1841 LIFE IN THE SURVEY 47 



surprise the geologist among the hills, and as the 

 snow rapidly gathers, roads, walls, and fences may 

 be entirely buried before he can struggle through the 

 blinding drift back to his quarters. Among the 

 mountains he is apt to be overtaken by mists so 

 dense that much skill may be needed to steer a right 

 course through them. And in thunderstorms he is 

 sometimes startled by the lightning flash which strikes 

 a tree or a house, or kills a cow, quite close to him. 



But apart from occasional personal risk, the con 

 stant exposure to the vicissitudes of a changeable 

 climate, the necessity of sometimes enduring serious 

 discomfort and privation in districts where quarters 

 are hardly to be had, where the food is of the sorriest 

 kind, and yet where the geological work may be most 

 difficult and prolonged ; the isolation and loneliness at 

 stations where no congenial society of any kind is 

 to be found, the necessity of frequently moving camp 

 to begin all the domestic experiences and discomforts 

 over again, and the poor pay for which all this 

 drudgery has to be undergone these and other hard 

 ships which may be easily imagined test the scientific 

 enthusiasm of a geologist. By a young man who is 

 fired with an ardent love of his science they are lightly 

 regarded and soon forgotten. It is only as he grows 

 older, and his enthusiasm somewhat wanes, that he 

 begins to find them a serious impediment to the 

 settled home which he then, not unnaturally, longs 

 to establish. 



It may easily be imagined that when a member of 

 the Survey plants himself in a country village his 

 occupation becomes at once a source of the utmost 

 curiosity to his neighbours. He carries his accoutre 

 ments about his person in such a manner that they do 



