46 OUTLINES OF FIELD-GEOLOGY PART i 



and have been expressed with more or less precision 

 upon published geological nups. \\ c cannot, therefore, 

 begin anywhere in this small country without some kind 

 of general knowledge about the formations and structure 

 of the district we may propose to cxamiiu . 



There is still another element to be taken into account 

 as determining the character and methods of field-geo- 

 logy in Britain one which perhaps geologists themselves 

 hardly sufficiently recognise the climate of the country. 

 I do not believe that any one who has not daily occasion 

 to be out for many hours in the open air, and whose 

 avocations make him to some extent dependent upon 

 the weather, can have any proper notion of how good 

 the average weather of this country is, and how few 

 thoroughly bad days there are in the year when he 

 cannot secure even an hour or two of outdoor exercise. 

 Our summers are seldom too hot to prevent the full use 

 of a long July day. Our winters are so mild, and in 

 many seasons bring so little snow, that if need be we 

 may in most years carry on field-work up to the end of 

 December, and renew it at the beginning of January. 



Such being the conditions under which field-geology 

 may be prosecuted in Britain, it is evident that an 

 observer may start for any district of the country alone 

 and investigate its structure by himself. There is no 

 occasion for combining a geological party, though that 

 may be done if need be. In the organised field-work of 

 the Geological Survey each officer has his own area 

 assigned to him, and works out its geology himself, 

 consulting, of course, from time to time his colleagues, 

 who may be stationed in adjoining tracts, and arranging 



