the past, and in revising these papers I have necessarily had 

 my thoughts directed to the memory of friends, teachers, 

 guides, and companions in labour, who have passed away. I 

 have therefore, as a slight token of loving and grateful remem- 

 brance dedicated these papers to the memory of men I have 

 known and loved, and who, I feel, would sympathise with me 

 in spirit, in the attempt, however feeble, to direct attention to 

 the variety and majesty of those great works of the Creator 

 which they themselves delighted to study. 



Since the design of these papers excludes special details as 

 to Canadian geology, or that of those old eastern countries to 

 which I have given some attention, I must refer for them to 

 other works, and shall append such reference of this kind as 

 may be necessary. At the same time it will be observed that 

 as my geological work has been concerned most largely with 

 the oldest and newest rocks of the earth, and with the history 

 of life rather than with rocks and minerals, there must neces- 

 sarily be some preponderance in these directions, which might 

 however, independently of personal considerations, be justified 

 by the actual value of these lines of investigation, and by the 



