48 THE ORDNANCE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CHAP, n 



not attract notice. Compass, clinometer, map, note- 

 book, lens, pencils, and so forth, are easily stowed 

 away in his pockets ; the hammer can be disposed in a 

 belt under the tails of his coat, so that he presents no 

 outward marks of his profession. His movements are 

 consequently mysterious in the extreme to the villagers 

 and farm-people, and the most amusing mistakes are 

 made in endeavouring to guess his calling in life. He 

 finds himself set down now for a postman, now for a 

 doctor, for a farmer, a cattle-dealer, a travelling show- 

 man, a country gentleman, a gamekeeper, a poacher, 

 an itinerant lecturer, a gauger, a clergyman, a play- 

 actor, and often as a generally suspicious character. 

 A former distinguished member of the staff, who now 

 holds a University professorship, has received and duly 

 posted many a letter entrusted to him in the belief that 

 he was the authorised bearer of Her Majesty's mails. 

 Another well-known colleague, who is now also a 

 University Professor, tells how on one occasion he 

 was taken for a policeman in plain clothes, and could 

 not for some time make out why a poor woman poured 

 into his ears a long story about her son, who had been 

 taken up for doing something that he had not done, 

 and did quite unintentionally, and was quite justified in 

 doing. Gamekeepers are sorely puzzled sometimes 

 what to make of the Geological Survey trespasser ; 

 they are afraid to challenge him lest he prove to be a 

 friend of their master, and afraid to let him go his way 

 for fear he be on poaching thoughts intent. One 

 member of the staff who had taken up his quarters in 

 a village was watched for some days by the police on 

 suspicion of having been concerned in a recent burglary. 

 Another was stalked as a suspect who had been setting 

 fire to farm-buildings. A third was watched hammer- 



